When I stand from my chair, Isaac gestures his head to the door. “Make sure you say goodbye to Isabelle before youleave.”
He tried to suffocate it, but I didn’t miss the slight smear in his tone, but I appreciate his effort in lessening the vehement jealously he has when it comes to Izzy and me beingfriends.
Never being the talkative type, Isaac returns his eyes to the paperwork spread on his desk as I amble to hisofficedoor.
“Hugo,” he calls out just beforeIexit.
I crank myneck. “Yeah?”
His gray eyes stare into mine. “You should consider upgrading your suit. It just looks tacky walking around in a thousand dollar suit when you have over two million dollars in your bankaccount.”
I stare at him, more confusedthanever.
Isaac stands from his chair and walks around his desk. “Those checks belonged to you. What I did for you and your family wasn’t under the stipulation that you had to repay me. I did it because Iwantedto.”
A small smile curls on my lips before I curtly nod my head. Isaac has always been generous, but I never felt right accepting his money. For the past five years, he has fed me, sheltered me, and kept me safe. What more did I need than that? So instead of cashing his checks he printed every month, I shredded every one of them, with the exception of the original one he gave me over five years ago. I kept it as a memento of how far I’d come, and what I’d given up togethere.
My eyes lift from my shoes when Isaac finalizes the distance between us, stopping directly in front of me. “Ravenshoe has grown substantially the past fewyears.”
I nod. Under Isaac’s guidance, it’s grown phenomenally in the five years I’velivedhere.
“A rapidly developing city could use a world class dentist,” he suggests, his tone rapidly changing from my boss to myfriend.
A vast grin stretches across my face. “I’ll talk it over with Ava. See what shethinks.”
I don’t have a chance in hell of hiding the excitement in my voice. Although Rochdale was where I was born and raised, Ravenshoe became my home the past five years. It wasn’t the location that earned it that title. It was the people who live here. People likeIsaac.
Spotting my slack-jawed expression, Isaac smirks. “I’ll have my team look into suitable locations. Just in case Ava isinterested.”
Not giving him the time to react, I throw my arms around his broad shoulders and give him a quick bro hug. Although he stiffens, he doesn’t pull away from my embrace. That is good enough for me toaccept.
My brows meet my hairline when Isaac strengthens his grip around my shoulders. “If Ava is your Achilles, pull your head out of your ass before you lose the best thing that’s ever happenedtoyou.”
I crank my neck back and peer into his eyes. “You were close, but I said ‘pull yourfuckinghead out of your ass before you lose the best thing that’s everfuckinghappened to you,’” I say, quoting what I said to Isaac the night he was arrestedbyIzzy.
Isaac shrugs his shoulders. “Extending your vocabulary with offensive language doesn’t make you any more of a man.” His lips curve into a smirk. “Besides, my memories of the night are a little fuzzy, hazed by a liquor bottleortwo.”
I chuckle. “True,” I drawl out. I’d never seen him sointoxicated.
When he lowers his arms from my shoulders and locks his eyes with mine, his amorous gaze spears me in place. It is the same spark he had in his eyes when I collected him from the airport the day he met Izzy. The glimmer that told me he had just met hismatch.
“Don’t waste a day, Hugo. Because when you breathe your last breath, it won’t matter how many breaths you took, but how many moments took yourbreathaway.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Ava
My office chairgives out a squeak when I slump into it and swivel around to face the small window in the corner of the room. I’ve officially been operating my practice for the past week. Thankfully, for the most part, the experience has been positive. With keeping my prices reasonable for the average Rochdale community member, I’ve managed to secure a handful of new patients. I even snagged a few loyal clients from Gardner and Sons who prefer the appeal of quality dental work over a lavish office space. Although it has been a good trading week, I have a long way to go before I’ll be turning aprofit.
“Even Bill Gates had to start somewhere,” I mumble tomyself.
A soft sigh spills from my lips when I peer down at the screen of my phone and discover it is void of any missed calls or text messages. Ever since our exchange of text messages earlier this morning, Hugo has maintained radio silence. The craziness of my day has ensured I only sneaked peeks at my phone every thirty minutes, instead of every minute of the day like I did the months following his disappearance. I’ll be the first to admit it is going to take me some time to adjust to Hugo’s conflicting work schedule. But it’s a compromise I'm willing to make if it maintains his relationship with Joelandme.
Hugo has only been gone a little over twenty-four hours, and I’m missing him like crazy. Even though we are not an “official” couple, my moods have already become dependent on Hugo’s presence, which sounds like a terrifying notion. After being controlled by my father, I grew up striving for independence, often vowing no man would ever have that type of hold over me again. Although some may see my dependency on Hugo in such a short period of time as a negative, I see it as anything but. The fact Hugo and I have years of friendship as the foundation of our unique bond undoubtedly proves our relationship isn’t based on propaganda. It is based on mutual respect andadmiration.
The past week has been surreal. Hugo stepped into the role of devoted spouse and father without a single qualm seeping from his lips. He’s mastered the school drop-off without getting any citations from the parking mothers who govern with an iron fist, and he even attended a PTA meeting with me Tuesday night. Although I'll admit, from the blank, desolated look he wore during the entire meeting, I'll have more chances of getting him to sit in my dental chair than through another PTAmeeting.
Although Hugo has only been back in my life for two weeks, it feels like years have passed. Our relationship has always been like that. Small moments make a lifetime ofmemories.
