“Definitely not nothing,” he said.
“You’ll think I’m crazy,” I replied.
“And?”
That simple question was enough to settle the butterflies dancing around in my belly.
“I was wondering if you used my toothbrush… I’m kind of hoping you did.”
Cruz smiled and swiped his thumb over my chin. “Hope no more,” he murmured. Then his mouth was back on mine and the passion flared between us. He was the one to put some space between our desperate bodies. He shook his head at me. “You’re a dangerous man, Elliot Wittier.”
I smiled and motioned over my shoulder. “There’s coffee.”
“Thanks.” Cruz sat down next to me at the kitchen table a minute later with a cup of coffee in hand. “Did you figure that stuff out with your client?”
“Sort of,” I hedged.
“You want to talk about it?” he asked knowingly.
“I haven’t found the money, but I know who moved it from the account. But it doesn’t make sense.”
“Why not?”
I hesitated before admitting something I was still struggling with. “It was my dad.”
“Your dad?”
I nodded.
“I thought you said he retired.”
“He did – he doesn’t have a hand in the day-to-day operations and even while he was still at the company, he didn’t do account operations. We have people for that. Every employee has a code that gets logged when a transaction is made. My dad’s code is attached to the withdrawal of the money from the account.”
“Did you ask him about it?” Cruz asked as he carefully sipped his coffee.
“I’m going to tonight. I’m heading over there later to take my brother trick-or-treating.”
Cruz stopped mid-sip and said, “You have a brother?”
I chewed on my lip for a moment and said, “Yeah. Ryan. He’s nine. My dad adopted him six months ago. He was doing some work for this charity in Europe and he stopped by an orphanage. He met Ryan and just knew that he was meant to be his son. Ryan, he’s got cerebral palsy. If my dad hadn’t found him, he probably never would have gotten out of that orphanage.”
“Wow, that’s amazing,” Cruz said. “Is that why your dad retired early? To take care of Ryan?”
I nodded. “Ryan’s confined to a wheelchair and he has limited speech – he uses this computer to communicate. He’s such a great kid, Cruz. Even though he can’t talk, he’s got this personality on him like you wouldn’t believe. It’s been incredible to watch it come to the surface since my dad brought him home. And my dad… he’s finally started to come alive again.”
Cruz reached out his hand to cradle my cheek. He held me like that for a moment before saying, “Do you think I could meet them someday? Your dad and Ryan?”
I bit into my lip and nodded. “Actually, I was going to see if you wanted to come trick-or-treating with us. Dad’s going to stay home and hand out candy. We could maybe do a late dinner or something afterward.”
I hated that I was too afraid to admit what I was really feeling – that I wasn’t ready for this to end yet. But Cruz didn’t press me onit. Instead, he said, “I’d love to. How about we stop by my place so I can change and then maybe we can grab lunch?”
“Yes,” I said without hesitation. “I’d love that.”
“Good,” Cruz said. He gave me a quick kiss and then rose. “You mind if I use your shower?”
I had no clue what possessed me to do it but I responded with, “Do you mind if I join you?”
“I was pretty much counting on it,” Cruz said, his eyes twinkling with amusement.
