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“I was running a Note 10, but you can’t get them anymore.”
“I’ll let Gizmo know. He’ll get you a new phone. We should be able to have it by later today.”
Cole had sent several messages to different people, judging by what little she could see of his screen and what he was doing. It had buzzed several times, as he’d questioned her, she didn’t know if the questions were from him or someone else.
“And one of my brothers got some of the club wives to come in and clean. That answers why it wasn’t such a mess.”
“But it also means we could have slept here last night.”
Cole looked up as if that hadn’t occurred to him.
“You’re right.” One corner of his mouth curled upward. “I’m kind of glad we didn’t know last night though. If we had, you would have spent the night in the guest room, and I wouldn’t have had nearly as good of morning.”
Sissy’s face heated and she looked away a moment before turning back to him. “Didn’t you say something about unloading and getting settled in?”
Cole stared at her for a several seconds. The look on his face made her want to take back her words. She wasn’t sure why, but something about the way he watched her set her on edge. It wasn’t that she was afraid of him, more that she was hyperaware of his attention.
“Are you trying to get rid of me?” he asked after a moment.
“Only a little.” She decided to be honest. “It’s not that I want you to go away, not really. But aside from the few minutes I’ve spent in the shower, I’ve not had any time to myself for the last three days. I need a little time to unwind and be.”
He watched her a few seconds longer as if trying to decide if she was hiding something or not, then shoved his phone back into his vest pocket, closed in on her and with a hand to the back of her head, tugged her close and dropped a soft kiss to her forehead.
“Good enough. You’re right. I need to unload the truck and start getting things put away, so I’ll let you be. If you need anything you know where to find me.”
Sissy nodded, waited for him to step back then pushed herself off the countertop to land on her feet, then headed for the bedroom. As much as she wanted to turn, run back to him, and wrap her arms around him, she forced herself to continue to the bedroom he’d given her. Her emotions were on edge, and she needed to figure out what she was feeling. Both about being here with Cole, whether it be in the spare bedroom or sharing his. Was she ready to jump into another relationship after what had happened with Troy?
A voice in the back of her head told her she was jumping from the frying pan into the fire, but she knew Cole wasn’t like Troy. Everything he’d done over the last few days had proven that.
But she hadn’t seen him in ten years. Ten years could change a lot of things, all you had to do was look at him to know that.
She unloaded the bags onto the bed and stripped tags while she argued with herself, wondering if Cole was really interested in a relationship or if he was just helping out an old friend and taking all the benefits he could get while he was at it.
Sissy didn’t know if she’d been with Troy too long or if she was always this uncertain. She didn’t remember being this hesitant. She pushed the thoughts out of her mind as she sat on the edge of the bed, then laid back and stared at the ceiling.
Troy and Daddy would come after her. What would she do when they did?
ChapterFifteen
Bubba wondered what Celia was thinking while he unloaded the truck. First the things he shoved in around it, then he propped the ramp up to the tail gate and backed his bike out of the bed of the truck.
Once Bubba had the bike unloaded, he parked it in the other half of the carport beside the truck, then finished unloading what was left of the life he’d lived for the last two years. As he took the last of his bags and things from the truck, Bubba marveled at the changes in his life in the couple of weeks. From undercover in Texas, then headed back to Tucson only to end up making a flying trip to rescue Celia then back to Tucson. What would the next ten days bring?
With the truck unloaded, he took his things inside, unpacked what needed to be unpacked, started a load of laundry, and put away what he wouldn’t need right away. By the time he’d finished, it was late afternoon and he hadn’t seen Celia in a while.
He wandered through the house, not finding her anywhere. After a few minutes, he determined she had to be in the guest bedroom, but he hadn’t heard any movement as he moved through the house. He knocked softly on the door and waited. After almost a minute there had been no response so he knocked again, this time a little harder and called her name.
“Celia, are you in there?”
Again, no response. He tried the knob. It turned without resistance. He silently eased the door open enough to see Celia curled up in the middle of the bed. He smiled and started to ease the door closed again.
Celia stirred.
Bubba froze.
How would she react if she woke and found him there? Before he had time to back away or think about it too much, her eyes opened, and she smiled.
“Hey.”
