Page 35 of Protecting Love

“Did you hear that, London?” she shouted, his hands almost going to his ears. “Fletcher almost apologized.”

“Damn, I’ll pick up more chocolate,” London said.

Her face flushed. “Sorry. I’m a little out of sorts to be hit with this first thing on a Monday.”

He turned and put his hand on the open door. “Do you mind?”

“Go ahead.”

He shut the door and took a seat. “Don’t beat yourself up over those things. You never know how you’re going to react in the face of adversity. Molly was impressed.”

“She told me. Multiple times. I did it for her. Or more like I did it because I knew reacting the way I wanted to was only going to escalate the situation. I’m not cold. I felt like crap listening to what he had to say.”

“But you weren’t surprised over what happened, were you?”

“Not in the least. I had hoped I would have been wrong, but it wasn’t my decision what they did.”

“Aside from you calling them on Friday, have you had any other communication since you delivered your report to them?”

“Only from their HR Director. She was nervous but never said what option would be chosen. She was asking advice on how to handle different situations. I helped as best as I could, but again, that has to come from her employers.”

“Doesn’t sound like they did that great of a job.”

“They are looking for profits. They weren’t taking employees into consideration. But I wasn’t surprised either. Are you going to let me know what your next step is?” He remained silent. “Oh, let me guess, you’re reporting to West and West only.”

“He is the one signing my paycheck.”

He stood up after that. No reason to stay any longer and risk saying something else stupid.

Like offering more comfort when she didn’t appear to want it.

He wasn’t sure why he was even trying.

Maybe because he felt there were so many times in his past he didn’t try hard enough to make someone feel comfortable.

Not even in his last job.

He was there to solve crimes, not always soothe victims.

Others were better at it than him. Or that was the excuse he’d told himself for years.

“Then I guess I’ll find out more if West wants to share. Sorry if you wasted your time with this.”

“It’s not wasted,” he said.

He left after that, went back to the front, looked at the best spots for the cameras, took a few more pictures, explained what he was doing to Molly when she asked, then sent it off to Foster and his team and returned to his office.

At lunch, he was eating a sandwich he’d picked up in the cafeteria when he felt a presence and looked up.

“Hey, Nelson.”

“I heard what happened.”

He wasn’t surprised it was making the rounds in the family.

The youngest Carlisle had had his own share of issues in the past few months that he’d dug into and got resolved quickly.

“Should only be a one-time thing by the sounds of it.”