“You work yourself too hard, you’re going to fall apart.Take tomorrow off.Soak your feet.I know Luke sent you to Jessica for yoga, so keep that up—it’ll stretch out your muscles gone tense from carrying plates.Do whatever you want, but take care of yourself.”She paused, her brows furrowed into a frown.“Be here at seven on Thursday.”
She’s not firing me.She released a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding.“Okay.”She made it all of three steps before Marge’s voice stopped her.
“And Sloan?”
She turned to look at the other woman.“Yes?”
“You be careful with that man, you hear?He hasn’t done anything wrong since he moved into town, but he makes the small hairs on the back of my neck stand up.”She shook her head.“Makes me think of my cousin.He was a SEAL.The man was never right after the war.He’d look at people and you could almost see him mentally listing all the ways he could kill them and hide the body.”
Sloan pressed her lips together.It was sweet that Marge was worried about her, so she didn’t laugh at the woman.Jude might be intense, but the thought that he could be murderous…“I’ll be careful.I promise.”
Marge’s expression softened.“You’re a good girl.Now git.We’ll see you on Thursday.”
She left the diner, half expecting to find Jude waiting for her.She still couldn’t decide if she was intimidated or attracted, though it was realistically a bit of both.He said he was going to take her out, but what didouteven mean?
She stopped short.I’ve never even been on a date.She didn’t even know what to expect.
It was entirely possible that all the dates in the world wouldn’t be enough to prepare her for Jude.
She made her way back to the house, moving slowly enough that she wasn’t hurrying, but not dallying in the least.Every step that brought her closer spiked a strange combination of anticipation and something almost like fear.Maybe he changed his mind.I’ll get back to the house and he won’t be anywhere to be found.
If that was the case, she wasn’t about to go searching for him.Sloan had never considered herself very prideful, but the thought of him changing his mind and her begging him to change it back didn’t sit well.The whole point of this was that she was taking her life into her own hands, beholden to no one.
Except Teague, who had done all the heavy lifting to transport her out here.
And the still-absent Sorcha, whose house she was staying in rent free.
Temporary.I’ll save up enough ofmymoney to find another place.
Eventually.
She shut that train of thought down, because she could feel depression hovering at the edges of her mind, waiting for her to stop moving long enough to suck her under.Well, that was just too bad.She wasn’t going to stop moving, or allow the sheer amount of things beyond her control to bring her down.She was finally,finally, in a place where she had a modicum of control over her life, and she wasn’t going to drive herself to distraction thinking about all the things that could possibly go wrong.
Because the list is too long to number.
Stop it.
She was almost to her steps when Jude appeared on his porch.“Sloan.”He didn’t raise his voice, but she heard him clearly all the same.
And, suddenly, it was too much.She yanked her hair out of its ponytail.“I need a shower.You can wait.”She marched into her house before he could respond, slamming the door behind her.
The shower didn’t do a single thing to calm the turmoil inside her, and neither did dressing in her favorite white sundress and a comfortable pair of sandals.If anything, each move only spiked the sickening twist of emotions coiling themselves through her, demanding a release.
She nearly tripped over Jude when she opened the door, and that was the last straw.“What is your problem?”
He raised a single eyebrow, not looking perturbed in the least.“Sorry?”
“No, you’re not.You’re not sorry that you turned me down last night, or that you left in a hurry, or that you were an…an insufferable jackass this morning.”
If anything, his eyebrow inched higher.“You’re in a mood.”
“Are youkiddingme?”She pushed at his chest, but he didn’t even pretend she had the strength to move him.“You weren’t interested last night, so you don’t get to waltz into the diner andorderme to go out with you.I’ve taken orders my entire life, and I’ll be damned before I take one from you.”The outburst left her feeling deflated, but she clamped her mouth shut and refused to apologize.Maybe she was being the slightest bit dramatic, but that didn’t mean she was wrong.
Jude took a step closer, towering over her, his shoulders so broad, they filled the doorway.“Are you done?”
Just like that, she had a whole lot more to say.“Actually—”
“That was a rhetorical question, sunshine.”His big hand cupped the back of her neck, his thumb tracing over her jaw and up to drag against her bottom lip.
