Page 88 of Stoker's Serenity

“I understand,” she said, waving me off. “If she comes to me, I will be more than happy to encourage her. She’s a good girl and I’ll miss her, but I always knew this wasn’t going to be forever. You know how it is.”

“Yes ma’am. You have a nice evening now,” I told her.

“Oh, I surely will. You be careful riding home, now.”

“Always.” I gave her a wink, and she shooed me, laughing.

It was good to know I had the keen old woman on my side in this. If there were any holdouts in my little orchid’s mind, that would have been it. Just Nellie Sedgwick and her best friend Linny. If there were going to be any hurdle at all, it was really going to be Linny.

I would just have to see what side of the coin landed face down on that one.

I rode back to my place and it was a pretty uneventful ride, except for the weight I carried, the heavy sensation in the center of my chest that I’d left her behind and just howwrongit felt.

I was never more sure of anything in my life than I was about Serenity and her place in mine. She belonged with me, and I only hoped that she could look past her fucked-up programming and past her damage long enough to let herself grab onto the happy I knew she had with me.

I called her just as soon as I pulled into my garage and shut off the bike.

“Hey,” she murmured, and I smiled.

“Hey, you doing okay?”

“Mm-hm, took a shower after you left and was just lying here waiting for you to call.”

“Listen, your bitch manager tries to give you any grief tomorrow –”

“I actually had an email from HR waiting for me, sent Friday afternoon.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“Yeah, just a generic one.” She put on a fake-official sounding voice and said, “We will look into this matter and get back to you as soon as possible.”

“Oh, yeah,” I said, not surprised.

“I mean it,” she said softly. “I’ll think about your offer.”

“You just let me know what you want, baby. I’m here for it. I mean it. Whatever you need.”

“You are far too good to me.”

“Just making up for lost time. You deserve the world. I may not may not be able to give you the whole world, but I’d do just about anything to make you happy.”

“I love you,” she whispered softly, and I smiled.

“I love you, too.”

“As much as I hate to –”

I cut her off with a slight laugh. “Ah, hey, yeah. I get it. Get some good sleep and ping me tomorrow. Like I said, I wanna know what happens.”

“Alright,” she said.

“Bye for now.”

“Good night.”

I ended the call and let out a shuddering sigh, trying like hell to shake it off, the feeling like I should turn right back around and go get her.

It was her decision. I respected that. Now I just needed to wrangle my Neanderthal brain into submission.

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