“Trash.Put your trash in it.”
She stared at the papers she’d tossed on the floorboard in disbelief.He was asking her to pick up trash?This time he’d overstepped his bounds.
“Now see here,” she complained.“I don’t think you…” Ryder turned.Their gazes met.His eyes were dark and filled with a pain she hadn’t expected.
“Need some help?”
“I don’t believe so,” she said quietly.“But thank you just the same.”
She opened the sack and leaned down.A few moments later, she handed it back, watching as he tossed it in a barrel on the way out of the parking lot.
“Ryder.”
He glanced up.Again, their gazes met briefly, this time in the rearview mirror.
“Yes, ma’am?”
“I’m ready to go home now.”
He took the next turn, wishing he could say the same.
* * *
It was after eight o’clock.Ryder paced the small apartment like a caged bear—back and forth, from window to chair, unable to concentrate on the story on television, or eat the food congealing on his plate.Stifled by the presence of walls, he refused to admit that he was worried about Casey’s absence.
Another half hour passed.By this time, he was steaming.He knew for a fact that Miles had packed up and left for a three-day trip to New Orleans to play.Erica and her grandmother had had a fight and Erica was sulking in her room because Dora had refused to grovel for forgetting their lunch date.Even Joshua and Tilly had finished up for the night and gone home.But Casey was still on the job.Something about that just didn’t sit right with him, and his patience was gone.
He grabbed his hat on the way out the door.In a shorter time than one might have imagined, he had parked outside the Ruban Building and was on his way inside.A guard stopped him at the door.
“Sorry sir, but the offices are closed for the night.”
Ryder shocked himself by announcing, “I’m here to pick up my wife.”
“And who might that be?”the guard asked.
“Her name is—was—Casey Ruban.”
The man took a quick step back, eyeing Ryder with new attention.
“You’d be the fellow Miss Ruban married.”
Ryder nodded.
“Well, now, I might need to see some identification…just for the first time, you understand.”
Ryder opened his wallet.
“Justice…yep, that would be you, all right,” the guard said.“We heard Miss Ruban had married a man named Justice.”He reached for the phone.“Just a minute, sir, and I’ll let her know you’re here.”
“No,” Ryder said, and then softened the tone of his voice with a halfhearted grin.“I was sort of planning to surprise her.”
The guard smiled.“Yes, sir.I understand.Take the elevator to the top floor.Her office is the first one on your right.”
“Thanks,” Ryder said.
“You’re welcome, sir,” the guard said.“And congratulations on your marriage.Miss Ruban is a fine lady.”
Ryder nodded.Even though she was a little hardheaded, he was beginning to have the same opinion of her himself.
