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Her blunt answer hurts, even though she’s right. She doesn’t know me yet. What she knows from Andrea and Addy probably doesn’t help my case much. I have so much to make up for.
“Hey,” I try to soothe her with my tone, “I got this, okay? I’ll even send you some pictures.”
I want to compromise with her. She really needs to leave me alone so I can get all this done. She doesn’t need to come over here when she’s supposed to be spending the day with the girls to get ready for the ceremony this afternoon.
“Pictures?” she asks, like she’s surprised she hadn’t thought of it sooner.
“Yeah, pictures.” I wait for her answer, eyeing the almost perfect beef tenderloin.
She blows out her breath. “I think that works. Can you send me one now?”
“Yes, just as soon as you let me off this damn phone so I can get back to cooking. Deal?” My tone is a little harsher than I intended, but I’m just not used to this. This magnetic push and pull I feel so strongly with her. It makes me feel off kilter.
“You better, Andrew Shaw, or I’m coming over there to see for myself.”
I smirk. I wouldn’t mind seeing her sassy, smart-mouth self, but I have shit to do. So does she.
“Yes, ma’am,” I say right before I hang up the phone and send her a picture of the beef tenderloin in front of me.
I shake my head the whole time in disbelief that I’m actually sending her fucking pictures of her meat babies.
I chuckle out loud when her reply comes in only seconds later.
Charlie: I guess you aren’t so bad at this.
Me: Was that a compliment?!
I’m shocked she gave me praise after so much grief over the past day and a half.
Charlie: I’ll never admit to it, big man.
My cheeks hurt from how hard I’m smiling as I put my phone down and get back to work. As I do, I think about a certain redheaded beauty who consumes more and more of my dreams at night and my thoughts during the day.
Chapter Thirty-One
Charlie
The door cracks, and Jack and Nathan slip inside before quietly closing the door behind them. Jack looks like he just got away with something while Nathan looks a little more on edge. That makes me think the mission has been accomplished.
Neither of them speaks immediately. Andrea, Adalyn, and I stand and stare at the two of them, waiting for one of them to tell us something, any-fucking-thing. SJ is already standing in the corner, silent and watchful. I can’t take the silence.
“Well?!” I say too loudly and more forcefully than I should have.
My eyes immediately dart to Andrew. He lies still with his eyes closed, giving us no indication that he heard me. I’m sad when I realize not even my raised voice jars a reaction from him.
Nathan blows out a heavy breath he seems to have held for too long. With wide eyes, he says, “We almost got fucking caught. Thankfully, Jack whipped his badge out fast enough that the dumbass security guard on this shift didn’t bat an eye. As soon as he heard ‘detective,’ he didn’t question anything else and let us leave with no explanation.”
Jack eyes him, and he doesn’t look thrilled. “I told you to wait outside to be the lookout. All you had to do was keep the guy distracted, and I could have finished recording. If you had listened—”
Before he can finish his sentence, Nathan interrupts. “I panicked and forgot what I was supposed to do. My job is a different high stress, okay?”
“Either of you want to tell the four of us what happened?” Addy asks with a concerned look. I doubt she’s ever seen Nathan look so uneasy.
“Doc here was supposed to knock on the security door and get the guard to go with him to ‘look at something.’” Jack added air quotes for dramatic effect. “I slipped in the security room before the door closed when Nathan and the security guard walked away. I looked at the footage and went back to this morning. I found where Katherine and Malcom came in. There’s an interaction between Malcom and Bryant, the security guy, but before I could look through any more footage, the security guy was back.”
“Hey, I kept him away as long as I could,” Nathan says, holding up both hands in defeat.
SJ steps forward, putting his hand on Nathan’s shoulder and giving it two hard pats. “It’s okay. It happens to the best of us.”
