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“Hi, Hope, this is Elias down at the security gate. Could I talk to Mrs. Kelly? Thank you.” He puts the phone down under his chin. “She’s putting me through.”
We both wait and my leg bounces with anxious energy.
“Hello, Mrs. Kelly, this is Elias down at the gate. I have a Van Adler here. He wants to surprise Ms. Kelly with lunch. Since he doesn’t have an appoint… are you sure? Okay.” He hangs up the phone. “Mrs. Kelly said for you to go inside, and she’ll meet you in the lobby to show you the way.”
“Thanks, man.” I ease my truck past the gate and take the winding road to the building.
I park in a visitor parking spot and grab the bag with our lunch in it. Walking up to the building feels like the first time I looked over the edge of the helicopter at the choppy waters below. Brinley is going to run this entire company one day. I can’t imagine the pressure that accompanies something like that, and that’s coming from someone whose main job is to save people’s lives in treacherous situations.
I walk into the building and Brinley’s mom is leaning against the security desk with a carrot in her hand.
“Well, look who came to visit.” She bites the carrot, and I can’t help but wonder if it’s a subtle hint that if I hurt her daughter, that’s what will happen to my dick.
Swallowing hard, I hold out my hand to her. “Nice to see you again. I apologize for interrupting your day, I just really wanted to surprise Brinley myself and not have the guard call her.”
The security guy behind the counter slides a pass over and Savannah hands it to me. “Put that on and let me escort you to my daughter.”
She shares a look of mischief with the security woman, whose name tag reads Charline.
To my surprise, Savannah puts her arm through mine and escorts me to the small elevator bank of two. “So, this is Bailey Timber.” The doors open and we step inside. Once we’re alone, she eyes me from across the elevator. “So, tell me… my husband is very worried about you spending time with our daughter. Give me a reason I shouldn’t listen to him.”
Shit. I should’ve had the guard call Brinley. “We’re not romantically involved. I’m bringing her lunch as a thank-you for taking care of me the other day when I was sick.”
Her head rocks back and she crosses her arms. “When she called in sick.”
I put up my hands. “I never expected that. I told her to go to work, that I could handle myself.”
She waves her perfectly manicured hand. “That’s not Brinley, but I have a sense that you scare her.”
“Scare her?” I frown.
“Before she was married, she would light up a room.” Savannah smiles, but it doesn’t reach her eyes. “She had an exuberance for life and to live it fully, but after… it all vanished. Some of it has come back, but she’s forcing it. A mother can tell.”
The elevator dings and the doors slide open. A woman in her sixties is standing there waiting for us. “She’s in the bathroom.”
Savannah nods. “Perfect.”
She walks me to an office with a big desk that faces two chairs and a couch. Bookcases line one wall and a small chair sits in front of the window looking out at the lumber mill behind the building.
“I’ll go now. Don’t do anything her dad and I would do in here.” She winks and walks toward the door.
“Thank you, Savannah.”
“You can repay me by doing more things like this for my little girl.” She smiles and shuts the door, and I hear her and the older lady giggling as they walk down the hall.
I walk over to the window and stare out. If I didn’t work for the Coast Guard, I’d only be qualified to work in that mill, not in this building. There’s no telling where I would’ve ended up. Brinley and I are on opposite sides of the financial spectrum, that’s for sure. Why the hell did she need a roommate?
“Van?” Her voice rings out and I turn. She’s standing in the doorway, a smile of surprise on her lips. “What are you doing here?”
I walk over to my bag. “I brought you lunch.”
“Oh.” Her smile widens and her cheeks pinken.
That’s the exact reaction I was hoping for.
Ten minutes later, we’re seated in her office at a small table that overlooks the lumberyard. Her door is shut, and she asks her assistant, Hope, not to disturb us. Oh, the things I would do to her in this office if she were mine.
“I didn’t interrupt you from anything?” I ask, taking a piece of fried chicken.
