Page 108 of Delivery After Dark
“Are you going to be okay, Sierra?” Duke asked. “I hate to see you upset.”
“Of course I’m going to be okay. It’s ridiculous to be so emotional over one great night. Like, what the hell is wrong with me?”
“Nothing is wrong with you,” McKenzie said, “and this was much more than one great night, or you wouldn’t be feeling so undone by it.”
“You got yourself a smart one here, Duke.”
“Believe me. I know. She’s way out of my league, but for some reason, she loves me, which makes me the luckiest dude in the world.”
“I’m not out of your league, and you know it makes me mad when you say that.”
“But that leads to makeup sex, which is my favorite of all the sex.”
“And with that, I’m out,” Sierra said as she got up to leave.
“Don’t let us run you off,” Duke said.
“You’re not. I’ve got another night with Morgan to get ready for.”
“See you at the Wayfarer?” McKenzie asked.
“Yeah, maybe. I’ll see what he wants to do.”
“I bet I know what he wants to do,” Duke said with a dirty laugh.
He and McKenzie laughed at his little joke.
“Grow up, people.”
“Nah, we’ll pass,” Duke said. “Hey… If you need us, you know where we are.”
“Always. Thanks for listening.”
“We love you,” he said.
Damn if he didn’t get her all emotional again by saying that. “Love you, too.” As she walked past his reception desk, she helped herself to a piece of the candy he kept in a bowl and popped it into her mouth as she left Duke’s studio and headed upstairs to shower and change.
Her friends had given her a lot to think about.
* * *
Piper was on pins and needles as she waited for Jack to get “home” from work. Her room at the Sand & Surf had begun to feel like their home after spending months of nights wrapped up in each other in her bed. Some nights, they didn’t even bother with dinner before they were right back to doing their favorite thing for as many hours as they could before they fell into exhausted sleep and then started the whole cycle again the next day.
She loved every second she spent with him, and during the long days apart, she counted the hours until she could be with him again. Weekends had taken on all-new meaning as they got two full days and three nights to spend alone together.
Everything about him and them felt like magic to her, but…
That but loomed large over everything lately, and it came with a sense of impending doom that she couldn’t shake no matter how hard she tried.
She hated being a worst-case-scenario thinker, but she couldn’t rewire herself at this point. By preparing for the worst, she reasoned, she could be ready for whatever happened. But honestly, how could she ever be ready to lose someone she loved as much as she loved Jack? There was no way to prepare for such a thing. Not that she thought she was in danger of losing him, but for some reason, the idea of broaching the subject of where this was headed terrified her.
It’d been such a big deal for him to have this much with her after losing his precious wife, Ruby, to cancer. What if the status quo was all he was capable of? What if she pushed him for more, and he pushed back? What would she do then? By the time she heard his key in the door, she’d worked herself into a full-blown panic.
The second she saw his handsome, smiling face and windblown hair, she felt better, even if she was still full of self-inflicted unease. Why did she put herself through this shit? Probably because she’d learned not to trust her own judgment in these matters. Although, Jack had given her no reason at all not to fully trust him.
Jack pulled off his heavy coat and tossed it aside as he began quickly removing his state police uniform. Because he could never wait to shed his work clothes, she told him he reminded her of a little boy tearing off his tie on the way out of church. “How was your day?”
“Great, especially the massage.”
