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“Oink. Oink. Have you learned your lesson yet?”
“Maybe.”
“My advice? Call Garrett. Discuss calmly what you both intend to do to make your true intentions about your combined future with her before you go charging in and make it worse.”
“Then what?”
Gray rolled his eyes. Seth couldn’t blame him.
His friend looked up toward the ceiling, his fingers caressing his chin. “If only there were a handy communication system in place where humans could talk to one another.” He abruptly snapped his fingers as if he’d just come up with the idea of the century. “Wait. I know. Why don’t you call her? She has this amazing device. It’s called a cell phone.”
“Smart ass. My fucking phone hasn’t worked all week. I’m out of practice.”
“Excuses. Excuses.”
Seth dialed Garrett’s number. When it went to phone mail, he dialed the emergency number on Garrett’s desk in Miser. Before Garrett even had a chance to say hello or to yell at him for using the emergency number, Seth intruded and said, “Did you know that Jessica is planning to stay in Enclave, is still working at Old West Town, but has moved out of our house?”
There was a five second pause. “No. If she moved out of our house it was to go back to Chicago, right?”
“Apparently, she only moved out of our house.”
“Why?”
“Do you really need to ask?”
“It’s been a bad week here in audit land. Help me out. My brain only barely functions right now.”
“Basically we told Jessica to take her old job back, we even graciously offered to help her move out, but never once told her we planned to go with her.”
“She had to know we were going with her, didn’t she?”
“Well, we also didn’t ask her to marry us before we abandoned her…after joyously telling her to take a job in another state.”
“Well when you put it that way, we really are stupid, aren’t we?” He could almost hear Garrett’s brain smoking from frustration.
“Yes. I believe we are.”
“Well, where is she? We need to make this right.”
“Don’t know yet. When do you get back from your Miser bank tonight?”
“Shit. I wasn’t planning on being there until after midnight. It’s been rather hairy here.”
“We need to talk to her. Together. Before midnight.”
“Agreed. Find out where she is, I’ll leave early, and we’ll go get her back tonight.”
“Why are we so stupid?”
“Because we’re out of practice at having a permanent relationship with a perfect woman who isn’t bat-shit crazy.”
“We’re over that now, right?”
“Yes. We are. I’m glad we stopped in time to consider a future with Jessica. Do you think you can find her?”
“Yes. I have a couple of good ideas of where to look.” Seth planned to start with Isabelle. If she wasn’t living with her, then her best friend from Chicago at the very least had to know where Jessica was.
One way or another, Seth would track her down, get her alone with Garrett, and make her understand they wanted her. They were stupid, but they had always wanted her. They had certainly never intended to let her go to Chicago without them.
He just hoped it wasn’t too little too late.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Jessica braced herself when the doorbell at Victoria’s house rang late in the evening. She sat in the guest room expecting either Seth or Garrett or both to come charging inside and ask her why she’d left their house.
Gray had graciously called to give her a heads up that Seth was back in town and very shocked that she hadn’t taken the job with Barrington in Chicago. She’d asked Gray what else Seth had mentioned, but he’d been evasive. He obviously knew something more but wasn’t sharing. It was very unlike his gossipy self.
Then he’d asked her about Barrington’s lavish offer. She told him the gist of it, then spent another ten minutes convincing Gray that she wasn’t leaving his employ, that money wasn’t very important to her, and practically promising to participate in a blood oath next time they were together at work to get him off the phone.
