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That thought hit me across the back of the head so hard that I almost stopped eating. Almost. Jade was still eating her breakfast burritos in silence, and I managed to avoid swallowing anything wrong. I was always so worried about other people that I’d never really stopped to consider that someone besides my parents might worry about me. And, although I at least considered the opinions of my parents, I mostly lived to the beat of my own drum.
Knowing that I’d be willing to compromise for someone like Jade made me wonder if there was more to this relationship we were creating than first met the eyes. I hadn’t thought I would find a woman while working so much, but it seemed that she had found the perfect way to nestle into my life and break down my walls.
“I think it’s really amazing you have such an honest work ethic,” she finally said. “Well, if you’re going to be away from home that much, would it be too much to ask that you let me know when you’ve arrived safely at the ranch or even when you’ve arrived safely at home?”
“Why would I do that?” I furrowed my eyebrows.
It was an odd request, but that might partially be because I hadn’t been part of a relationship where it was expected before.
“I’ve had other friends do that for me,” she explained. “We’ll text when we get home safely after meeting up so that the other doesn’t have to worry about safety.” She shrugged. “I feel that, as you are my landlord and my roommate, I do deserve to know that you’re safe. I’d hate to learn from someone else that I was homeless.”
I couldn’t help but give a soft chuckle at that. She had a point. She deserved to know that I was safe if only to give her peace of mind.
“I think I can do that, then, if that’s the reasoning behind the request,” I said. “It may take me a while to get used to it.”
“As long as you tell me that you’ve arrived safely at some point,” she clarified. “We’ve both got a life outside of what we do when we’re home together. I understand that.”
“It probably won’t have to be done until after the fundraiser, if I’m honest,” I said. “Unless it counts for my shifts at the firehouse, too.”
“Since you leave so early in the morning, it’d be nice to know that you got there safely,” she said. “I’ve got my phone set up sothat it won’t ring at night, so you won’t be disturbing my sleep by texting me that you’ve arrived home safely. Or there.”
I nodded slowly. That was also a good thing to know. Being in the house with Jade was a good thing, but I had plenty of other things to do today.
“Well, I was asked to come in today, but if I’m going to make it on time for the shift change that I was given, I have to leave in the next half hour,” I said. “I just thought that it would be a good idea to share some answers that you’ve been digging for while we had breakfast.”
“I appreciate that,” she said. “Maria and I are opening our store today at ten, so I’ve got to get ready to leave too. Thanks for sharing, and I hope you drive safely to the fire station. The rain last night may have made the roads slick.”
I smiled a little. It was good to know that she cared for me. Something in me warmed at the thought—I wasn’t used to that feeling, but it was nice.
I shook my head and reminded myself it was probably just because she was a good person who always tried to be nice to people.
With that, I put my dishes in the sink and went to get ready for my shift. I didn’t have too much to get ready, but I did throw together a small bag of extra clothing. There was never any way to predict what would happen while on shift. While there was a washer and a drier at the station, it didn’t work all that well. I preferred to do my laundry at home, so I just took extra changes of clothes. .
There was only so much our equipment could do to keep the smell from permeating our skin and our clothing.
After I was all packed up, I hefted the bag up onto my shoulders and then went out to the living room. Jade was gone. She had probably gone upstairs. I took my bag out to the truck and then noticed that she was on the phone with someone in thewindow seat in the room that looked over the driveway. I waved at her as I got in the truck to leave.
To my surprise, she waved back with a soft smile.
I smiled and started the truck. With that, I drove carefully to the fire station. It was a road I’d driven hundreds of time, but something today felt different. I realized that I was wondering what Jade would want to do when my shift was done since I wasn’t planning to go to the ranch again until after the fundraiser was over.
I kind of liked thinking about that, and I smiled as I rolled down my window.
Chapter twenty-two
Twenty-Two: Jade
Once I was off the phone with Maria, I realized that there was a text from Jesse. He’d made it safely. I was glad to know that he was going to be taking my feelings into consideration when he was trying to make plans now. At least, just enough to let me know that he had arrived safely – no matter where it was or what his plans were.
Today,myplans were relatively simple. We were opening the store. Officially.
Ordinarily, this day would have probably gotten a bit more fanfare, but Maria had had something pop up at the last minute, so she couldn’t be there for our grand opening. It was a bummer, but she had given me full permission to go on without her. Our biggest boost for publicity would happen at the fundraiser, so a “soft” opening seemed totally acceptable.
I needed to get going. I wanted to get to the store no later than nine this morning to open promptly at ten.
I had made a ton of jewelry over the last couple of days that had nothing to do with the fundraiser but that I could display at the store. We’d had some more jewelry displays come in beforethe store opened, and I wanted to have some extra inventory in the back of the store to allow people to keep browsing a full inventory on the floor.
Maria had putplentyof purses in the back already. She’d already had an overflow at home. And this wasn’t even half of it if I remembered correctly. She’d been sewing purses like this for a long time and just hadn’t had anywhere to store them or sell them.
