I wanted her back. And I wasn’t stopping until I had her.
The scent of her reaches me first as she lowers herself into the backseat, thanking Cliff as she does. Her blue eyes avoid mine, instead searching the backseat, like she expects to see my daughter. But she’s with my father and Halliday again this evening. My father chuckled when I told him what I was doing. He doesn’t know who I’m with, only that it’s a woman and it’s a Friday evening, not a Thursday. That seemed morethan enough for him to happily volunteer to watch Molly overnight.
“Molly’s with her grandfather.”
“Oh.”
The defiance that was in Tate’s voice when I finally got her number right yesterday and she answered my call is gone. And in its place is the hesitation I’m more accustomed to from her. She asked how I knew she was innocent, and I told her I’d found the ring. That it was where I kept it all along, but my own idiocy made me miss it.
I admitted I hate being wrong and rarely apologize—but I’d keep calling until I got the chance.
“You said to wear something smart. I thought I’d be watching Molly while you attend a work dinner?” Her eyes flick to mine and something sharp pokes me in the chest then disappears.
She reaches for the door handle like she’s about to climb out.
“Tate,please.”
The undisguised tinge of desperation in my voice surprises me, and I clear my throat as she turns back and finally looks at me properly.
I apologized again when I finally got through to her on the phone yesterday. I could sense she was waning, the anger in her voice had all but gone and been replaced by what sounded like defeat. I descended on it like a shark making its kill.
I wanted her back. And I wasn’t ending that call until I had her.
“I accept that my treatment of you hasn’t been how I like to conduct myself,” I say. My throat feels like it’s full of razor blades. “Tonight is my further apology for that. And I hope that afterward we can move forward like adults.”
“You accused me of stealing from you.” She scoffs, perching stiffly in herseat.
My chest relaxes as Cliff pulls out into the evening traffic. She can’t get out now.
I cast my eyes down to her strappy heels, before inching them up her bare legs and over the black velvet dress that crosses over at the front, wrapping around each breast.
“A mistake I am genuinely disappointed in myself for making,” I say sincerely, continuing my slow appraisal of her. “You look…verybeautiful. That dress suits you.”
Her eyes pop wide, two small patches of rouge blushing her cheeks. “You mean, it’s not distracting because I’m too big for it?”
There’s a hint of distrust in her voice, laced with the sparky attitude I now know she has, despite keeping it mostly hidden.
“If I recall correctly, I never once said your uniform was a distraction because you were ‘too big’for it.”
“Mm,” she mutters.
The urge to grasp her chin and make her look at me when I’m speaking to her wraps around my throat like a fist.
“I believe my words were,incite inappropriate reactions,” I clip.
“What’s that even mean?” She flicks her attention to me and I ignore the warning sirens in my head telling me to look away.
I drink her in again, not caring if I lack subtlety. She’s a smoke show tonight. Curves for days, eyes with a new fire in them, a decadent floral scent emanating from her that’s growing more alluring with each passing second.
I wet my lips. “It means ones that incite reactions that are inappropriate between a boss and an employee.”
Her painted red lips part and her eyes drop to my groin before she frowns like she’s chasing away an irrational thought. She drops her focus to her folded hands in her lap instead.
“Thank you for agreeing to me taking you out for a drink tonight,” I say sincerely.
“A drink? So that’s what we’re doing? I didn’t exactly have a choice. I thought Molly needed me. I wouldn’t have said yes if…” She looks at me quickly, then away again just as fast. She sighs. “Is she really asking after me? Or was it a ploy to make me agree to come tonight?”
“She is asking,” I admit, part of me hating that my daughter keeps pointing every time she sees a coffee cup or a bunny, and her voice lifts with hope as she says, “We see Tate?”
