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“Thank you. I’ll get on that paperwork right away.”
“Perfect. Talk soon.” She waves an elegant hand, gold bangles tinkling merrily on her wrist before ending the call. I close my dinosaur of a laptop and sit back against the bay window, letting the heat of the late afternoon sun warm my back.
CHAPTER 29
Summer
My phone buzzes while I sit in the break room with my cold-cut sandwich and chips. I take a large bite of my sandwich, and sigh through my nose.I would kill for just one small moment of quiet.My coworkers all decided to go out to lunch, and I wasn't in the mood for socializing, so I told them I had some catching up to do. Really, I just wanted to enjoy some relative peace and quiet. I set down my sandwich after relishing in one more moment of silence and flip my phone over. My mood instantly brightens when I see the message is from Ryan.
Ryan:
Hey, are you free right now? I’m outside the bank in my truck. Wanna have lunch together?
Without a second thought, I jump up from my seat, gather my food, and weave my way outside. I see a huge grin spread across Ryan’s face through the windshield of his truck and feel an answering smile appear on my own as I hurry to the passenger side.
He pushes the door open from the inside and grabs my waterbottle from me so I have a hand free to haul myself into the truck. “Hey, babe. You look gorgeous,” he says while leaning toward me for a kiss. I let it linger longer than I normally would in a public space, his soft lips brushing mine in a caress. I just can’t resist this man.
“Hi,” I reply breathlessly when we pull away.
We talk about our work days so far for a bit before I finally sigh and bring up what I’ve been too scared to. “So. A couple of things. I know you know that Jared threatened me with court and custody hearings, but it's really happening now. My lawyer is going to try to have us go through mediation first because that will be way less expensive. Second, there’s the matter of the police report he filed against you.” I wince at the last part, hating that he’s included in all of this.
To my shock, he lets out a booming laugh that startles me “Yeah. I heard about that. Rina down at the station called this morning to give me a heads-up. I installed her new kitchen floor a few weeks ago.”
“I thought they usually don’t notify the person unless they need to do follow-up with them?” I ask while I open up my chip bag. I dig one out before tilting the bag towards him in offering, savoring the salty tang of my sea salt and vinegar chips.
He takes one and crunches down on it before replying, “They don’t, but since Rina knows me personally, she gave me a heads up. Remember the officer who was standing at the hospital entrance? Apparently, Rina became friends with him in the academy. He told her that he saw the whole thing and gave her the play-by-play of what happened. She called to let me know that it was a bogus report, but on file anyway. I wasn’t even going to tell you since it won’t amount to anything, but I guess Jared told you regardless.” He scowls in annoyance.
“Why would you not want to tell me that?” I can feel my eyes bugging at the thought. I lightly smack his bicep inreprimand.
He sighs and laces our hands together over the console, “You’ve had more than enough stress to deal with over the last week alone. I didn’t want to add to it. It really won’t mean anything for me, so why bother?” He gives me a brief smile, stroking his thumb along the top of my hand.
His calm presence helps me relax, but I feel a stab of guilt all the same. I say, “You know, I am sorry that being with me has caused all this drama for you. I doubt you were expecting that when you came to fix my roof.” I look down at our joined hands. Maybe I should have waited longer before dragging anyone into this mess.
“Hey.” He lets go of my hand so he can tilt my chin up, forcing me to meet his eyes, “You are worth all the drama in the world. If this were one of your fantasy romance books, I’d say I would slay dragons for you, but since I’m just a lowly human, I’ll say that I’ll be by your side no matter what. I’m not going anywhere and there’s nothing your ex can say or do that will scare me off.” He gives me a goofy smile, poking fun at his own cheesiness, and leans in to kiss me once softly on the lips.
“Thank you. I feel like it's just been all about me and I haven’t been able to be there for you.”
“We take turns taking care of each other. That’s what a relationship is. Sometimes you’ll be holding me up, and sometimes I’ll be holding you up. It just isn’t my turn yet. Don’t worry though, I have tons of abandonment issues that we’ve yet to deal with.” He grins at me and squeezes my hand.
“Oh, twinsies! We haven’t evengotteninto those yet.” We laugh and I feel the weight that’s been sitting on my chest lift for the first time in days.
“Eat your sandwich. I doubt you’ve been taking care of yourself much since everything happened with Emma. How is she by the way?” I relay how Emma’s doing, making sure to detail how she thought she hallucinated a handsome stranger in the haze of her pain the day of her surgery.
He chuckles and says, “I’m just glad I could help. I’m assuming you didn’t let her believe that she hallucinated me, so what did you tell her?”
I shrug and reply, “I just said that you were a friend of mine who was willing to help. I’m going to tell her soon, I promise. I just want to get through this mediation first.”
He smiles a crooked grin that tugs at my heartstrings. “I understand. We’re doing this at whatever pace you set, remember?” I reach up and caress his cheek, the softness of his beard tickling my hand. Just then a loud knock on the passenger side window startles the both of us. My hand flies to my chest as I whip around.
“Need to catch up on some things, huh?” Rachel’s voice is muffled by the glass, but the raised eyebrow and disgruntled expression on her face is crystal clear. I wince sheepishly at being caught out and give a small wave through the window. Sherry lurks behind my boss and wears a cat-that-got-the-canary grin.
“Heeeeey, Rach,” I say after rolling the window down, “How was lunch?”
“Good, but it would have been better if we had had the whole team there,” she says slowly, eyeing Ryan over my shoulder.
I feel him lean closer on my side so he can see her better, “Hi, I’m Ryan, Summer’s boyfriend. Sorry, I’m the bad influence who convinced her to have lunch with me. She was very busy when I first got here.” He places a hand on my shoulder and gives a reassuring squeeze.
When she gets a good look at him, her eyes widen a fraction and she clears her throat. “No problem at all. What Summer does on her break is her business of course. I just would have preferred if she chose to spend it with us. I can see why that maybe wouldn’t be her first choice though.” She raises both eyebrows at me in a “Damn, girl”gesture.
