When the line went dead, I looked around the room and knew the interrogation was about to start.
Chapter Seven
RIVER
The phone washeavy in my hand as the debate in my head volleyed back and forth.
Did I, or didn’t I?
I’d told Huntley I’d text later, and I wanted to, but I didn’t know how to deal with the funny feeling inside me when I’d thought about how he’d said he cared about me. It had really thrown me for a loop.
It would probably be for the best to walk away now and not keep up communication with him. I wasn’t a good bet as a friend.
And what if he wanted more?
That wasn’t something I’d ever considered or believed I’d be able to give.
Yet the butterflies in my stomach that he brought forth were confusing. They insinuated that maybe something inside me was trying to tell me that I was stuck in the past and to stop living there.
I looked down at my phone.
Need on an emotional level washed over me. It was likehe saw something in me that I didn’t even see in myself, and it felt good.
That look in his eyes at the house when I flinched away from him that day…
There was so much understanding in his gaze later that afternoon and there was this crazy connection I felt between us—one I was having trouble denying.
What did it mean though?
I couldn’t shake the feeling that he’d come into my life for a reason.
It reminded me of the night I’d stood on that bridge about to give up on it all and the woman,my angel, had appeared just in the nick of time. I may not have been in the same place in my life as that night, desperate to end it all…
But the feeling that Huntley was as important as she was, and always would be, was not something I could just forget or ignore.
When I reached down deep, I found myself thinking,I don’t want too either.
Without hesitation, my fingers suddenly started tapping against the phone’s screen.
Me:I’m safe and sound. Thanks for caring.
Chapter Eight
HUNTLEY
Two weeks,and the lines of communication were still going strong.
River hadn’t given up on me or our blooming friendship. That made me think of sending the woman flowers. I knew the single guys at the station would give me shit for thinking of words like blooming and being all sappy, but I didn’t give a damn.
Would she have liked them if I did send some? She’d been talking to me regularly—not running in the other direction—so I didn’t want to send her scurrying away from me again. Yet the idea did have merit.
The woman seemed to like talking and I thought she was warming up to me with each conversation we had. Enough so that after Bronson and the guys atNo Surrenderdid a security check around her building after seeing the man outside, she’d finally confided in me about the hang up calls.
She may have thought it was just pranks that would eventually stop, but the idea of someone bothering her sent a spark of anger through me. As for the person outside, theguys did see someone on the outdoor camera but found nothing else indicating he’d been in the building.
I’d been happy to hear there were cameras and a security system but that didn’t mean all the guys were not on alert if anything else should arise, me included.
River had promised me that she would stay vigilant and after we got through the not so fun conversation we started to get to know one another. While we didn’t text all day and night, we hadn’t missed a day of some sort of check-in to ask the other how their day had been.
