“Lukis is bossy and acts like he knows what’s best for me, but I think I may be falling for him.”
“You guys been together a long time?”
Hannah giggles. “Like a week. The length of time it takes to drive here from Las Vegas.”
“Oh.” That is fast. “Sometimes you just know.” It didn’t take me long with Nate.
Hannah sighs, her eyes dreamy. “Yup, sometimes it’s obvious. After this we’re headed up to Wisconsin to see one of his buddies and then who knows from there.”
“You just travel around together?”
“For now. I used to have a job, but Lukis works freelance and goes were he’s needed. I don’t plan to let him out of my sight, so I guess that’s means I’m along for the ride.”
“What does he do for Ridge?”
She shrugs. “I don’t know. But it involves guns, the mob, and papers with a lot of dates on them. Once we had those, we hightailed it here, and he wasn’t great about answering questions.”
I take a minute to visualize what her life must be like.
And fail.
I can’t imagine what it would be like to live out of a truck and drive around the United States. Sounds dreadful, but from the way Hannah talks and how her facial expressions change when Lukis is brought up, I have a feeling she loves every minute of their time together.
It seems I’m not the only one in Pelican Bay who is falling hard and fast for a former SEAL. Maybe everyone is right, and it really does happen this quickly. When you know, you know.
And right now sitting in an oversized conference room with someone I’ve never met before but who seems as in love with her man as I am with mine, I realize it’s true. I absolutely do love Nate. The emotions hit me like a brick and I smile. The fear and worry about having the two of us move in together fades away because all that matters is we’re together. It doesn’t matter how long it takes to get there or how hard the journey is. We’ll be together and that’s the important part of our equation.
“Has it been a month already?”Nate asks as I stack a multitude of clothes in the overnight bag for Emma.
I stop while folding a light sweater. It’s the middle of the summer, but she might get cold. I finish folding the little sleeves in and tuck it in the bag. “Don’t remind me. The time between Emma’s father’s visits seems to get shorter every month.”
The only difference this month is while I’m nervous, I’m not as worried as I normally am. It’s more of a distinction. Nate and my relationship is going well since my big screwup. I have spent most of my free time painting the new house. I refused to let him hire painters when I’m jobless and have working arms. Nate makes Emma and me breakfast and then goes off to a day at work. It would be rather normal if I wasn’t aware of the fact that working for Nate is spying on the town’s motorcycle club or watching a bazillion cameras keeping track of Pelican Bay’s citizens as they buy cupcakes.
Talk about big brother. Pelican Bay has about thirty of them when you consider Ridge’s forces. With Emma gone this weekend, it seemed the perfect time to do the big push to get all of our belongings to the new house. In a little under twenty-four hours I will leave this tiny apartment behind and take up residence in a new life with Nate and the cute little house a block away from Emma’s future school.
Sending Emma off today — while scary — isn’t as bad as it could be because when I get my baby back, our future will be bright and we’ll be off to a new adventure.
There’s a knock at the door — presumably my ex — and Nate tenses before he turns, acting like plans to walk to the living room and answer it.
I pull him back. “Nate, let me handle this.”
17
Barry didn’t seem keen about having to pick Emma up and drop her off again this month. He was even less excited about it when I explained we needed the extra help because we were moving. I don’t need him and Nate to get into an argument in front of Emma. Hopefully he got his yelling done over the phone.
Nate scowls but takes a deep breath and hands Emma to my waiting arms after I loop her bag over my shoulder.
“I’ll be right back,” I say and kiss him on his cheek.
Emma giggles and babbles on about her dad as we walk to the front door together, her bouncing on my hip. “You’re going to be good for your daddy. Right?” I ask and she smiles. “But not too good.”
I whisper the last encouragement so her father doesn’t hear.
She’s all smiles as I open the door and even yells out “Daddy” when she sees him. But both of our faces fall when we get an eyeful of Barry’s expression. His eyes are already narrowed and his lips pursed together in annoyance. I guess he assumes I took too long. He always had a corn cob up his butt at the slightest inconvenience.
His eyes search the visible space in my apartment, stopping just a second on each box. “So it’s true, then?”
It doesn’t take a genius to figure out what his anger pertains to. “Yes,” I say doing my best not to roll my eyes. “I don’t know why you would think I’d lie about moving.”
