“You might be better off finding someone who deals with this, who knows how?—”
“No. I trust you.”
That was bound to be a fucking terrible idea. “Alright. Go home. I’ll call you tomorrow after I’ve gone over the case.”
“Right,” he nodded. “Thank you, Ryder.”
I tossed the paper on my desk, rubbing my hand over my eyes. This day couldn’t get any fucking worse. I would have to find a lawyer familiar with family law. There was no way I’d put Michael and Blake in front of a judge when I didn’t know the insand outs of the court process. I didn’t have enough time to do the research necessary to win on my own.
I finished up the contract, then shut everything down. In the morning, I’d have to send the contract over to the city council for review. I added that to the mountain of shit I had to do, then turned out the lights and headed to Ellie’s.
It was already eleven o’clock, and knocking on her door felt wrong. As I sat in her driveway, I considered going in, but waking her up didn’t feel right, even if all I wanted to do was slip into her bed and shove my cock deep inside her pussy.
So, instead, I backed out of her driveway and headed back to the ranch. Sleep wouldn’t come easily without my nightly vice, but at least I wouldn’t be the asshole who kept her up when she had to work the next day.
27
ELLIE
I dialedRyder’s number again, disappointed when it went to voicemail yet again. He hadn’t shown up last night, and when I texted him, he didn’t answer. Worry began to claw at my gut with every hour that passed. It wasn’t like him not to call me back or at least let me know what was going on.
Grabbing my purse, I closed the shop and headed down the street to his office. Surely, he was there, working hard and just hadn’t had time to stop.
Though I didn’t know of any cases that were taking over his workload. When we talked the other day, he just had some minor contracts to go over.
I racked my brain the whole walk to his office, trying to come up with any reason he might not have contacted me last night.
He was really busy.
But why didn’t he just send a quick text message?
He fell asleep at the office in a heap of paperwork.
Yet, when I tried calling this morning, he didn’t answer.
My feet stalled when another thought came to mind. What if he just needed a break from me? It had been three weeks since my shop had been destroyed. He spent nearly every wakingminute fixing it for me, and while I was grateful for what he had done, maybe I wasn’t grateful enough.
Or maybe he was just getting tired of me. After all, this was supposed to be sex only, with a side of friendship. Yet, he spent every night with me. The only time he went home was when he grabbed more clothes.
That wasn’t what he signed on for, so maybe he was just worn out. And that was the reason he wasn’t answering. He needed space from me, and answering the phone would mean discussing what was going on.
“Ellie?”
Startled, I spun and put on a bright smile when I saw Remi. “Hey.”
“Everything okay?”
“Of course. Why wouldn’t it be?”
He eyed me curiously. “You were standing in the middle of the sidewalk.”
“Well, yes,” I said, not knowing what else to say.
“Okay, do you want to tell me why you were just standing there?”
“I was thinking.”
“Uh-huh.”
