Page 7 of Almost Home
“Okay, see you Sunday, then.”
I hung up without another word and focused on the road. I wouldn’t worry about meeting Warrick’s girlfriend or what it’d be like to sit down with the family again. We’d done it once, Wyatt and Calla included, when I visited before. This was what I’d been telling myself I wanted for a while now. Might as well get started.
CHAPTERTHREE
Sarah
Things were looking up. The last few months had been full of a building sense of destiny, which I recognized sounded hokey as all get out, but there it was. And when Sadie texted to say Wilder was coming back this week, that sensation only heightened.
I’d been barreling toward this moment for almost twenty years—the moment when I’d finally explain myself, my choices, and ask for his forgiveness. Based on the icy greeting months ago, I didn’t anticipate I’d be walking up to himthis weekand doing the apologizing. But still. He’d be here.
My stomach flipped with the thought.Wilder’s coming home.I’d come back a little over a year ago and now—there was that destiny again—he was coming, too. Maybe this would be the last step in my process—the last part of healing the old wounds that lingered in my ragged heart. I’d come with that purpose and just being here had helped. Making friends and repairing things with Wyatt to some degree had done me a world of good. Wilder’s return would bring about a kind of closure I’d never dared hope for when I first started planning to move here.
But right this minute, I was heading to my new temp job. There’d been hardly any substitute teaching jobs longer than a day or two lately, and in my quest to figure out what I really wanted, I’d started branching out and using a temp agency to give me exposure to more jobs.
Apparently, this new company had someone lined up as their admin, but she’d gotten placed on bed rest this week due to pregnancy complications. I’d take her place until after her baby arrived—safely, I prayed—and then be on my way to whatever came next. At that point, the school year would be long since over, so it’d likely be another handful of temp jobs, plus I’d spend any downtime in the next few months trolling the school district’s website for job openings for next year.
I pulled into the small parking lot just across from the mill building where Warrick had his gym and Sadie her big kitchen. Another bonus there—this job was right downtown and I could totally see my friends for lunches. When I subbed at the school, there was rarely time to meet them, plus the schools all sat slightly removed from downtown—walkable still, but not like this prime real estate.
The façade on my destination showed an old log cabin. I searched my mind for what the building used to be but had no memory of much over this way. For years, the mill buildings had been virtually defunct, and so other than the diner out on this side of town, there wasn’t much of anything other than the neighborhood out this way.
It could use some landscaping to create curb appeal, though to be fair, being only early April, spring hadn’t sprung just yet. We’d had snow last week and likely would again before the end of the month, so any real gardening or other efforts would probably come while I worked here. I’d enjoy that. Maybe Aidan Wallace would do their work, or maybe I could assist them with some suggestions. Dahlia would help if I asked, and I could even get Aidan’s ideas. He was too generous for his own good anyway.
I knocked on the door, then after realizing it wasn’t a home but an office building, and it’d be kind of weird to just stand here until someone came to greet me, slowly opened it. A high-pitched creak coming from the hinge stopped me.Yikes. I mean, no offense to the owners, but they needed to do some work. I resumed pushing open the panel and sucked in a breath as the interior came into view. The outside and creaky door notwithstanding, this interior looked gorgeous. Like, what?
Record-scratch-style, my brain took in the space and couldn’t quite reconcile the worn, aged exterior with the lush, stylish inside. A fireplace crackled with real wood in a stone hearth to my right, and on the left side of the room sat a polished wood desk. Two high-backed upholstered chairs in a medium gray tone with navy accent pillows faced the desk, and behind it rested a more office-looking chair that I assumed would be my post.
The walls had been done in a pleasing dove gray color, and very unlike the exposed log cabin wood planks I’d been expecting. The room felt remarkably warm and inviting—not at all dingy like the exterior.
Well, this is certainly going to be interesting!I didn’t even know what the company did. Something in securities—maybe stock market stuff? Maybe investment banking and such. Not that I really knew what that meant, but I could do basic tasks and would learn whatever I needed to do the job well. The temp agency had thought my skills fit, so hopefully their assessment worked out to be true.
Still no movement or response, though it looked like a light was on in the back hallway. I decided to test out the chair and see how it felt. Good bounce when I gave it my weight. I leaned back and shoved against the backrest a few times, the chair rattling a little. Comfy enough.
“Chair to your liking?”
I froze. Time slowed and curved around me in a weird, dizzying motion.
That voice.
Low, gruff, and almost soft-spoken but with an unmistakably commanding edge.Thatwas new, and it sent a flood of awareness through me.
“Um. Yes. I—what are you doing here?” I asked as I spun in the chair and lurched out of it, tripping on my own feet and stumbling into his space. I threw out my hands and backed up quickly before I actually touched him, all in view of his stern, changeless face.
“Okay?”
I nodded, eyes anywhere but on his until the last possible second. “Yep. Fine. Totally fine. Sorry. You were saying? Why are you here?”
“I own the place.”
My heart sank, a stone in a pond, and settled in the mire deep inside me. “You—”
A crushing mix of panic, confusion, and a giddy, fluttery feeling smashed into me and stole my words. Heat rose to my cheeks—more heat, because let’s be honest, I’d been blushing furiously since I’d heard his voice and tried to face-plant into him.
“Did you need something?”
His face appeared so solemn. He’d always been straight-faced, until he wasn’t. Quiet, even withdrawn at times, until that one time I made him laugh and his smile had been… everything. I could still feel the triumph that blazed through me when I’d won that first smile at thirteen. But looking at him now, he’d grown all the more serious. In fact, he was actually, literally war-hardened, and several times over if the rumors were true.
“I, uh, I’m your new admin. I’m replacing Diane while she’s on leave.”
