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Reid still worked furiously on her laptop, her brows pulled down in concentration. It was a look I’d learned to never disturb, so I ate in silence, watching her work.
Her blonde hair sat in mussed curls atop her head, and I wondered if she’d fallen asleep as well. She’d changed out of the clothes she’d been wearing, I finally noticed. She wore black sweatpants and a T-shirt that looked very familiar.
“Isn’t that,” I paused, pointing the end of my fork at the School of Samba T-shirt she wore. “I’m pretty sure that’s mine.”
Reid hummed, too distracted for a moment before she looked down. “Oh,” she said. “Must be, it might have gotten mixed up in the luggage.”
I very much doubted that, but maybe I’d been a little too excited to come back home that I hadn’t noticedmyT-shirt going into Reid’s luggage.
“Right.”
“Do you want me to order more food?” Reid asked, eyeing my empty plate with a satisfied grin.
“No,” I said at once, before adding, “Thank you. I’m really full and I think I just need to shower.”
“And sleep,” Reid added.
“Yeah, that too,” I amended, getting to my feet. “I’ll call the front desk to have them clear this up when you’re done.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“Um, okay,” I said uneasily. My fingers fidgeted and I stood next to the table nervously. “Thank you, for all of this.”
“You don’t have to thank me,” she said evenly, looking up at me with an indecipherable grin. “It’s what I’m here for.”
Heat roiled in my gut and I nodded before clearing the space between the table and the door in a few strides. I’d grabbed the door handle and twisted it when Reid’s voice stopped me.
“Mia,” she called. I turned around. “Rest for real, please.”
“Of course,” I lied, knowing full well that I’d be up for hours overthinking everything she’d said in the last thirty minutes alone.
I pulled my access card out of my back pocket and swiped it on the access pad, relief shooting down my spine at the sound of the lock clicking open. Once inside, an odd sense of reality began to creep in. It had been one thing to sleep with Reid. It was another thing entirely to trauma-dump my past onto her. Especially when there was so much more than my job on the line.
The last thing I wanted to do was lose Reid inanycapacity, but I might have just butchered all of it in a single day.Typical, I thought. Why would I have expected something different?
I set my phone down on the counter and plugged it into the charger before slipping into the shower. The hot water was magic on my crawling skin, melting away the tension that hardened my muscles until exhaustion plucked at my senses again. By the time I’d peeled myself out of the slower and towel-dried my hair, I was sure Reid had gone to bed.
I checked my phone out of habit, only to find a text from Reid:
I’ll be taking care of some personal business tomorrow. Please clear our schedules. You should spend time with your family.-R
My heart sank.
Oh.
Chapter 32
Personal Business
REID
Ididn’tchecktosee if Mia responded to my text. I turned my focus back to my laptop, scrolling through the email I’d just received from Warren.
Once Mia had fallen asleep the frantic need to move set in, and it wasn’t long until I found myself in front of my computer. After hearing everything that Donnie had put her through, I wanted nothing more than to wipe his existence clear off the planet.
I didn’t want Mia to feel unsafe anywhere in the world, least of all in her hometown. She’d been so happy, so excited to explore her old stomping grounds, and he’d sent everything straight to hell by showing his face.
He wouldn’t get away with it. Any of it.
