She let her breath go in a long exhale as she checked the time. She hadn’t specifically told Susan she was taking her lunch break, and she’d left her soup inside. But she hoped Susan would assume she’d started her thirty minutes off the clock, because she couldn’t make herself go back in right away.
She kicked a rock across the alley. Had she made a mistake picking this fight? Would she regret it?
She pulled up Dallas’s number and sent him a text.
I just heard from the station.
He hadn’t contacted her, as she’d hoped, but she was so drawn to him she couldn’t help contacting him. It felt as though she was caught in some kind of tractor beam—one she didn’t even want to escape. When she’d held him as he slept last night, she’d stayed awake for quite some time just reveling in the sensation of having him there in her arms. She found it deeply satisfying, which was bizarre. She couldn’t remember ever lying awake with Ethan for any reason other than concerns about her parents or planning what she was going to do for a particular story at work.
She tried to tell herself she wasn’t falling in love—it couldn’t happen that fast. But she’d dated a lot of men and never felt quite as she did now...
What did they say?
She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw his response. She’d been afraid, after last night, that he might try to push her away simply because he struggled with intimacy, and he felt he’d let her get a little too close. She knew what’d happened last night—the time she’d spent in his bed, comforting him—wasn’t the type of thing he allowed just anyone.
They’re trying to spin it a different way, change their reason for firing me.
Don’t let them scare you. That they called you tells you they’re worried.
Heidi had tried to convince her that she didn’t have grounds for the suit...
They wouldn’t have bothered if they weren’t.
His reasoning made sense. It was probably Heidi who’d initiated her firing, as Emery had always suspected—lobbied all those in upper management who had a say. And now that doing so had turned into a problem, Heidi was scrambling to cover her ass.
Of course she was.
But if the station had been served, Emery was fairly certain Ethan had been served, too. How was he taking the news?
I’m afraid Ethan will do something to get revenge, like he did before when he was mad at me. Tell me again that I was right to pick this fight.
They picked the fight. You’re only finishing it. And if he does anything, I’m going to have a little talk with him.
After which Ethan would very likely have a broken jaw. Emery felt terrible for enjoying the image that conjured in her mind, but she couldn’t think of anyone who deserved to be punched in the face quite as much as he did.
Maybe it wasn’t politically correct, but instead of telling Dallas she didn’t condone violence, she used the kiss blowing emoji to respond. She was grateful he was there to hold her hand through this and wanted to support him, too.
You’ve been so good to me. I want you to know that I’m here for you, too. That if you’d like to talk about your father, what happened to your family or even what happened last night in the ice cream store, I’m more than willing.
Thanks but it’s ancient history, so there’s nothing to say.
She frowned at his response. It hadn’t felt like ancient history last night.
Apparently, he could help her, but he couldn’t accept help. He preferred to internalize everything—lock it up and soldier on.
Did that mean he’d never be able to open up enough to fall in love himself?
Dallas had spent the day driving to Santa Barbara for the tuxedos and was glad for the time alone. He’d said nothing about his father’s release from prison to his family—and would say nothing, least of all to Aiyana. That would only start her worrying about him, and she didn’t need anything else to worry about before her big day.
He wished he could block Robert’s release from his own brain but, hard as he tried, he couldn’t get his father off his mind. Forty years had seemed as though it would last forever. He’d expected Robert to be in his late seventies when he got out. If he got out. Some people didn’t live that long. Dallas had been holding out hope that Robert would be one of them and that he’d never have to face the prospect he was suddenly faced with now.
How was it that the bastard had been released seventeen years early? After what he’d done?
Dallas’s jaw clenched as he pictured his father able to move about at will and interact with innocent people who had no idea what he was capable of. What if he married again? Would he tell his next wife what he’d done to the last one?
His phone rang when he was about half an hour from home. It was nearly dinnertime. He could’ve returned earlier if only he’d made the effort, but he’d spent a couple of hours doing yoga at the beach. He did yoga as often as possible, especially when he couldn’t climb.
He expected the call to be his mother, wondering where he was. But it was the owner of the gym where he worked—again. Dallas had been dodging Brian’s calls for over a week, which was unfair, both to Brian as his employer and Brian as
