Damn it! The news has me thrown off-balance, otherwise I’d have opened it for her. Firming my resolve, I follow after her. I don’t know her all that well—yet—but she’s got to take care of herself. And if she won’t do it, I will. When I pull the handle, I hear Albert’s voice carry through, his concern growing clearer as I step in and observe the conversation.
“You need to take the rest of the day off. Why, I can’t even recall the last time you took a sick day, let alone a personal day. Take the day, Rosanna. Please. You deserve some time to yourself.”
“But I’m not sick! Not really.” Her explanation has no effect on her boss.
“Stay home. With pay. Consider this my way of repaying you for cooking for Eugenia and me last week. And what if you unintentionally pass your sickness onto me and then I get her sick? She’s still recovering from the flu. No,” the older man says, shaking his head and wiping his forehead with a handkerchief. It’s not that hot in here, so why’s he sweating? “I don’t want to chance it. You go home and focus on getting better. Silas isn’t there, is he?”
Is that a sneer I see on his face at the mention of the phlegm wad? Seems I’m not the only one who isn’t a fan. And he insists on my woman going home, too. My respect for Albert both as a man and an employer climbs a couple of notches.
Rosanna slumps forward. “No, he’s probably at Jackson’s until his shift this afternoon.”
His lips curl in satisfaction. “Well, then. You’ll get the afternoon to rest in peace. Go on home and see how you feel in the morning. I can handle everything here by myself. It’s been quiet lately.”
Giving in, she sighs. “All right, Mr. Wright. But if you need me to come in, call me.”
Albert’s expression is in complete opposition to his words as he says, “Of course. Now, off you go.”
“If you’re sure...” Her voice trails off before she notices me. “Oh! I need to get Mr. Shay’s jacket.”
Mr. Shay? That will never do.
Grabbing it from behind the counter, she hands it to me when she passes by. “Here you go. Thank you so much for letting me use it.”
“My pleasure.” In more ways than one. The jacket feels one hundred times heavier in my hands as I watch her walk out the door. Now I have a choice to make: follow her and see where she lives, or stay here and let her live her life.
“She’s a good girl, Rosanna is.” Albert steps up beside me, breath coming a bit short.
Eyes glued onto the shine of her hair as she moves to her car, I swallow past the knot in my throat as she steadies herself for a moment on the hood, hand to her stomach. My legs twitch with the urge to chase her down, even with my feet feeling like they’re encased in concrete boots. “I believe you’re right.”Stay here, Connor.
“Too good for that Silas, though.”
A grunt leaves me. Her car door closes, and my fingers flex, reaching for an imaginary handle. “That’s for sure.”Go after her, Connor.
“Shay.” He rolls my surname on his tongue. “I’ve heard that name before, you know. My grandpa was just a young boy when he met a man that he never could forget.” He pauses meaningfully. “Jedidiah Shay.”
My entire body freezes, and I slowly turn. That was my great-grandpa. “Jedidiah Shay, you say?”
Albert’s smile releases the tension in my muscles. “And you know what he did. There was no other choice. You understand what I’m saying, son?”
I think I do. But he still had to catch her first.
Glancing out the window, I do a double take. My woman’s still here, but she’s slumped onto the steering wheel. “Loud and clear, Albert. Don’t you worry about her. I’m here now.”
And I’m going after my woman.
Chapter six
Connor
Myguttwistsinunease as I make a left turn. It didn’t take long at all to reach the other end of town, and now we’re almost to her home. Trash floods the ditches, and there’s a run-down bar and quick payday loan place right across from each other with bars on every possible point of entry. Bet the crime rate is through the roof. Surely, this can’t be—
“This is it. You can park right there.” Rosanna rolls the window up and unfastens her seatbelt as I steer around a gigantic pothole and pull to a stop. “Thank you again so much for taking me home, because you didn’t have to. It’s really not that bad of a walk. Oh, and for letting me ride with the window down.”
As if I’d let her take off on her own when her car refused to start and she couldn’t reach Silas on his phone. Not a chance. Not when I could spend more time with her and take care of her myself. So I washed away as much of my aftershave as I could in the employee restroom and we left the car there forhimto deal with. “Not a problem. Now, you stay right there. I’ll get the door for you.”
Stepping down from my truck, I take in the sight before me with a neutral face as I walk around to help her down. I don’t like this. These sad and dilapidated apartment buildings have craters in the parking lots, rotten smells emanating from the overflowing dumpsters, and sketchy groups of teens and adults huddled underneath the metal staircases.
That doesn’t bode well. Not in the middle of the day when kids should be at school and adults at work. I’d give some of them the benefit of the doubt and assume night shift work is involved, but not when I see the scattered needles and broken beer bottles discarded everywhere.
