For someone who worked at a company supposedly in the heart of a dangerous place, she seemed not only upbeat and relaxed, but completely at ease. I’d grown acutely sensitive to people who hid their feelings and fears after being with Asher, but this was not someone who was trying to provide a false sense of happiness and calm. This was someone who genuinely seemed at ease.
“You’ll find the place has actually gotten much better,” Leigh said as we waited for our food to come out to us. “When I first started, Carl was a bit…well, overly touchy, let’s say.”
“Oh?”
“He’s not that now, just to be clear. But he definitely had a period where he could be a bit much. Not anymore, though.”
I nodded, happy to hear I wouldn’t have my boss hitting on me or touching me in places he shouldn’t. But as nice as that was to hear, this wasn’t the juice I wanted to squeeze out of Leigh. The opportunity for lunch outside the workplace wasn’t to gossip about work, but to gossip about the things one shouldn’t at work—a subtle but important distinction.
“So you seem very relaxed and at ease in a town that supposedly has a rising crime rate,” I said.
Leigh blushed.
“I probably shouldn’t tell this to someone new, but not like it’ll make a difference. My boyfriend is actually a member of a biker club here, and I know he’d protect me if anything happened.”
I tried so hard to suppress any obvious, overt reaction. I literally could not believe my good fortune.
Or maybe it was my bad fortune? What if the biker club that her boyfriend was a part of was hunting Ash? Or was a rival to his? I knew biker clubs weren’t like high school clubs. The rivalries didn’t end with handshakes and hugs or congratulations but with blood, anger, and death. I’d begged Ash to get out of it, but it was like begging a whale to get out of the water.
“What’s that like?” I said, trying to play the naive fool who didn’t know any better.
“Better than people think,” she said. “Recently, though, he—”
She stopped, killing me with the timing, as our food came out. BOGO sushi was always a great way to start a new workplace, especially since I’d carry it over for dinner. While money was not an issue in my world, it was nice to know I wouldn’t have to spend it right now.
Leigh and I made some shallow talk about how good the food looked and took photos of it, but I was desperate to steer the conversation back.
“What were you saying about recently with your boyfriend?”
“Oh, it’s nothing,” she said, a statement I was acutely aware—my sensitivity, like I said—wasn’t true. She wasn’t lying, but she wasn’t telling the whole truth, something Ash had gotten worse and worse at doing over the final few months. The difference was, I was married to Ash. I barely knew Leigh.
Of course, the question of whether I was still technically married to Ash or not…
“You sure? I mean, maybe it’s connected to all the crime in the area?”
Leigh shrugged.
“I can’t pretend like he’s an angel, but I think he wants me to think that everything’s hunky-dory and life is going to be fine. And he’s never steered me wrong, and we’ve had some honest moments. So I’m inclined to believe him.”
But…
She never added the “but” statement in there, yet I knew it was there. She just wanted to believe her boyfriend, and who could blame her? I wanted to believe Ash still loved me despite not seeing me all this time.
It was a significant part of the reason I’d moved down to Phoenix in the first place, after all.
“That’s good,” I said, trying to find the right words to encourage her to talk more without making it obvious I didn’t fully believe her. “Hopefully, things will continue to get better.”
“Yeah, he said something about running into someone that will give them some intel that’ll help break their rivals apart, so maybe,” Leigh said with a smile that suggested she really thought the maybe would end positively.
As for me?
My heart skipped a beat.
Call it desperation to believe what I wanted to happen would happen. Call it love sickness. Call it whatever you wanted.
I just saw it as a sign that Ash was here.
He’d once been a King’s Man. He’d worn their cut. He’d come back from their missions exhausted and tired. Never did he provide me with details, but always did he wear the details on his face and his sleeve.
