“You’re supposed to say, ‘I’m going to stop holding your seat now and let you try on your own.’”
“Am I now?” he says, still grinning.
“Have I told you that I’m beginning to think you’re a terrible boss and a dreadful person?”
He laughs out loud, and watching his joy does something strange to my insides. But this is also why I don’t talk much: I open my mouth and say completely the wrong thing. Really, I’m the worst person in the world to be living with someone who’s depressed.
His eyes meet mine again. “I’m well aware that I’m an awful boss, Sadie.”
I wave my hand at him. “No, you’re not. I was joking. You’re great at it, James. How about asking me if I’m okay?”
“Are you okay, Sadie?”
“I think I’ve bruised my hip.”
His forehead creases, and he drops to his knee next to me.
The man’s suit of armor shimmers in the sunlight, his face flushed, dark damp hair curling out of the side of his helmet. He places his sword pointing down into the earth and bows his head while he waits for the queen to speak.
His hand comes out and rests gently on my hip. “Where does it hurt?”
I push up on my elbows, and is that better? I’m much closer to his thick curls and blue eyes. I gaze down at his large hand on my hip, fingers spanning around me as if he can magically heal injuries. The warmth of his hand burns through the fabric; and the weight of it, the concerned frown on his face, the way he hasn’t let go, spreads through me like fire and ice.
The fingers gripping his sword are bruised and bloody. The queen pulls her blade out of its sheath and taps him on the shoulder. “Arise, my knight,” she says.
“We can stop if you like,” he says.
I shake myself out of my daze. “No way! I was just getting started. I rode that hellish thing for at least a minute on my own.”
“That’s my girl,” he says, smile widening again.
My heart aches with how true I want that statement to be, but all I say is: “Don’t think I’ve forgotten that banana chocolate loaf you promised me.”
Chapter 19
Sadie
As I leave work on Monday, I’m just congratulating myself on trying cycling and getting my code to compile when Jake straightens from the building across the street. My steps falter. He’s like a dog with a bone. Of course he’s not going to back off where money is concerned. Why didn’t I check before I left? Has my mom talked to him? Is that why he’s here? I groan internally. He could easily get into the office and make a scene. Though I’m sure Williams Security values me more now that I’ve worked for them for a handful of months, and James and I are friendly, they’re also happy to fire people when it gets serious enough, like they did with Rodriguez. It’s bad enough that James met Jake; imagine if everyone saw him … saw what my stepdad is like … Nope.Nope.
I lower my head and pick up the pace. A man in a suit is ahead of me, earbuds in, heading home.Home.Damn, I’ve got another problem here, haven’t I? If Jake follows me, he’ll work out where I live.
“Sadie!”
His voice echoes between the tall buildings on Water Street.Being yelled at in public by a lunatic: every girl’s dream.I lift my head, eyes darting past the man in front of me. Where could I go to throw him off the scent?
“Sadie, hold up!”
I break out into a trot. I can outrun Jake; he’s not exactly fit.
“Goddammit!” is all I hear shouted behind me.
I turn down Wall Street, diving through the scaffolding that overhangs the sidewalk before taking a sharp right. Some construction fencing comes into view several buildings down, and as I’m passing, a door opens and a guy in a hard hat walks out tapping a cigarette out of a packet. I stutter to a halt and then dive past him through the doorway. Here I am again, running away. Goddamn my life.
“Hey!” he says. “What the fuck? You’re not allowed in there!”
I lean against the back of the plywood, just inside the door, and he steps back in and stares at me.
“I’m being chased. Shut the door!” I say, waving my hand at it, and I have no idea what my face is doing, because he blinks at me, then miraculously jerks his chin up and says:
