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Little Embry had worked hard to get me to eat everything under the sun. She was a force to be reckoned with. But cute as a button too.
As I ate, all the ladies took time to come over and talk to me and introduce me to their spouses. Braxton, I knew of course, but finally had met Gyth and Landon too, along with all the kids. That also answered the question of Kace and his attachments. Which I learned there were not any. Not for him or Gemma.
It was a close-knit group. Part of me liked that and it made me feel more secure and that nobody would harm me here, but the other part of me felt like a complete outsider even though they were doing an amazing job at not making me feel that way.
Fatigue set in and I still needed to get home so I told everyone I should get going. Everyone had tried to offer me a ride so Braxton must have told them I was taking the bus. As lovely as that had sounded between the rain and getting on another bus, I declined.
After saying my goodbyes, thank you, and letting some of them know I would see them Monday, I headed back out into the wet, cold evening. It was late afternoon when I had gotten there and by the time I left, it was dark outside.
Wrapping my coat around me tightly, I headed for the bus stop and tried not to think about what orwhocould be lurking in the shadows.
When I finally reached the motel and shut myself inside some of the fear subsided. But as I looked around the small, lonely room and realized this was my life right now, my mood deflated a bit.
Until I gave myself a little pep talk and reminded myself that I was doing my life and my baby’s on my terms. And I had a job.
My cheeks lifted with a smile at that thought, and I went over to the small refrigerator sitting on the counter on the other side of the room and poured a glass of apple juice. I loved the stuff.
“To new beginnings,” I said out loud as I raised my glass in the air.
ChapterThree
KACE
Some may have saidI looked like a stalker.
But the need to keep her safe was too strong to care.
I wasn’t about to let her travel alone so I’d found myself in my truck following Teal to where she was staying. Once she closed the door to her room, I had to fight the urge to march in and carry her out of there to take her somewhere safer.
Where would I take her anyway?
Your house,a little voice inside my head whispered, and I shook my head to clear the hundredth crazy thought for the day this woman had brought to my mind.
Besides, she was working hard to find her own way and as Miss Know-It-All, also known as Alley, had said, and the other women agreed, we had to let her.
But that didn’t mean I would stand back and do nothing.
So began the nightly after-work ritual, determined to protect her.
What else did I have to do? I had nothing but time if I wasn’t working. There was nobody to go home to, my friends were all busy with families which I didn’t begrudge them one second for, and someone needed help.
The insane part was after just one day, Teal didn’t just feel likesomeone. It was insane. She was married still, to what I assumed was a psycho husband if my instincts were correct, and about to have a baby. Plus I’d sworn off any kind of intimacy ever again.
Yet even with all that it didn’t seem to matter. She felt like someone I had known all my life. I was drawn to her like a magnet and as creepy as it sounded, I wanted to attach myself to her and not let go.
Again, it was crazy, not only because of what was going on in her life, but for the plain fact I had told myself I was never going there again. I couldn’t risk my world falling apart all over again. And something told me that if I ever got close to this woman it would be ten times worse than what had happened in the past.
I had come to terms with being alone.
But for the first time since I had arrived in Portland, when I walked into my condo, I felt alone.
Something was missing.
Or was it a specific someone?
ChapterFour
TEAL
