Luke nodded before stepping out of the office.
The second Luke was gone, Jesse lifted his phone.
Jesse: I want you to have your laptop. Luke’s dropping it off. I hope that’s okay.
Aspen: Thank you, I appreciate it.
He dropped his phone to the desk when what he really wanted to do was throw the thing across the room. He was frustrated. Hell, frustrated didn’t even do justice to what he was feeling.
He turned to his computer and tried to concentrate. He replied to a few emails. Signed off on a few reports. And he made so many mistakes, it was obvious he should have just stayed in bed.
He leaned back in the chair, running his fingers through his hair as he recalled waking up to Aspen’s warm body. The feel of her soft skin against him. Her hair splayed on his skin.
The woman was in his fucking blood.
A tap on the door had him straightening. “Come in.”
Claudia stepped into his office. “Hey, Jesse. I have something for you, but you’re not gonna like it.”
Of course he wouldn’t. “Tell me.”
“You know how my friend’s been keeping an eye on Bollard’s bank cards as a way of tracking him?”
His muscles tensed. “Yeah.”
“He used one of them yesterday.”
He almost didn’t want to ask. “Where?”
“Bozeman.”
Blood roared between Jesse’s ears, so loud it deafened the world around him. Bozeman was less than an hour east of Amber Ridge.
That basically confirmed it. Dylan was here, in Amber Ridge…and he was here for Aspen.
CHAPTER 20
Aspen sipped her coffee as she sat on the bed and looked out the window into the backyard. She was distracted.
Jesse was on her mind. He’d been on her mind all morning.
Why was it so hard to be honest with him? To tell him that her ex-boyfriend had hit her and she’d stayed? Shewantedto be stronger than this, but there was this stupid block, and because of it, she was disappointing everyone.
Well, it was time to start breaking that block, one person at a time.
She took two deep breaths before lifting her phone. It rang three times before Callie picked up.
“Hey. Good timing, I just finished teaching a class. It was a good one. Everyone was sweating up a storm. You would have hated it.”
Aspen swallowed. “Do you have a second to chat?”
“Of course. I always have time for you. Is everything okay?”
Her eyes closed and her nose wrinkled. “I’m ready to tell you.” Well, not completely ready. She wasn’t sure she’d ever bethatready.
There was a small pause before Callie spoke. “You can tell me anything, Aspen.”
“Dylan hurt me.” Her nose wrinkled. It was the first time she’d said those words out loud…but surprisingly, they didn’t hurt as much as she’d thought they would. Maybe they even lifted a small weight off her chest.
