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But instead…I was driving into the abyss.
Fifteen
Joel
Iwatched her drive off, and I knew I had a decision to make—
Get in my car and follow her into the dark of the night, make certain that wherever the stubborn woman stopped, it would be a safe place.
Because it sure as shit wouldn’t be where she was staying.
Because I was absolutely fucking positive she was sleeping on that damned couch in her office.
So, I had a choice.
And I made that choice, walking back to the trailer, tugging open the door I’d pretended to lock earlier, and heading down the hall to her office.
I flicked out the light, crammed myself through the narrow opening between her desk and the row of filing cabinets along the wall—something that was hard to do with my big ass hockey body, especially in the dark.
But I did it.
Then I parked my ass in the mayor’s chair.
And…
I waited.
Sixteen
Billie Rose
I’d sat in the back of my little SUV, the trunk open, leaning against the seat while I finished my planning, working until I worried I was going to drain my battery too far because I was using the overhead lights to see while, at the same time, playing my planning playlist over my car’s speakers.
“Men,” I muttered, closing my planner and carefully stowing it in my backpack. Not cramming it like before and bending the pages.
But I didn’t sit in that, in all that Joel made me feel. I just pushed it down, fought with the zipper on my backpack, and dropped it back into the passenger’s seat. Though, Ididpause to buckle it in so I wouldn’t have my car beeping at me the whole way black to the trailer, thinking that there was an unbelted person sitting in the seat.
A girl hadonebackpack crammed to the brim with every single office supply she might need, and her car rebelled against her.
Geez.
Smirking, and feeling better because I knew exactly what was going to be on my agenda for the following day—yay for planning!—I rounded the hood, took one more look at my silent town, and made the same vow that I made every single time I did when I saw the bare bones of my childhood, my dreams, my future.
“I’ll get you back.”
Then I swung into a wide turn and drove back to the rink.
Parked.
Grabbed my stuff, moved across the lot and to the trailer. Unlocked the door, tugged it open. Walked down the hall to my office.
Flicked on the light and—
Screamed.
Joel stood up, my desk chair crashing into the file cabinets behind it.
Then he was right there—rightthere—his hands coming to my jaw, cupping it lightly, tilting my head back so that I was staring straight into his deep green eyes.
