Chapter Sixteen #2
“You never know,” she said, dismissing the fear with a wave. “Men, well, sometimes they’re unpredictable. Sometimes they’re dense. Sometimes they are scared too. You just need to pay attention. They might not be the best at communicating.”
“Actually, I think Sawyer might have me beat on the communication front,” I laughed.
“Yes, well, he has seen a lot of darkness. He knows how short life can be and therefore doesn’t see any point in wasting a breath lying or sugarcoating things. He says what he means and he means what he says, and that is a rare and wonderful thing with anyone, especially a man.”
“That’s true,” I agreed, nodding. I had dated a silly jock, a cheater, a man who apparently loved me but was bad at showing it, and another cheater.
The very idea of a man who communicated clearly and without bullshit was, well, almost laughable.
I had started to think it was mythical, right up there with dragons and unicorns.
“He’s taking you on a date,” she added.
That was true. Not only was he taking me on a date, but he had planned it several days ahead.
Far enough that he had gotten tickets, a dress, shoes, and a reservation at one of the nicest restaurants in the area.
That said something. If he just wanted to screw me, he could have easily done so.
I was in the house. I was obviously willing.
Hell, I had initiated the whole thing the night before.
So, if I did what Marg was telling me and I watched his actions, well, they pointed to him being interested in me. Not just as a client. Not just as an easy lay.
And that was really all I needed to know, wasn’t it?
“He’s working a lot of hours on your case too,” Marg said after a long silence as we both slowly took all the ornaments off the tree and put them back in the boxes.
“It’s not new for him to get really into his cases.
He likes a challenge. He likes figuring things out.
But this is different. He has called Tig and Brock off other cases and has them on yours too.
Barrett is involved a lot, him being just like his brother, but perhaps even more obsessed with it.
Maybe to you, it seems like he is just going to work every day and that there doesn’t seem to be any progress on your case.
But there are a lot of things going on behind the scenes and under the surface.
I’ve only ever seen him pull all the manpower together once before. ”
I hadn’t exactly thought Sawyer had forgotten about my case per se, but I did sort of think he was just swamped with other (paying) gigs and that maybe my case was simmering on a back burner for the time being.
I was even okay with that. I understood that he needed to make a living and pay his bills and his people.
I never would have dreamed he would eschew all other cases for mine.
“What other case was that?” I asked, wondering if he was calling them in because he was a lot more worried about it than he acted like in front of me.
“It was Barrett’s case, actually,” she said, wrapping up a little reindeer and putting it away. “He was helping a woman find her sister. In the process, he got, well, he got his ass handed to him. He was in the hospital for a few days.”
“Oh my God,” I said, freezing, trying to imagine my boss in a hospital bed, helpless, while people fretted around him. He must have hated that. “Who did that?”
“Oh,” she said, waving a hand, “some lowlife gang member. Sawyer, as you can imagine, blew his lid. He was always worried about something like that happening to Barrett when he went off on his own. So Sawyer got on the case. And the client got kidnapped by said gang. So Sawyer called in Tig and Brock. Oh, and actually… that woman he talked about before…”
“Alex,” I supplied. “The hacker.”
“I think she calls herself a cyber investigator officially, but yes, she’s a hacker. Her husband and their friend also went in to get her out.”
“Did they?” To that, Marg’s smile went a little wry. “Right,” I laughed. “Stupid question. Of course they got her out.”
“But your case, I don’t think it’s dangerous. At least not to anyone but you, maybe. So him calling them in is, in my opinion, just another way for him to show you how much he thinks of you.”
I smiled at that, trying not to get my hopes up too high.
After that, the conversation turned to more neutral subjects: her kids, her husband, my parents, my time in foster care.
By the time she shuffled toward the door around one in the afternoon, the house was spotless.
“Remember,” she said, turning, hands filled with platters that she refused to let me help her carry, “Experience it, don’t overthink it.”
With that, she was on her way, and I was alone with my thoughts.
As any woman knew, being alone with your thoughts when you were trying to wrap your head around a new romantic situation was not a good thing.
So I walked Slim, who huffed at me the whole way, annoyed that he was being forced to take an extra walk a day, no doubt. The lazy bum. Then I got home and did as much as I could online about getting my life back in order.
Then I used the girly mixers Sawyer bought me and made a drink, and took the bath bombs he got me and drew a bath.
I was maybe five minutes into the soak when I heard the door open, my stomach clenching a bit, always paranoid about being naked in the bath or shower when someone intruded. But Slim didn’t bark, so I figured it was Sawyer.
I didn’t expect him to just… yank the bathroom door open and let himself in, though, eyes moving over me slowly, taking in every inch exposed out of the water.
And when his eyes met mine, I could see he was ready to make good on that promise he left me with earlier.