“Hello,” he said. “Are you at work still?”
“Home and eating dinner,” she said around a mouthful. “Sorry I’m being rude, but you can’t see it.”
He laughed. The sound of it sent something resembling tingles in her belly that cascaded to her extremities leaving her feeling slightly breathless. The same reaction as when she saw him standing there trying to get the files.
A reaction that hadn’t been experienced in close to two years. Crazy how life got in the way.
But his good looks had drawn her closer, her curiosity of all things always sucking her in, but her sympathy had pushed the offer out of her mouth to help him with his quest.
“Be rude all you want,” he said. “Those things don’t bother me.”
“Good, because I’m starving.”
She stuffed more on a fork, opened her mouth wide, and shoved in the lettuce with a slice of cucumber and some chicken.
“I’ve got a lot of reading to hold me over,” he said. “As happy as I am there is so much, I’m pretty sure most of it is going to be useless.”
“Nothing is useless if it helps you eliminate something,” she said around a mouthful.
“I thought the same. I spent hours scanning it to my computer, but I’ll read it on paper, then take notes.”
“I do the same. Not sure what it is about writing notes in front of me in different colors that is so satisfying.”
“Glad I’m not alone. I do that with my books. Draft it out, print it, then attack it as if my old English teacher is tearing it apart for dinner. Kind of like the sounds you’re making.”
She coughed when he said that, then chewed and swallowed. “Sorry about that. And since I’m being so nasty in your ear, do you need any help going through those files?”
“I wouldn’t turn it down,” he said. “But this is going to take days to just sort through.”
“And you can do that. But I can be here if you’ve got questions or can go over some things that might trip you up. I’m sure not much will.”
“Don’t be so sure. I’m hoping to have most of it sorted by my method by tomorrow.”
“If you’re around, I might stop over after work.”
“I’d like that,” he said. “I won’t be having salad for dinner though.”
She was purposely crunching loudly to be annoying and get him to laugh. Something she did with her brothers.
Only she didn’t think of Rory as a brother.
She wasn’t sure exactly how she thought of him, but it wasn’t family-like in the least.
And as much as she wanted to help him, she also wanted to explore what it was about him that made her feel what she was.
Things she’d kept locked up for years while she tried to prove to the world she had what it took.
That she wasn’t just the Ridgeway girl.
Oh, that title annoyed her like nothing ever could.
No one looked at her as anything other than her brothers’ sister who had to be watched over.
“How about I bring dinner?” she said.
“I can’t ask you to do that. You’re doing me a favor. I also want to fill you in about a few conversations I had with people today.”
“Fill me in now while I eat. This way I can let it process in my brain some. I’ll stop chewing loudly, I promise.”
