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He withdrew a slip of paper from his front pocket and put it on the file folder on her desk. “Here’s my cell phone number, along with the name and number of the hotel where I’m staying, if you need me for anything,” he said, then cast a quick glance at his watch before meeting her gaze again. “I just wanted to let you know what’s up with me before I head out for the evening.”
Without her. Another stab of disappointment rippled through her, centering right in the vicinity of her heart. “Where are you off to?”
He stood, looking much too sexy and gorgeous with his tousled hair and form-fitting jeans. Almost good enough for her to think twice about shamelessly begging him to stay with her for the evening, but she refrained from doing so.
“Noah and I seemed to have hit it off,” he told her with an amused smile. “He said he’d be more than happy to show me the hot spots in San Francisco.”
“Sounds like fun. Have a good time,” she said, nearly choking on the words and already resenting the time he was going to spend with her carousing, womanizing brother.
“I’m sure we will.” He headed toward the door, and said over his shoulder, “I’ll stop by sometime tomorrow if I get the chance.” Then he was gone.
If he got the chance. So casual and indifferent. With a groan, Jo buried her face in her hands and swallowed the tight ache forming in her throat. Severing ties with Dean was exactly what she’d wanted to avoid a deeper involvement, and she’d gotten her wish. So why did she feel so confused and empty inside?
She had no easy answers for the unexpected longings taking up residence in her, but she was very adept at buffeting personal emotions she found difficult to deal with. Pushing her hurt and internal upheaval aside, she immersed herself in her missing person case until exhaustion forced her to head home to her quiet, solitary apartment.
She heated a frozen dinner and ate by herself, spent another couple of hours making notes on the cases she’d brought home with her, then crawled between cold sheets that rasped against her sensitized skin as she tossed and turned in bed. Sleep was a long time coming, and this time when terrifying nightmares stole into her dreams and she woke in a cold sweat with tears on her cheeks, there was no one there to hold her and soothe her fears as before.
CHAPTER TWELVE
After checking in with Brett at the office, Dean hung up the phone and scrubbed both hands down his face. His gut churned with dread. A possible buyout of Colter Traffic Control was happening faster than either of them had anticipated, and those important, life-altering decisions Dean had avoided thinking about now demanded his attention. An acceptan
ce or refusal needed to be made within the next week, according to Brett and his attorneys handling the incoming offers and acquisition.
Believing Dean was out in some secluded mountain retreat without phone service, Brett hadn’t expected him to call. Dean brought him up to date on his situation and how he’d been taken into custody and embroiled in a case of mistaken identity. They’d even had a good laugh over Dean believing Brett had sent Jo as a stripper for his birthday surprise.
But things had quickly turned serious when Brett informed him of the latest bid from the company in San Francisco. As sorry as Brett and others were to cut short the first vacation Dean had taken in three years, they needed him back in the office as soon as possible to head up the meetings and make final decisions on the offer.
Over the past few days, any doubts he might have harbored about selling Colter Traffic Control had ebbed into absolute certainty. It was time for him to move on to something more fulfilling than carrying on his father’s legacy. He’d never asked for nor wanted the inheritance, but had taken over out of obligation to his father’s memory, the people he’d employed, and in order to continue supporting his mother. He’d sacrificed his own wants and needs for others and had let fears overrule his relationship with Lora—though he now realized if she’d been that important to him he never would have allowed her to walk out of his life. He would have found a way to make a relationship, a marriage even, work, and to compromise and find a common ground that suited them both.
Now there was Jo to consider, who’d satisfied the restlessness in his soul and completed him in ways he never could have imagined. She was a woman he was more than willing to make sacrifices for and meet halfway in all things, to give and take equally—the kind of tradeoff his own father had never been willing to grant his own wife and family.
He wanted Jo to be a part of his future, yet he had no clear-cut idea where he fit into her life, if at all. While she’d given herself physically to him, she’d withheld her emotions. Obviously, she harbored deep-rooted fears of her own, and whatever demons haunted her soul in the darkest hours of the night went a whole lot deeper than he’d originally thought or imagined.
“Fuck,” he muttered and flopped back on the hotel bed where he’d spent the last two nights—alone—and stared up at the ceiling. He wasn’t ready to return to Seattle, not when he still had unfinished business with Jo, yet he knew he’d never shirk the responsibilities he still had waiting for him, obligations he’d made his own when he’d taken over his father’s company. And that meant leaving Jo so he could be there to make final, important decisions.
He exhaled a harsh breath that did little to ease the frustration and tension gripping him. Staying away from Jo and keeping his distance for the past two days had been the hardest thing Dean had ever done, but he’d had no choice. She’d needed time to come to her own conclusions and figure out what she wanted from him.
He’d managed to keep himself busy sightseeing the city. Hell, he’d even had a good time with Noah that first night and enjoyed their easy comradery. And while her brother had openly asked if there was anything going on between him and his sister, Dean had skirted the issue—neither confirming or denying anything. Surprisingly, Noah had respected his evasion, yet Dean had no doubt that both brothers would hunt him down to serve up their brand of retribution if he ever hurt Jo.
He’d never deliberately cause Jo pain, yet it was nearly impossible to cultivate any kind of relationship with her when she’d detached herself from him. The obstinate woman knew where he was staying, had his number, and hadn’t called—not even to say hello or see how he was doing. He’d graciously given her the space she seemed to need and time alone to think about all that had transpired between them and come around to his way of thinking. Now, with urgent matters waiting for him back home, he was forced to push the issue of them. There had to be some kind of compromise they could reach, unless she truly didn’t want him in her life.
Remembering their last night together and all the vulnerable emotions he’d glimpsed told him otherwise. She was running scared—of what, exactly, he hadn’t yet pinpointed. But he was determined to chip away at those barriers and discover if they even had a chance together. And he had less than twenty-four hours to do so.
With that decision made, he drove his rental car over to Sommers Investigative Specialists. He greeted Melodie with a friendly smile that gained him entrance to Jo’s office. He walked into the room after she answered his knock on the door with a soft, “Come in.”
“Hey,” she said in surprise as he closed the door then approached her desk where she sat. “What brings you by?”
She was happy to see him—the delight shimmering to life in her eyes confirmed that she wasn’t nearly as indifferent to him as she’d like him to believe. “You, of course,” he said, and took up residence in the same spot he’d perched his hip two days earlier—right next to her seat.
She leaned back in her chair and absently toyed with the pen in her hand. “Done sightseeing already?”
He resisted the impulse to lift her from her chair, pull her into his embrace, and kiss her senseless, just to feel her soft and yielding in his arms again. But the truth beckoned, and there was no sense drawing out their inevitable conversation. “Jo…I’m leaving for Seattle tomorrow morning.”
Her eyes widened, filling briefly with startled panic. That quick glimpse was all he needed to see to verify she was deliberately denying both of them time together that could possibly determine the fate of their future, and a relationship.
“I had a firm offer on the company,” he went on, “and I need to be there for negotiations.”
“So, you’re going to sell the business?” Her voice sounded tight, but just as controlled as her emotions now seemed to be.
