Seth: No, Sir. I don’t believe I do.
I chuckled. The brat was being cheeky. Seth had never said outright that he was submissive, but there were signs. I wouldnever call him out on it, but I knew that he did well with correction and direction.
If he wanted to share that part of himself with me one day, that was fine. If not, well, that was all right, too. No one on the team would judge him for whatever tastes he had in life.
After turning off my phone, I crawled into bed for the night. Half the team went home already, so it was a little quieter in the house right now. Now I just had to pretend like I was not counting down the days until I got home as well. For once, I had something to look forward to when I got there.
Slammingthe door of my truck, I forced myself not to look toward Rebekah’s house. It had been four days since the rest of the team left. I stayed another two days and consulted on another case with the sheriff's office. I’d been home for a few days, but I had been doing everything in my power to ignore the urge to go and find her.
I found every excuse I could to work from home, but I was quickly running out of reasons not to go into the office, and the guys were starting to catch on to what I was doing.
“Hi, Beau!” a sweet voice said from across the driveway. Turning around, I came face-to-face with the woman who had taken up residence in my mind. Was she walking home this late in the evening alone?
“Little girl, what are you doing out so late?” I couldn’t fight the gruffness my tone held.
“Uh, yeah? I just got home from work.”
“And why in the hell are you walking instead of having one of the guys drive you home? While the neighborhood is relatively safe, you still shouldn’t be alone.”
Rebekah stared at me like I had three heads. “I always walk home. I don’t want to inconvenience any of the guys, so I always turn down their offers when they ask.”
I bit back my growl. Knowing my men, they had probably asked her many times to allow them to drive her home. None of them liked the idea of a woman walking around in the dark, let alone one who they knew and cared about. How I didn’t know she was walking home every day was beyond me.
“That stops now. From now on, I will pick you up and take you home every day.”
“Really, that’s not necessary. I am perfectly capable of walking. It’s good for me, the doctor said so.”
“Doctor? What doctor? Are you sick?”
The color drained from her face, but before I could push it, she changed the subject again. “That’s irrelevant right now. The point is, you don’t need to drive me around, Beau.”
“I know I don’tneedto. I don’t do anything that I don’t want to, and I want to do this. So please, pity a man and let me drive you. For my own sanity.”
“Fine, but when I’m grumpy on the morning drive, you don’t get to say a word.”
I let out a chuckle. She could be grumpy all she wanted, as long as she was grumpy as the passenger in my truck. After grabbing my phone, I pulled up a new contact and handed it over.
“Here, put your number in.”
A blush bloomed across her cheeks as she looked at the phone in her hand. “I don’t have a phone.” I barely heard her whisper.
“Excuse me?”
Rebekah cleared her throat and squared her shoulders like she was fixing to go into battle. “I don’t have a phone yet. I’m working on it.”
That wouldn’t do. I needed to be able to make sure she was okay, and she needed a way to contact us if something was wrong. I’d be fixing that ASAP.
Grabbing my phone back when she held it out to me, I let out a grumble. “Okay, Little girl. Run along now, it’s getting dark. Make sure you lock your door when you get inside.”
I held back the grin at her eye roll as she marched across the street toward her house. My heart soared when she looked back my direction, giving me a wave, before heading inside and disappearing from my line of sight.
Once I’d gone inside, I grabbed a bottle of water and pulled my computer out of its bag. Without thinking about it, I logged onto my account, quickly added a phone line for Rebekah, and purchased her a new phone, paying extra for shipping so it would be delivered to the office first thing in the morning.
My Little girl wouldn’t be without a phone if I had anything to say about it. I needed a way to make sure she was okay. The only challenge I knew I would have was getting her to accept it without a fuss. I looked forward to the sass she would throw my way, trying to argue her point.
The next morning,I dropped Rebekah’s new phone on Seth’s desk when it arrived. He would get it set up with everything she needed before I gave it to her. Tech was his area of expertise, and I trusted him to get everything sorted.
When I walked into my office, I paused. Did I walk into my office, because this looked nothing like it did when I left here over a week ago? In the corner, sat two filing cabinets beside the one I already had. There was a bookshelf on the other side of the room with binders stacked in it. A couple of trays were arrangedon my desk, and my computer screen sat on what looked like a mini table.
