Page 10 of Rescuing Mary

“Well, she’s right,” Truck told Annie.

“I know,” Annie said with a shrug. “I miss her. Tell her to call me so we can practice the new signs I learned.”

“I will.”

Annie leaned forward and kissed Truck on the cheek, right over his scar. Then spun and headed back into the room to find another adult to talk to.

Truck wiped the sticky bubblegum kiss from his face with the back of his hand. He loved Annie as if she were his own. She’d never, not once, shied away from him because of the nasty scar on his face. The first time he met her, she’d put her hand on his cheek and asked if it had hurt.

Standing and walking out of the waiting room, Truck thought about Mary. He had no idea what to do. On the one hand, he loved having her in his space. Loved being able to talk to her every night, and he especially loved having her curl up against him as they slept.

But on the other hand, he needed more. He wanted to love Mary like she was meant to be loved. Wanted to make love with her, shower with her, laugh with her. He wanted to be her husband in more than just name only.

He’d thought after she got better that their relationship would morph into more. But it hadn’t.

Pressing his lips together as he waited for the elevator, Truck knew he had to make a decision. Continue on like he had in the hopes Mary would eventually come to love him back, or let her go.

Chapter Two

Two days later, Mary watched Rayne, Emily, and Casey come into the bank. She’d been trying to figure out how to approach Rayne, but she’d so far chickened out every time.

Not only that, but things with Truck had been weird. He’d been different since their friends had found out she and Truck were married, but lately he seemed distant. When he left for PT in the morning, he didn’t wake her up to tell her he was going, and he didn’t sit next to her on the couch at night either. In fact, he seemed to go out of his way to distance himself from her altogether.

Mary was worried that she’d lost not only her friends, but it looked like Truck had finally had enough of her bitchiness and wishy-washiness and was getting ready to dump her too.

It didn’t help that he and the rest of the team were heading out of town this weekend for a mission. She hated when he left. Every single time, she worried that he’d never come back. That he’d be killed overseas. She knew he and the others were good at what they did, but something bad could always happen. Always.

Her life was out of control, and Mary wanted nothing more than to throw herself in Truck’s arms and beg him to love her forever, no matter what she did or said to fuck things up. She also wanted to prostrate herself in front of Rayne and beg her to forgive her.

Eyeing the women as they entered, Mary decided this was it. She needed to suck it up and ask Rayne if she’d come over so they could talk. It was time. Way past time. She’d never had a problem speaking her mind in the past; it was time she got back to that Mary.

She was on break and knew she had about fifteen minutes before her boss would give her the evil eye, indicating it was time for her to go back to work. The bank was busy as lunchtime was nearing. Taking a big breath, Mary walked up to Rayne and Emily. They were standing off to the side waiting for Casey to finish her transaction.

“Hi,” Mary said uncertainly. She hated feeling this way.

“Hi,” Rayne responded without the usual friendliness in her tone.

“Mary,” Emily said, nodding at her.

“Do you have a second?” Mary asked Rayne.

Her best friend’s gaze shot to Emily, then to Casey, who had walked up to them, before meeting Mary’s. “Not really.”

“Please,” Mary whispered. “I have a lot of things I need to say, more than I can get through on my break, but I need to at least tell you how sorry I am.”

Mary could tell Rayne was struggling with her emotions just as she was. She wanted to put her arms around Rayne and hug her, but knew she’d be rebuffed…rightly so.

Looking around, Rayne said, “Is there somewhere we can go so we aren’t in the middle of the bank with everyone looking at us?”

Taking that as a good sign, Mary immediately nodded. “Yeah. The break room in the back. Typically it’s off-limits to anyone but employees, but I’ve seen my boss bring some of her friends back there. I know she won’t say anything.”

“Fine. Come on, Em. Casey,” Rayne said to the other women.

Mary nodded. She wasn’t surprised Rayne wanted the others there for moral support. She would’ve too. Too bad it would make it feel like it was three against one, but Mary supposed she’d made her bed, now she had to lie in it.

She led the way to the back room. They passed two vaults—the money vault, and the one with all the safety-deposit boxes. The latter door was open. It stayed open during the day, except when a patron wanted to access their box. Then they were accompanied inside by an employee and the door was shut, giving the patron privacy. It had a thick rug on the floor and a table in the middle of the room. Mary hated that vault. With all the safety-deposit boxes lined up, and the subdued lighting inside, it always reminded her of a morgue, but on a smaller scale. The drawers were nowhere near big enough for a human, but she’d had a nightmare one night of opening one of the boxes and having a miniature body sit up.

Shuddering, Mary concentrated on the break room in front of her. The door was propped open and, once she was inside, she turned to face Rayne. “I’m sorry. I’m so fucking sorry for not telling you that I’d married Truck. It was a shitty thing to do.”