“Hang on,” Remi said, grabbing my arm to stop my escape. “Ellie, I’m just teasing. I get what you mean.”
“It’s ridiculous,” I sighed. “I don’t know why I?—”
“Because you want it to mean something,” he said, reading my mind so easily. “It’s normal to want to feel wanted for more than just sex. Nothing wrong with that. Nothing wrong with sex either. I’m not judging.”
“But you think it’s weird.”
“Sounds perfectly normal to me. You don’t want to feel used. Still doesn’t explain why he spends every night with you.”
Yeah, I didn’t have an answer for that one. In fact, the more I thought about it, the more I wondered why he never went home when he was so adamant that there would never be a relationship.
“Look, it’s not my place to say. In fact, I’m pretty sure I’m crossing some kind of boundary, but a guy doesn’t protect you the way he does when it’s just sex,” Remi pointed out.
“The man rebuilt your whole store. He cursed the town for turning on you. Now, I could be wrong, but that doesn’t sound like the kind of man who’s just sleeping with you and wants nothing else.”
“So…you think I should talk to him about this?”
That didn’t sound like a bright idea to me. If anything, I was pretty sure that would only strain our relationship. He had said nothing to me about his previous girlfriend or how that ended. In fact, there was very little I knew about his time in New York. If he didn’t want to tell me, it didn’t seem right to force it out of him.
Then again, he had no problem forcing me to talk about things.
“Look, let’s just check out the office and take it from there,” Remi said, taking me gently by the arm. “He’s probably just swamped and didn’t have time to check in, but we’ll make sure.”
“Okay.”
Taking a deep breath, I tried to settle my rattled nerves. Between not hearing from him and the words Remi just said, I was feeling all twisted up inside, and a big part of that was hope that one day, Ryder might actually want something with me.
I couldn’t allow myself to hope, though. He was very clear about where he stood, and if I said anything to him about my feelings growing, he would probably back off.
No, I had to play this cool.
Which was so easy to do when I was worried that he’d gone missing.
I tugged on his office door and stepped inside, only to find a woman sitting at the desk. Her eyes widened as we walked in,and when Remi approached, she scrambled out of her chair and shoved herself against the wall.
Remi immediately backed off, taking a step away from her. I glanced between the two of them, wondering if they knew each other. Remi wasn’t a violent man, so why would she be afraid of him?
“Um…I’m looking for Ryder.”
The woman didn’t answer, though. She just kept staring at Remi with wide eyes.
“I’ll be outside,” Remi whispered.
He was leaving? But we hadn’t found out anything about Ryder yet. “Hey, you were supposed to come with me,” I hissed. “Remember? Ryder is missing!”
He lowered his voice so only I could hear. “This woman is clearly upset with me in her presence. I’ll be outside. Just find out what you can.”
“Do you know her?” If she was afraid of Remi, there had to be a reason.
He shook his head, then walked out of the office, leaving me alone with the woman.
“Um…I’m Ellie. I’m looking for Ryder. Have you seen him?”
Even though Remi was gone, the woman still looked terrified. I didn’t know if I should try to calm her in some way or if that would only make things worse. After another minute passed and Remi didn’t return, the woman seemed to finally calm down a little.
“Are you okay? Do you need me to get you something?”
She shook her head forcefully as tears sprang to her eyes. “No, I’m fine.”
