When I opened up the message, a huge smile stretched across my face. River had gotten my surprise. She’d sent a thank you message, but not without calling me crazy which made me smile even bigger.
It had been hours since she texted and I hoped she didn’t think I was blowing her off. Sending a simple message back didn’t seem like enough after so much time had passed and I wanted to hear her voice again.
Once I’d hit her number, I pressed the phone to my ear just as I stepped into the kitchen. My pulse picked up as her voice came through the line. “Hello.”
Her shy, wondrous tone had my tired and battered body surging to life.
“Hey, Warrior.”
I stoppedin my tracks and took in the room.
Several sets of eyes sparked with a mixture of curiosityand humor watched me but it was one in particular that had me almost retreating.
Lake stood by the counter, a water bottle halfway to her mouth and wide eyes staring at me. When I made the call, I hadn’t even thought about her hearing my conversation. I slanted my head waiting to see what her response would be to me on the phone with her sister because it was clear she caught on to who I was speaking to.
When Lake’s face split into a shit-eating grin, I returned the smile and headed toward the fridge, blocking out everyone else but the woman on the phone.
“Should I hang up?” River asked, hesitantly.
Shit, I stalled too long.
“Don’t you dare. I want to talk to you,” I replied, hearing a small intake of air on the other end of the line at my confession. “I just got back from a fire which is why it took me so long to get back to you and now I have to make all these dumbasses dinner before they starve.”
I glanced over my shoulder at the group of guys sitting around the table, still watching me with morbid curiosity. Shaking my head at the shitheads, I turned back and started pulling ingredients out of the fridge.
A door slammed on the other end of the line. “You cook?”
Throwing my head back, a deep burst of laughter rumbled from my chest. “Don’t sound so surprised, sweetheart.”
I winced at the flirty tone and term of endearment that had spilled out without thinking. They just might be enough to scare her off. Luckily she didn’t hang up or run for the hills but from her voice I had a pretty good idea that a blush lined her beautiful face.
“Oh… Well… Umm, I just didn’t know.”
I chuckled. “It’s okay, I understand.” Then I remembered the door I’d heard. “Hey, where are you?”
“I just got off work and to my car. I’m sitting in the…”
Everything was quiet for a second, her words having just dropped off mid-sentence. And then I heard, “Someone is just standing there.”
Trepidation raced through me and my body went rigid in the midst of dicing up the onion I’d placed on the cutting board. Knife raised in the air, I asked, “What do you mean someone is standing there?” I felt Lake ease close to my side as I waited for her response.
When River didn’t say anything, I set down the knife and prepared myself to go get in my rig in order to race to where she was at.
Her voice came through the line hesitant and filled with worry. “I’m not sure who it was. There was someone standing on the corner of my building where I work and it seemed like they were just watching me. But they’re gone now.”
The engine of her car roared to life and her phone connected to Bluetooth. I was thankful she was getting the hell out of there. Maybe it was nothing, but I didn’t like the feeling her words provoked inside of me. I glanced at my friends and co-workers, all of them now watching me with scowls on their faces.
They’d have my back if I needed them, I could see it in their eyes.
Lake rested her hand on my arm, a worried look on her face. I knew then that there was also a whole other group of men and women that I’d been getting to know that would move heaven and earth to help River too.
“I can meet you somewhere and come take a look or Lake is right here, she can send Bronson over.” I shook my head. “No, I’m coming myself.”
In a frantic voice, River said, “No!” She blew out a breath that rushed to my ear through the phone. “It was probably nothing. I’m on my way home now and everything is fine.”
I heard what she was saying but there was a waver in hervoice and a slight undercurrent that said she was unsure or that something else was on her mind.
“What else is going through your head, River? I can tell you’re holding something back.”
