Page 24 of Save Me

For a horrifyingly exhilarating moment, I’m stuck with that image. Then reality settles in like a cold towel, and I take a step back. Because no matter how hot Micah is, he’s still my boss, and I’ve still sworn off men.

I glance around the room, desperate to change the subject. My gaze lands on something I didn’t see in my haste earlier–a framed gun.

“Is that real?” I ask. It’s a handgun in a fancy wood frame, but there’s no glass, almost like it’s being presented to be used. Which is interesting; I didn’t peg Micah as the gun-toting type.

Micah turns, then snorts. “Yeah. Dad got that for me.”

“Do you shoot?”

Micah flushes. “I’ve dabbled.”

That’s when I notice the marksman trophies up next to it. Fuck, I’m an idiot.

“It’s stupid, Dad kinda liked guns, so I thought…I don’t know what I thought, really.” Micah rubs a hand on the back of his neck. He seems uncomfortable, so I switch my attention to a bulletin board pinned full of a bunch of pictures of what looks like Micah and animals. Pictures of him and goats, a horse, a pig, what looks to be a wolf, and…

“You had sugar gliders?” I ask in surprise.

“Oh yeah! Got them in college ‘cause someone was giving them away and I thought they’d help me study.” Micah is climbing to his feet.

I stare at the picture of a younger Micah, grinning at the camera and holding two sugar gliders, pure joy on his face. His joy makes me want to smile, but the reminder of my pet makes a streak of melancholy pass over my chest.

“I had one too, as a kid.”

“No flipping way!” Micah’s next to me now, bouncing on his toes.

“Yeah.”

“That’s so freaking cool, man! I’ve never met anyone else who had them!”

“Yeah.” I don’t want to cut down Micah’s joy by talking about what happened to them, so instead I say, “Animals are the best.”

“Agreed! Way better than people.”

Definitely. I meet his gaze, and we share a moment of re-evaluating the other person, and then reality hits me. It’s late.

Fuck.

I’m more than late to work.

“Shit, I gotta go.”

“Oh, really?” Micah sounds like he’s trying not to act like I took his puppy away.

“Work.” I’m backing away, even though I don’t want to. I don’t want to go.

And that thought makes me sober up, for the second time.

What am I doing? I don’t know Micah, like even a little bit. What if he’s a horrible person? Like my parents? Loves people and animals just for what he can get out of them, but the second they don’t do what he wants, he throws them away.

Maybe he’s like him.

I make quick apologies and practically run out of the house and into my car. Hopefully, Mr. Parker won’t fire me. I’m not sure what I’ll do if he does. Although if I’m being honest, it’s not Mr Parker that’s making me run. It’s the guy who loves his pet so much that it seems like he’d do anything for him. The guy who has done nothing but offer to help me. The guy who makes me want to stay.

That’s who I’m really running from.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Mr. Parker does indeed say he’s going to fire me. And he has every right to, although he could have called the agency to try to get someone else in. But he doesn’t.