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“Just trying to help out, man,” Jagger insisted. “I just know that Mace wants you here, so make it happen.” There was no way that he’d leave Tilly and bringing her along wasn’t an option either.
“I’ll see what I can do,” he assured, ending the call. He tossed his phone back onto the counter and turned to find Tilly standing in the doorway, watching him.
“Trouble?” she asked. She was wearing his t-shirt and he wondered if she had on anything under it.
“No trouble,” he lied.
“Then, why do you look like whoever was on the other end of that call said something that you didn’t like?” she asked.
“Because he did, but that’s not your problem. And it’s no trouble,” he insisted. “I just need to decide what I’m going to do about it.”
“How about you tell me what’s going on and I can try to help you?” she asked. He hated to burden Tilly with any of his problems. She already had enough on her plate with the investigation that she was doing to look into what her boss was up to.
“You shouldn’t have to worry about my issues,” he insisted.
“But what if I like worrying about you and your issues?” she asked. Tilly wrapped her arms around his waist and he knew that there was no way that he’d be able to tell her no once she started touching him.
He sighed, “Fine,” he agreed, tugging her into his body. “That was one of the new guys down at the club—Jagger.”
“What did the new guy want?” she asked.
“The new guy wants me to leave you here and run down to the bar tonight for a special meeting that Mace has called,” Owen admitted.
“Then you should go and find out what this meeting is all about,” she said. “I take it that there is a no girls-allowed rule,” she teased.
“Um, right,” he said. “It’s club members only tonight.”
“Well then, you should go, and I’ll be fine. You’ll be gone what—an hour?” she asked.
“Probably, but that’s not the point,” Owen said. “I won’t leave you here alone.”
“I’ve been here alone before,” she reminded. There were a few times that he had to run over to Mavericks for a few minutes and leave her at his place. He had the best security system he could build and knew that she’d be safe, but he still hated leaving her. Then, there were times when he had to run to a client’s house or business to check on things. He had hired another guy to help him with security system installations, but he still liked to meet with perspective clients face to face since it was his security firm that they were hiring. Every time he left Tilly, he felt guilty as hell and worried the whole time, but he would hurry back home to find her watching television or soaking in the bath, and he felt silly.
“I know that you have, but I just have a sick feeling about all this, in my gut. You know, like something bad is going to happen, but you don’t want to admit it out loud.”
“Don’t be silly,” she insisted. “Nothing bad is going to happen if you leave me alone for an hour to go to the club. Besides, it might be good for you to get out of here. You seem to be going a little bit stir-crazy lately.” She was right—he was. He was worried about her ex-boss and why he hadn’t shown his hand yet. The guy seemed to have gotten off scott-free in this mess and Tilly was still trapped at his place, putting her life on hold until she could figure out what was on that hard drive that she took.
“What will you do while I’m gone—you know, if I actually go?” he asked.
“I’ll probably just sleep,” she said. She had been sleeping a lot lately. Tilly had been dealing with a stomach virus that she just couldn’t seem to shake. “I’m still not feeling one hundred percent,” she admitted. “So really—you should go. I’m just going to get into bed and sleep until you come home.”
He wasn’t sure if it was a good idea to leave her still, but defying Mace might end up being a bad idea. His Prez wouldn’t call a meeting if it wasn’t important. And he wouldn’t have had Jagger call him personally if he was okay with him skipping the meeting.
“Fine, I’ll go, but you promise to call me if you need me?” he asked.
“I promise,” she agreed. “It’s nice the way that you worry about me,” she said.
“Well, it’s something that you should get used to because it’s not changing any time soon,” he said.
“I think that I can get used to it,” she agreed. “As long as you can get used to me feeling the same way about you, Owen.” They hadn’t really talked about feelings and all that stuff in the months that they had been together. Every time she brought up feelings, he changed the topic, avoiding feelings like the plague. Sooner or later, he’d find a way to tell her that he had fallen in love with her, but right now, he needed to get ready to run down to the club for church.
“We’ll talk about that later,” he promised.
“Mm-hmm,” Tilly hummed as if able to see straight through him. She could too, and he wasn’t sure if he liked that fact about her or not. “We’ll talk later,” she whispered, going up on tiptoes to kiss his cheek.
Tilly
Tilly thought that she had heard Owen pull into the garage, but when she rushed to the door to greet him, she realized that she had made one fatal mistake—unlocking the door for Nate. He was the one person she didn’t expect, and she should have. Tilly let her guard down and that allowed Nate to push his way into Owen’s house and shut the door behind himself.
