Chapter Twenty-Four #2
Shaking her head, she set her phone aside. Chances were, nothing would come of the job opportunity Ji-An had mentioned. Emma still wasn’t mad about the idea of getting more details; if she’d learned nothing else from the past few months, it was that it never hurt to have a backup plan.
Despite the wild ride she’d been on since her previous life exploded, she was happy where she’d landed. Picking up her book again, she left all thoughts of the life she’d left behind where they belonged: behind her.
The next morning, Hunter drove Emma into town before heading off to work.
She said she was feeling better—even starting to put a little weight on her injured foot.
He still didn’t love sending her back to the bookstore, though.
She was in charge, and she could rest as much as she needed to, but he didn’t want her trying to go up the steps to her apartment without him.
If she fell again and hurt herself even worse…
As he parked, he glanced over at her, and the swell of feeling behind his ribs made it hard to breathe.
He cared about her. More than he’d meant to, and probably more than he should. There was a tang of raw terror in the back of his throat at the thought of anything bad happening to her—or anything worse than had already happened, in any case.
He swallowed hard and turned off the ignition. Trying to keep his voice normal, he asked, “You good?”
“Yup.” She was fiddling with something on her phone.
“Anything interesting going on?”
“No, sorry.” She turned off the phone and shoved it into her bag. “Just something an old friend of mine from New York sent me.”
She was being kind of squirrelly, but it wasn’t any of his business, really.
“Yeah?”
“Nothing interesting. Just a job posting for this new publishing company she’s working at.”
Oh. His stomach did a painful little dip. “A job in New York?”
She nodded. “I don’t think anything’s going to come of it, though. Doesn’t seem like a good fit.”
Thank God. His stomach returned to the section of his body where it was supposed to live. Still, he couldn’t help asking, “That was what you used to do, right? Publishing?”
“It was.” Undoing her seat belt, she chuckled. “Funny how that feels like a lifetime ago, now.”
It really did. The fact that he could hardly imagine his life without her was a testament to that. Even trying had his digestive system going into fits again.
He didn’t want to be unsupportive, though. “Do you ever miss it?”
“Maybe a little.” Shrugging, she turned to him and put her hand over his, making him realize just how tightly he’d balled it into a fist. “But I’m good.”
He forced himself to unclench, turning his hand over to entwine their fingers for a minute. A little bit of disquiet still lingered, but he pushed it aside. How many times had he asked her to trust him? It’d be a real dick move for him to go being all suspicious of her now.
Huffing out a breath, he got out of the truck and came around to her side. She already had her door open and was awkwardly trying to grab her crutches from the back. He reached past her and got them for her, but instead of handing them over, he leaned them against the side of the vehicle.
“C’mere.”
“You really don’t have to,” she argued.
“Believe me.” He curled his arms around her and lifted her out of the truck with ease. “I want to.”
Did he ever. She felt so right in his arms—like everything in the world was just a little bit better because he got to touch her from time to time.
Delicately, he set her down on her uninjured leg, keeping her steady as she got her crutches into position.
“Thanks,” she said, gaze on the ground in front of her.
Apparently, he still had a long way to go with convincing her he didn’t mind helping out, but he was a patient man. He’d keep showing up, and she’d figure it out. Eventually.
For now, he led the way to the door and stood there while she unlocked it.
He had to get to work himself, but he helped her with opening up the store first, walking around turning on lights, checking that the restroom was looking okay, and generally taking care of anything he could.
When he made it back to the counter, she was sitting at the little desk, doing something on the ancient computer there.
Hadn’t she mentioned something about replacing the old behemoth?
“New computer coming in soon?”
“Hopefully today,” she confirmed. She shook her head, grumbling, “And not a minute too soon.” Looking up at him, she asked, “You heading out?”
“Yeah, probably better.” He didn’t want to, though. “You sure there’s nothing else you need?”
She shone a soft smile at him. “I’m good. Promise.”
He still wasn’t so sure about that. But he ducked down to kiss her goodbye for the day. The kiss was mostly sweet, but with a warm prickle of attraction that made him eager to get the day over with already so he could come right back here and pick up where they were leaving off.
He pulled away with regret, putting a hand in his pocket to readjust himself in his pants. He raised a brow. “You sure you’re good?”
Her cheeks flushed in the most enticing way, but she rolled her eyes. “The store is opening in like ten minutes.”
“I can do a lot with ten minutes.”
“Believe me, I know.” She still shooed him toward the door. “Go on. You don’t want to be late for work.”
He was already late for work, but he didn’t care. He took a single, backward step toward the door. “You’ll call me if anything goes wrong?”
“You don’t get cell service.”
“Call the welcome center, then.”
She sighed. “Only if there’s an emergency. Otherwise, I got it.”
“Okay.”
Their gazes held for a long moment.
“I’ll see you tonight, then,” he promised, still looking for a reason to stall but coming up empty. “Right after work.”
“No rush.”
“Of course.”
But whether he—or she—liked it or not…
He’d always want to come rushing back to her.