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“Are you glad to be done with work?”
I nodded. “Yeah, it will be a good break, and I can really prep.”
“Only you would prep for school before it even starts.”
I had this whole week ahead of me to really clear my mind and focus on grad school. I’d saved enough money for living expenses for a little while. I would have had more, but I used a chunk to have a security system put in on the house, which helped me sleep at night. Especially since Brock wasn’t moving anywhere.
I’d probably have to find another temp job around the holidays, but I’d deal with that later. My focus was on grad school. That’s it.
“Have you heard from your dad?” Harper asked with caution.
“No.” The only thing I had heard was that Brock was very much around, living at my dad and Anita’s place and “working” on building back up the Denver branch, since Jack had basically told them to fuck off. “I’m enemy number one to a lot of people at the moment.”
“Well, fuck them. I’m here. We’ll get to spend way more time together, and everything will settle,” Harper said.
I looked at my lemonade. I could always leave, except my life, Harper, and school were here. And leaving because I was scared of Brock was not going to happen. He’d messed up my life when I was young. I wouldn’t let him chase me from this one.
I just hoped the “issues” of feeling watched and my things being messed with would stop.
I have the alarm on the house now. Everything will be fine, I reminded myself.
Except for this gaping hole in my chest that Jack used to fill in. I missed him. His heat and commanding control. The way he made me feel like I was his alone, made me feel like I was strong and alive and a woman. I didn’t have him anymore, but I took Harper’s advice and clung to the strength he’d helped me find. I just would have to cling really, really hard to keep it.
Just when tears started to line my eyes, as they did every time I thought of Jack, a loud honking sounded from down the street. A few trucks rolled up to the firehouse. Several guys got out, and were met by men at the fire station.
“Looks like the wild fighters are home,” Harper said.
I glanced across the street. One of the firemen stood out in particular: Cal.
He was at least an inch taller than most of the men, and he was as strong and large as I remembered. From his chest to his shoulders, there wasn’t a small or un-honed part of him.
“Be right back,” Harper said, and headed across the street.
I didn’t get any words out, because she walked across, drink in hand, and started chatting with one of the firemen. One of the same ones from the night we’d gone to the barbeque at the park, I thought.
Cal appeared to say something to Har
per. She chatted with him for a minute, then he looked my way and hustled over.
Crap.
I wasn’t in the best mood, and between my lack of makeup and crying all week, I wasn’t feeling overly self-confident. Not to mention that the cutoff shorts and old T-shirt I’d donned were hardly cute.
Not that I was trying to look cute for Cal, but he was Jack’s best friend, and the last thing I wanted was a report back to him on how destroyed I was. I continued sitting on my porch, trying to appear calm, and smiled.
“Hey, Kitten,” Cal said. “Told you I’d be back.”
“Looks like you keep your promises.” I had meant that to be nice, but it came out bitter, and I quickly took a sip of my drink. Cal, however, didn’t miss it.
“Something wrong?”
I shrugged. “You haven’t talked to Jack?”
He put his hands in his pockets and rocked on his heels. “I know enough.”
Great. Just great.
“Got room for one more?” he asked, tilting his chin at the spot next to me on the porch.
