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“Oh yum,” Violet said. “My hero.”
Heather was just reading the text from Luke saying it was all done and they were on the way home. She looked at Violet’s phone with a picture of an arrangement of bags of food in the backseat with Trace.
“Let me see,” Lily said. “Zane just said he’d see me soon and loved me.”
“Lucky you,” Heather said. “But Violet is getting lots of food. You’re going to be eating that for days.”
She wasn’t going to be jealous that Luke didn’t say he loved her. He’d only said it for the first time yesterday. No reason she’d think he’d do it more than once or by text either.
“That’s the point,” Violet said.
“You guys can go now,” she said. “I do appreciate you keeping me company though.”
Lily and Violet looked at each other. “If you’re sure.”
She gave them both a hug. “Yes, I’m sure.”
When they left, she went back to her office and burst into tears. She didn’t think she was that emotional of a person and she was pretty good when Luke went to work, knowing he was in potential danger.
But this was something different. This was the dark and dirty part of life she never knew anything about other than what she saw on TV.
She supposed now she could understand more of why Luke and her brothers weren’t sure they could find a woman to deal with or understand their careers.
She got her fears and emotions out though. Luke said he’d come see her when they were back. He had to bring Zane home anyway.
Over two hours later, she turned when the door to her office opened. Luke was standing there. There wasn’t a smile on his face. Nothing.
She wanted to run and give him a hug that he was home safe. Instead, she walked over and held his face in her hands, looking into his eyes. “I’m proud of you.”
“Why?” he asked.
“Because the easy thing would have been to ignore it all. Shut it out. Walk away.”
“Like I’ve been doing for years,” he said.
“Which isn’t easy on an emotional level and I know it. But it took a lot more to do this today. You could have handed it off and been done with it but didn’t. You wanted to see it through. To do this for your mother.”
“I didn’t do it for her,” he said.
Heather nodded and gave him a kiss. “You did it for you. I know. You were selfish like I’ve been. Sometimes we’ve got to do what we need for our future happiness even if it’s the hardest thing in the world to do.”
“We do,” he said quietly.
She gave him a kiss and a hug. He held on tighter than he ever had before.
She knew she needed to lighten the mood for both of them. It’d be for the best.
“I saw all the goodies that Trace brought back for Violet. Did you bring me back anything?” he asked.
“I thought I’d give it to you tonight when we’re done working,” he said.
“Well, that too,” she said, smiling. “Are you going to work now?”
“I figured I’d put a few hours in while you were here.”
“I’d like that,” she said.
He gave her one more kiss and walked out. She figured he was going to get his tools and she went back to work feeling much lighter in her heart than she had been that morning.
