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“Thank you,” she said. “I won’t take up too much of your time. As I said, I just feel unsettled. It might help to know what is going on. I know it’s silly to bring over the list. I could have saved myself the trip.”
“I might not have been here,” he said.
“And I would have left it and then emailed it anyway.” She pulled her phone out of her purse. “I have it in my draft folder, I’m sending it now.”
“Why didn’t you do that to begin with?” he asked.
“Because I felt as if it was more a take charge move to come to see you. To know you got it in person rather than floating in your email box where it could be days before you saw it.”
He lifted an eyebrow at her. “Take charge?”
Her shoulders dropped. He realized now she was trying too hard. She was obviously still upset over this and the least he could do was try to help. Somehow.
“Call it a front. If I tell myself I’m okay with things, then I will be. It’s not easy. I would have rather have stayed at Jasmine’s house, but Dahlia said we had to get back up on the horse. Whatever that means. I’ve never ridden a horse. I’m too afraid of falling off it.”
He grinned. It was the look on her face when she explained that. He found her refreshing and a little funny. “Riding horses isn’t for everyone. But I can understand what you’re saying. The ‘fake it until you make it’ move?”
He knew something about that in his life.
Growing up poor in a small tourist town wasn’t easy.
Lots of wealthy tourists had summer homes or vacationed here. He and his siblings, his parents, they worked for those people. They were looked at as the help and nothing more.
No one would see them as anything other.
He’d dated enough girls back then hoping for a different outcome and it didn’t happen.
He was the hired summer help that was moody and big. Rich high-maintenance girls wanted to have some fun. A summer fling. Then move on.
He developed a thick skin that only made him harder and meaner over time.
If the women liked it, it was working for him.
But since he was still single at thirty-six, he was starting to realize it wasn’t working that great for him.
“Something like that,” she said. “I’m the baby of the girls. Not the baby of the siblings, but of the girls. They look out for me and I like it. I guess that’s not a good thing, is it?”
“It doesn’t have to be bad,” he said. “Not if they help you in a good way.”
“They do. They did. Jasmine would have let me stay with her for weeks. Wesley too. He’s great. Dahlia is the most independent of us. She’s a ‘take no bull’ type of person.”
“I got that impression,” he said. He wasn’t sure why he was getting a family history but would let her talk.
“We spent all day yesterday cleaning the place and making our list. Then she said she was staying, but I didn’t have to.”
“And you didn’t want her to stay alone?” he asked. So not completely someone that had to be taken care of. A selfish person would have gone where it was more comfortable regardless of anyone else’s thoughts.
“No,” she said. “I couldn’t do that to her. So I stayed. I didn’t sleep much, but I tried.”
She was forcing a grin. He had to give her points for the bravado.
“Good for you,” he said.
“Which leads me to why I’m here. I was talking to one of my bosses. She suggested that I might feel better if I could talk to you in person. To see if there was any progress.” Her hand went out and landed on his on the desk. “I know there most likely isn’t. But you know, I had to try.”
He could feel the burn under her fingers. He wasn’t sure he’d ever felt that before and wanted to yank his hand back. But he wouldn’t.
She removed her hand after a second. “I don’t have much to report,” he said. “As you know, there were other break-ins.”
