Right. She had a mission.
“I came by to tell you good luck.”Insert genuine smile here. A glint of dimple peeked out from his cheek in response to her grin.Perfect, everyone is smiling. Totally normal, not awkward at all.
“Look at that. You found your happy place this morning,” he said. “Want to come in for a minute? I’ve got five before I head out.”
She stepped through the doorway. Holy pink popsicles, his apartment looked like St. Valentine day had vomited all over the place. The pink on the outside didn’t even come close to the color palette on the inside—every shade of pink imaginable. Cotton-candy-pink paint must have been on sale the day they decorated this one. No wonder he always came to her place.
William looped a tie around his neck and swiftly tied a Windsor knot.
“How are the meetings with your dad?”
“On the scale of root canal to amputation of my right leg, I’d say I’d rather be prepped for surgery than spend a few hours with the guy. No way around it, though.” When he tugged on a Bruce Wayne inspired suit jacket, her mouth went dry.
Yummy.
“Come by the station later. Maybe I can buy you lunch?” he asked.
He straightened his tie and shook down the sleeves of the jacket. Double yummy.
She struggled to respond and made an odd smacking noise.
He raised his eyebrows at her. “Got a feeling I’m going to need to vent after this morning.” He stuffed papers in a soft leather briefcase and slung the strap over his shoulder. Her heart throbbed at the sight of him. He probably would hate it if she called him beautiful, but handsome didn’t cut it.
She lifted Mitzy from the bubblegum-colored couch. “Lunch then. Great.”
That earned her a throaty laugh. He leaned forward and kissed her forehead. “See you in a few hours.”
They walked to the porch together and Mitzy jumped from her arms to scamper through her door. Once inside, Lucy leaned against the wall and scrunched her face. “That went well, don’t you think?”
The cat refused to answer.
A dry mouth and a throbbing heart? Sheesh, what was going on with her? She was either falling for him or having a stroke. Her forehead still tingled from where he kissed her. Tingling…that was a stroke symptom, too. Ugh. Unfortunately, this situation couldn’t be solved with blood thinners.
Chapter Twenty
“This is temporary,” Lucy mumbled to herself. Fact of life: Anything that burned as hot as what she and Will experienced would fizzle as quickly as it began. She needed to prepare for her time after Confluence and make plans to move on. Prevent heartache before it had a chance to take hold.
She snatched her canvas sack filled with groceries from the passenger side of her car and shuffled toward her door. Her lunch with Will had been sidelined to a dinner courtesy of his father and the Colorado Springs executives.
That gave Lucy all afternoon to stew about their relationship. Her job. Sleeping with the boss. She’d practically gnawed through her lower lip worrying about how this thing between them would play out…and how much heartache she’d have in the end.
So she’d done what anyone would do—she worked to take her mind off all things William. So far, her mission involved an extra layer of eye makeup, lip gloss, and a trip to the Confluence Grocer.
A yellow school bus pulled up to the edge of the beat-up Camelot sign. Lucy set her hand over her forehead as a group of boys stumbled down the steps of the bus.
Simon clambered out last. Perfect. She had cash ready to pay him for taking care of Mitzy.
The bus pulled away and one of the boys shouted something at Simon. Fingers looped around the straps of his backpack, Simon ignored whatever the boy said.
Lucy’s smile faded. The boys ran after Simon and shoved at his backpack until he fell face-first in the road. No. Oh no. She knew these kinds of kids.
They’d tormented her childhood. Her palms went damp and she dropped her grocery sack, running toward the group. She kicked aside a tub of yogurt rolling in her path. No time to stop. The gravel crunched under the soles of her shoes. Her vision tunneled and no matter how she willed her legs to move faster she seemed planted in the same hamster wheel of life.
“Hey.” Her voice cracked.
The boys didn’t pay any attention to her. They formed a half-circle around Simon. He suddenly looked much smaller than everyone else.
“Hey,” she yelled again.
