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“She won’t care if I forget to buy a Christmas present,” he said aloud.
“Probably not. She doesn’t seem the type to pay much attention to the small stuff.”
“Or the big stuff, either,” he said. But that wasn’t right, either. She paid attention to all of it. But she dealt with it. And moved forward on the course she’d chosen. She didn’t sweat the small stuff. And she remained true through the tough days.
Kind of like him.
“Everleigh seems to accept people for who they are,” Melissa said softly. “Genuinely accept them. I’d say a guy lucky enough to get her attention, to have a chance to win her love, would be a damn fool if he didn’t at least try...”
He heard the words, but Melissa was talking to his back.
He was a risk taker, and falling in love was the biggest risk he’d ever take.
He had to get home. He was going to deliver the suitcase to Everleigh, as he’d told her he’d do.
And somehow, he had to figure out how to find the one thing he’d never looked for before.
The way into a woman’s heart.
* * *
Everleigh’s bag wasn’t at her house. She’d taken a cab home. Talked to the neighbor behind her who’d come over to ask about all of the police cars at her house earlier in the day and about her grandmother. Apparently, Gram’s release from prison had been filmed by someone in the crowd and put up on social media, making quite the local stir.
The woman offered to get Forester for her, but Everleigh had heard the hesitancy in her voice. “You want to keep him?” she asked the older woman, who already had two other cats.
“He does play nice with my girls,” she said. “And he sits in my chair with me at night.”
The cat rarely came out from under the bed when Everleigh was around. He’d been Fritz’s pet, really. And Fritz coming home to work every day—his apartment had been little more than a hotel room—made sense now that he’d left the cat. And maybe Everleigh’s heart hadn’t been engaged enough to the pet Fritz had brought home without even including her in the acquisition. She just hadn’t known that. And maybe Fritz had never really intended to leave. He’d come home every day to work. And he’d left his cat.
So, Forester was out of her life. Her house was no longer a crime scene. She didn’t want to stay there, though. Wasn’t even sure she was going to keep much of the furniture. Other than her personal things, she was thinking she didn’t want anything from her life with Fritz. Who wanted reminders of being half-alive?
She also still didn’t want to head back over to her parents’ side of town. She needed time to figure herself out, her next steps, before they started grilling her.
Or trying to take over.
A hotel was the best option.
But her bag wasn’t there. How did she go to a hotel without her toiletries?
She could buy more...but... Clarke had said he’d have the bag delivered, and she wasn’t rich until Tuesday. Buying more of what she already had was wasteful.
Besides...what if he brought the bag over himself? Since he hadn’t gotten it over there while the police were still in residence, even if he didn’t bring it himself, she really needed to be there to get it. Either that or have it left out on the front porch in the cold.
So, maybe she hoped he’d bring it. It had to be that way. She didn’t want to go to him. Look like she was chasing after him. He’d said “on
e and done.” And she wouldn’t make him feel as Aubrey had. She’d rather keep him for a friend than lose him forever.
Darkness had fallen. She’d had no dinner. Didn’t want to cook ever again in the kitchen where she’d been so unhappy as a wife.
Why hadn’t she seen? Known she was settling?
What difference would it have made if she had, though?
Once the question was asked, she had to sit with it. In the living room. In the dark. With a glass of wine. She’d have left Fritz if she’d known he was cheating on her.
She needed what she had to give. The loyalty. The fidelity. And the ability to hang around through the rest of what life had to throw at you.
The knowledge sat well with her.
