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Instead, they showed up as words on unlined paper in handwriting nearly as lovely as he’d been. It had been part of his dossier, a pre-written goodbye note all the guys had in their file, praying they never had to use them.
“Eesh, I love you.
“And I’m sorry.”
CHAPTER11
Ayesha grabbed a pair of keys from Gage’s wall collection; Gage had let her know she could take whatever car she wanted, but she couldn’t touch any of the bikes until he taught her how to ride.
As she made her way to the garage, Joel’s voice rang out behind her.
“Ayesha? Are you leaving?”
She spun around. “I’m just running down to CVS.”
“Now? This late?”
“It’s an emergency.”
“Oh. I’ll come with you, then.”
Her stomach dropped. “It’s okay, Joel. I’ll be all right.”
“Ayesha,” he gently cupped her chin, “argue all you want, but you’re not leaving here alone.”
“So, I’ll ask Mo.”
“Is it a feminine hygiene thing?”
She nodded. “Yes. Yes, it is.”
He folded his arms across his broad chest and studied her face, squinting. “One, you’re lying. Two, I have a sister and a mother, so I’ve done my share of ‘emergency’ shopping. And three, Mo’s probably in a pretzel at the moment.”
Ayesha snapped her fingers. “Damn you, Giorgio.”
“If it makes you feel any better,” he said, doing a poor job of hiding his amusement, “I’ll give you space when you go pick up your, I don’t know, sixty-count box of extra ribbed condoms or whatever.”
She sucked in a gasp. Then, brimming with a laugh, she searched for something to toss at him, but all she had was the key fob.
A key fob for a Porsche 911 Carrera.
She’d sooner throw herself.
She shoved him in the chest, turned, and headed for the garage. Joel easily fell into step next to her, his long strides somehow remaining in sync with hers.
“Can we go back to when you thought I hated you?”
“I’m sorry, by the way,” he offered.
She stole a glance up at him. “Joel, I won’t break apart because you teased me about ribbed condoms. That part of my life’s not over just because I don’t want it right now.”
Plus, she’d had sex since becoming a widow. It was with only one man, and she’d done it because of how desperately she’d needed someone to hold her, but she and Curtis had talked about what they’d once thought was unlikely to happen. Flat out, he’d told her he wanted her to love again.
Love, she wasn’t sure about, but she wouldn’t mind someone warming the cold space on the bed next to her again someday. Probably after Theo left for college.
She slid behind the wheel, and Joel hopped over the closed door onto the passenger seat.
“I’m telling Gage you did that.”
