Or just fire her.
She couldn’t bear the thought of leaving Charlotte. She couldn’t risk it.
“Thanks for talking me through it, sis.”
“Sure. Keep me updated, and keep in touch. I miss you.”
“Miss you too.” Delaney ended the call, disappointment making her legs feel heavy. She was a fool to have thought there might be a solution to her dilemma. Her solution was to do her job and love…admire, anyway, Noah from afar and hope he never learned the truth about how she felt.
She looked around, realizing she’d wandered onto a back road that led toward the Aylett house. The sun had nearly set, casting long shadows between the stately homes. It was darker here, away from the festival lights.
When she turned to head back, movement caught her eye—a figure half a block behind her ducking behind a bush.
A shiver slid down her spine, raising goose bumps on her arms.
Was someone following her?
Her car careening down that hill, brakes useless after someone had cut her brake line, flashed through her mind.
Yet she’d wandered off alone.
Stupid.
Unwilling to walk past the place where that shadow lingered, Delaney decided to continue to the corner and return on the parallel street. She spun.
A man was right there, not even a foot away.
She gasped and stepped back, expecting anexcuse me,or asorry to frighten you.
He looked down at her, close enough that she could smell his aftershave. He was an older, distinguished-looking man with gray hair and matching eyes. His dark expression had her taking another step back.
“Tell your friend his merger’s not going to happen,” he said. “It’s time for him to give it up.”
“Who are you?”
His lips spread into a vicious, predatory smile. He turned and walked away, stride slow and purposeful.
Delaney stared after him, heart thumping a wild beat. She waited until he’d crossed at the next street, then hurried to the corner and jogged the other direction, toward the festival.
She glanced back again but saw no one following her.
That didn’t mean they weren’t there.
She practically ran to the park, where she searched desperately for Noah.
She wouldn’t feel safe until she was by his side again.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
The memory wouldn’t leave Noah’s mind—the way Delaney’s face had transformed from terror to relief when she’d spotted him in the crowd.
Something primal had stirred, a need to protect her from harm. He still didn’t know what she’d been afraid of. When he’d asked, she’d offered nothing but a quick head shake, obviously not wanting to say anything in front of Charlotte.
The park had been transformed for the evening’s festivities, with tables and chairs set on the grass. Food trucks lined the road nearby, offering everything from barbecue to seafood to tacos. People waited in lines and carried plates and drinks, looking for a place to sit. The band played a country song, and a few couples were two-stepping along the edge of the temporary dance floor.
Noah watched Delaney across the table, her face illuminated by the strings of lights hanging over the whole area. The glow softened her features, caught in the loose strands of her hair that had escaped her ponytail as she laughed at something Charlotte said.
They were beautiful, the two of them together, and that word he’d been trying not to think about knocked on the front door of his mind again.
