Once we were finished, Ron held up a finger. “Mr. Pollard, mind if I speak to you privately?”
“Of course not.” I stood and turned to Phillip. “Well, I hope this means we never see each other again. Have a good life, Phil.”
His nostrils flared. He shoved past me and stormed out of the office, leaving me behind to laugh as he departed.
My chest was light, lighter than it had been in ages. Relief washed over me. It was done. Once the bell chimed, signaling Phillip and Daniel had departed, Ron nodded at me. “Thank you for the privilege of writing this contract. It’s one of the strangest cases I’ve ever had the pleasure to work on. I’m glad it’s over for you. If he returns, we’ll get a restraining order put on him so he can’t keep harassing you.”
I nodded once. “Thank you.”
“That’s all I wanted to say. I just wanted to hold you here long enough to let him leave, in case there was a risk of confrontation outside or something.”
I held out my hand and shook Ron’s. “That means a lot. I appreciate it.”
Now what?I wondered. But I knew the answer to that.Now, I go find Asher.
Chapter 29 - Asher
As I sat on the couch that afternoon after I’d gotten home from the job, I found myself watching mindless TV when my phone rang. I answered it without looking, at least half expecting Micah to tell me he was coming by. Instead, it was definitelynotMicah on the other line.
“Hon?”
“Mom?” I furrowed my brow,
“Hi, honey!”
“Where are you?”
Her laughter was light and warm, and it activated something soft inside me. “I’m home, honey. Our trip is over. We just got back into town.”
Where had the time gone? “Mom, it’s good to hear your voice. How was the trip?”
“Hold on, honey, I’m going to put you on speakerphone so you can hear your dad, too.”
I settled back into the couch and listened to them talk for a long time, telling me about all the sights they saw, the food theyate, and more. They rambled for ages, but it was comforting rather than annoying.
“And that’s how our trip went,” Mom said finally, wrapping up their stories. “Now, when do we get to see you again?”
“Anytime, Mom. What were you thinking?”
“Come for dinner tomorrow?”
My phone buzzed in my hand with an incoming text and I glanced at the screen.Micah.Heat immediately flushed through me. We’d seen each other at work, of course, but we hadn’t really had a chance to speak since we’d… well. “Sure, Mom,” I said, my voice sounding distant and distracted even to my own ears. “Listen, I’ve got to go. I’ll see you tomorrow?”
“Sounds good, hon. See you then.”
I opened my text messages.
Micah: Busy?
Asher: Never too busy for you. What’s up?
Micah: Had a weird couple of days. Want to grab a drink at Copper Elephant? Bring Jackson if you want. Kieran’s coming.
Asher: See you soon.
I texted Jackson to meet us at the bar and changed into clean jeans and a sleeveless black shirt before I headed out. When I arrived, I immediately spotted Jackson leaning on the bar, flirting with the bartender shamelessly.
I made my way over to him and put a hand on his shoulder just as the bartender slid him a bottle of beer. “I’ll take one of those, too, please.”
