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When I woke up, it was two hours later, and my entire body felt like it was permanently stiff. The tile was not forgiving, even with the pillow and blanket, and it hurt to try to pull myself up to sitting. I started to call out for help. I stopped myself, realizing even if I did, there wouldn’t be anyone there who would come for me.
It made me wish there was someone there to be with me through all this. I wanted someone to help me back into the bedroom and tuck me into bed. To sit with me and pat me to comfort me. To talk to me as I tried to keep my stomach settled. I just wanted someone to see me through it.
But, then again, I didn’t miss Justin at all. Maybe it wasn’t him I was wishing was here.14NickI tried really hard not to notice that I hadn’t heard from Bryn all week. It really didn’t need to be on my mind, and the fact that I hadn’t heard from her was actually a good thing. At least, that’s what I told myself. If I didn’t hear from her, that meant I was focusing on my other clients. While she was technically a client because I was going to be doing investments for her, she wasn’t one who would be paying an invoice, and I didn’t know if I could look ahead into the future and have her doing any repeat investing.
She’d seemed interested in the idea of the investments when we spoke, but only so far as to possibly replace the money Justin stole from her. It didn’t seem like she was all fueled up to make investments a regular part of her life. That was the thing about financial management and planning. Everybody came about it in a different way. While I was firm in the belief that investment was a good idea for anybody and that everybody had just as much chance at success as everyone else, not everybody had the motivation.
Whatever the reason, Bryn wasn’t one of my regular clients, and I needed to keep them happy so I could keep my firm afloat. That meant actually getting my work done rather than sitting around thinking about her all the time. Knowing that and doing that were two very different things, but I was doing my best to focus more on work and just know she would get back to me when she was ready.
I convinced myself this was probably the new normal for us. We were just doing business together now, as opposed to the quest for revenge or justice that started this whole thing to begin with. When she thought there was a possibility that we could somehow get her money back from the investor, it would be legal recourse for Justin and the investor, so it made sense to talk to her on a regular basis.
She wanted to keep up with this situation and find out anything that might be happening. Now that we were starting out on a plan for investment of her money, it was different. There really wasn’t anything for us to talk about from day to day. She was still working on saving up the seed money to start her investments. Once she was done with that, we would be working more closely together and would probably communicate more. But up until then, she really didn’t have a need to call me.
No matter how many times I told myself that, it didn’t make me feel any better. But I just kept on doing it. Eventually, maybe it would sink in and I wouldn’t keep checking my phone to make sure where the ringer volume was up loud enough for me to hear it or looking up hopefully every time I heard footsteps outside my office door.
I really needed to get myself together. The last thing I needed at this point was for any of my brothers to notice something different about me. If they got even the hint that Bryn had gotten herself in my mind and didn’t seem to be leaving anytime soon, I would never hear the end of it.
Quentin called me on Thursday to remind me about family dinner night. At least that week he wasn’t trying to change up the schedule and was reminding me to come over to his house on Sunday like usual. With no other plans on the docket and the chances of any spontaneously popping up exceedingly slim, I didn’t have to turn him down that time.
I was looking forward to getting together with my family on Sunday, and when I pulled up to Quentin’s house, it made me smile to see all the cars lined up in the driveway. I walked inside and the first person I saw was Lindsey. She had a giant platter of raw steaks in her hands and was headed for the doors to the back deck.
