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“Aren’t you forgetting your wife?” he asked over his shoulder.
“Oh, snap!” I stopped in my tracks, my mind warring with indecision. I couldn’t leave her behind. On the other hand, it would be downright mean to interrupt her massage the way Cash had with mine. No, it was better to leave her behind.
I rushed over to the desk, giving the woman a disarming smile. “Hey, my wife is in the middle of her spa day. Why don’t you throw in a few extras for her and put it on my card. I’ll be back to get her at the end of the day.”
“Of course,” the woman smiled.
This was going to cost me an arm and a leg, but at least it was one problem solved. I ran out of the building, not even putting on my damn shoes before I raced to Cash’s truck and yanked the door open just as he was about to peel out. He glared at me, then shook his head.
“You can run, boss, but you can’t hide.”
“Unlike you. Apparently you’re very good at hiding.”
“Boss, it wasn’t like that. I wanted to tell you.”
“You told Sebastian,” he muttered.
“Is that what this is about? I didn’t want anyone else to know either. That’s what Rafe said.”
He turned to me, smacking his hand down on the steering wheel. “You should have fucking trusted me!”
“I did, but it wasn’t my call. It’s like when you go into Witness Protection. It’s not like you want to leave everyone behind to think you’ve disappeared or been eaten by an alligator. That’s just the way it goes.”
“Except you weren’t eaten by an alligator.”
“Would it have made you feel better if I was?”
When he didn’t answer immediately, I felt a little hurt. “Wow, so death by sharp teeth is preferable to me telling a little white lie.”
He suddenly jerked the steering wheel and pulled over on the side of the road. Dust kicked up all around us as we came to a stop. “Little white lie? We thought you were dead. Do you know how much shit I had to put up with because of your supposed death? A woman almost lost her job and her life because of this lie.”
“Who?”
“Tahlia, Johnny’s woman.”
I cringed. Me and Johnny were tight, and knowing that his woman got in trouble because of me wouldn’t help our friendship. In fact, he hadn’t even come to see me since I returned from the dead. I was a little hurt by that.
“Okay, I can see how that may have been a little…inconvenient.”
“Inconvenient?” he laughed. “Do you know what I had to put up with around work? With Fox? The man didn’t stop looking for you. I thought for sure he was going to fall into a depression if he didn’t find you!”
“That’s because he’s a good friend,” I grinned. “See, a true friend would be torn up over my demise. You didn’t seem too upset.”
“Because I had a business to run,” he argued. “I was the only one that actually believed you were dead and mourned you.”
“And maybe that’s the problem,” I pointed out. “Maybe you’re not angry because I wasn’t dead, but because you believed it when everyone else had faith in me. I think the real problem here is you.”
Okay, so I thought I was making a logical point that would turn this whole thing around. As it turns out, that wasn’t the case by a long shot. If anything, I enraged the beast in my boss.
“The problem is me? Is that what you’re going with?”
Well, it was too late to turn back now. “It’s natural that you would feel betrayed after you grieved for me,” I said, trying to soften the blow.
“I feel betrayed because you let everyone think you were dead. Not because I was grieving for you.”
“But you did grieve for me,” I reiterated. “Huh? Come on. It’s okay to say it.”
“Yes, I did, but?—”
