Page 85 of Unspoken Confessions
“I’ve already told you this and I will tell you again, I’m here for whatever you need. I have no expectations and there is no time limit on that. It will always stand. Whatever, whenever, however. Just call me and I’m there.”
I caught a glimpse of wetness building up in his eyes before I walked away.
That was it. There wasn’t much more I could do. The ball was in his court. I wasn’t lying when I said I’d be there when he was ready. But with each step away from him, I had to wonder if he ever would be.
I tossed my bag into the back seat as I climbed behind the wheel.
Then I drove away, my mind a complete mess as I wondered if I’d done the right thing.
“You’re going to turn back into a grunting dick now, aren’t you?” Austin asked but there wasn’t a hint in his tone that he expected an answer back.
And because he pissed me off by talking, I grunted.
“Yep. Cool,” was his response.
I drove to the Willis Security Tech building in the middle of downtown Atlanta to return the new SUV that Reed had gotten dropped off two days ago. After I parked, I cut the engine and got out. Without a word, I grabbed my bag from the back and headed inside to get to the top floor.
One job was over, it was time to move on to the next one.
And maybe it wasn’t healthy to just throw myself into work as a way of distracting my head from all the waiting and hoping that I was sure I’d be doing for a while to come, but it was all I had at this point.
Austin stepped into the elevator behind me and I really wished he’d waited. I didn’t want to be around him right now. I didn’t think I wanted to be around anyone, honestly.
“Just don’t give up on him,” he said softly.
I wasn’t going to talk about it, especially not with him.
“My sister didn’t come out until she was thirty,” he went on like he thought this was a great time to have some sort of heart-to-heart moment. “Even though my whole family secretly knew, you know. Or most of us anyway. And even when we’d make vague, supportive comments, she would pretend that they had nothing to do with her. She wasn’t ready. But the important thing is that when she had reached that point, she felt comfortable doing it. See, it wasn’t about me or our family. It was about her. It was her moment. She was really shy and quiet growing up. I kind of worry what might have happened if she came out before she was ready, you know? People can be cruel, and I wonder if maybe she knew she wouldn’t be strong enough to face the world before that moment.”
I didn’t know what to say. I mean, I agreed with everything he’d said and I, in no way, was going to push Nick to do something he wasn’t ready for. It couldn’t have been that Austin was trying to relate to me in some way, right? Or felt he needed to reach out and be a friend? Nope, not going to think about it.
Once we got all the way up to the secret office, we went our separate ways. I headed for my desk and Austin wandered off in the direction of the break room. Which didn’t surprise me.
I stared at my desk feeling out of sorts. How was I going to jump back in? I didn’t know but the thing I could sense was that I needed to be out on a job as soon as possible.
“Welcome back,” Cade said and I acknowledged him with a jerk of my chin. He stared at me for a long moment. “Milo found something he thinks needs to be looked into. I was going to head out and do some recon. Want to go with me?”
“Yeah,” I said looking up at him with thanks in my eyes.
“Wheels up in two hours.”
Then he was off.
I took a moment to remember what it was like to sit here at my desk. I felt a little off even though I didn’t typically spend a lot of time here. Honestly, I wasn’t sure why I even had one. That was all Reed. Just one of those things I had to shrug at.
A folder hit my desk and I looked up to see Austin standing on the other side.
“Remy just gave that to me. Don’t think he wanted to deal with your silent as fuck, grumpy ass, so I got the pleasure of bringing it over here. Hope it helps.”
I flipped the folder open and stared down at the grainy still shots in front of me.
It was her. The stalker.
Sandra Lofton.
“There’s pages of text messages there. I seriously don’t understand how he can get all that shit.” Austin shook his head. “But Remy said he’d gone over them. You want to hear the quick version?”
“Sure,” I said because I wasn’t sure how deep I wanted to dive into her life.
