Or more like Kane didn’t give a shit and it was only an excuse to talk to her that day.
“Nothing slips Kane’s mind,” Rocco said. “Sorry to have bothered you.”
Rocco always came off as a gentle giant that couldn’t speak up for himself. Often told what to do and when, and going about tasks on a list.
“No bother. You’re working late.” She opened her passenger door and got her briefcase out. “Hope it wasn’t to come tell me this. An email would have sufficed.”
“No,” Rocco said. “Someone reported there was creaking in the hallway of your building.”
She laughed. “Creaking? Like a mouse? Oh wait, that’s squeaking.”
Rocco laughed, but the humor didn’t reach his eyes. The poor guy probably got crapped on by people his whole life.
“Not quite. Like the walls are shifting or cracking.”
“I normally take the elevator, but I’ve heard nothing. Is it by my condo?”
“Which one are you in again?”
“4C,” she said.
“No. It’s on the first floor. 1A. Or that’s where the complaint came from.”
Three floors down and the other side of the building. This was one of the smaller buildings. Five floors, five condos, front to back, so you got some water view, if you could sneak it between the other buildings, but mainly saw either the courtyard or the parking lot toward the road on the other side.
She was lucky enough to get a tiny sneak of the water if she angled herself just right in a chair.
“Good luck with it,” she said. “I’ll let someone know if I hear anything, but as I said, I’m rarely in the stairwell.”
Rocco’s eyes looked her over quickly, then almost seemed embarrassed over it. “Doesn’t look as if you need the exercise.”
She snorted. “Thanks.”
She moved to the elevator and shook her arms off. She hated when men did that to her.
Looked her over, then looked down on her. Or made some sexist comment that the shape she was in was for their benefit.
Well, screw them. She did what she wanted for herself and no man.
End of story!
She got in her condo, kicked her shoes off by the door, dropped her briefcase on the kitchen island and went to her room.
She’d bypass the gym tonight since it was later than normal. It wasn’t in her building anyway, and it was a pain to walk to the one across the way by the water.
That building got all the good amenities, but it’s not like she was going to drop another hundred thousand for it. She could barely afford the two-bedroom condo she had now.
It was just as well, as she had too much work to do anyway and would rather do it at home than in her office.
She grabbed shorts and a T-shirt, swapped out her skirt and sweater, then made her way to the kitchen for food.
She heard her phone ding, looked at her watch and saw the text from Rory. Only it said an image was attached and nothing else.
Once she had a salad put together, she fished her phone out of her purse that was sitting next to her briefcase and opened the text to see two boxes from the courthouse with a sad face.
Maybe she should have warned him it was going to be that way. This wasn’t some big city. Short staffing and lack of technology had them way behind scanning the old archives.
With her phone on the island, she hit his name on speaker.
