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“Do you want anything from the kitchen before I sit down?” he asked.
I shook my head. “No, thank you. I’m good.”
Evidently, Banks was only trying to be a gentleman, because once he knew I didn’t want anything, he came into the living room and sat down beside me on the couch. He hadn’t intended to go out to the kitchen, unless I hadwanted something. It was just one more sweet gesture in a long line of them which had me struggling not to soften toward him more than I already had.
“Did you have something special you wanted to watch tonight?” he asked me.
Shaking my head again, I answered, “Actually, I was kind of hoping we could talk for a little bit.”
“Sure. What did you have on your mind?”
I sent a smile his way, hoping he wouldn’t feel any sort of worry about what I wanted to discuss. Figuring it was best to start with something simple, I said, “Well, first, I just wanted to say how great I think it is that you have the team you do at work. It was really nice of both Blaze and Paxton to be willing to work on this situation with you, and I was surprised how quickly Pax said he’d go to the dog park to see if he could figure anything out.”
Banks returned the smile. “Yeah, well, aside from being Steel Ridge’s resident nice guy, Pax has a soft spot for animals. He’s constantly rescuing them, so it doesn’t surprise me that he stepped up to the plate. In fact, he probably is going to love that his work is taking him to the park.”
I felt my body starting to relax a bit more. “That’s good to know. I can’t help feeling like this is a lot for anyone to have to deal with, so if he’s going to enjoy that part of it, it makes me feel a little better. I hope there won’t be anything to worry about from a safety standpoint.”
Lifting his arm up over my head, Banks draped it around my shoulders and curled me in toward his body. “I understand all of this probably makes you nervous, but we’re all trained and very good at the job that we do. Please don’t worry about someone getting hurt. Yes, it’s a possibility, but it’s a risk we assume when we take this job. Andwhile there has been the occasional injury, we’ve only had very few serious ones. That said, everybody is fine now, so don’t worry about that.”
Nodding, I said, “Okay. I’ll try not to worry too much.”
When I made no move to add anything additional, Banks asked, “Is there something else?”
“What?”
Banks’s free hand reached over and wrapped around the front of my waist. In a move he executed with far too much ease, he shifted us on the couch. He’d fallen to his back, and half of my body was partially covering his. It was, by far, the most intimate position we’d been in. Even with the kissing we’d done to this point, Banks and I hadn’t found ourselves pressed together, front to front, while not standing up.
Once we were settled comfortably together, Banks replied, “When you started talking before, you said the first thing you wanted to talk about was my team and how nice they were. I guess I’m just wondering what else you wanted to discuss.”
Apparently, it didn’t matter that Blaze was the private investigator, and Banks worked in the kidnap and ransom unit. He was just as observant as anyone else in that role. “There is something else,” I confirmed.
“Okay. What’s going on?” he pressed.
He didn’t seem to have a single worry. While I thought that was a good thing, it was the complete opposite of how I felt.
“It’s about the discussion I had with Avalon and Liv while you were in Blaze’s office,” I revealed.
His brows pulled together. “Is everything okay? I can’t imagine those women would have done anything to upset you.”
I shook my head. “No. No, it’s nothing like that. I just… well, they shared something with me that caught me a bit off guard. I’ve been thinking about it ever since, and I wanted to ask you about it. The thing is, I’m not sure how you’re going to feel about it, and I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.”
“Just ask me whatever you want to ask me,” Banks urged me. “If something is bothering you, I want to know what it is. It doesn’t matter what it is—good or bad—I want to know what’s on your mind, because if I don’t know, I can’t do anything to fix it or set your mind at ease.”
There wasn’t an ounce of anger or frustration in Banks’s tone. He was genuinely concerned, and it helped to ease some of the nerves I was feeling.
So, I inhaled deeply, bracing myself for what his initial reaction might be, and exhaled slowly before I asked, “Did you hide Violet from your coworkers?”
“They said that I hid her?” he countered.
“I don’t think they used those words, but it was clear to me that they didn’t know her well at all,” I clarified.
Now, it was Banks’s turn to breathe deeply. “I’ve always been a private guy. I just never felt it was necessary to share every detail of what’s happening in my life with everyone around me.”
“So, it was true? Violet didn’t know your coworkers?”
He shook his head. “Some of them met her, but it was after we’d gotten married and after Rhys was already born. She died when he was three months old, so there really wasn’t a lot of time for anyone to get to know her after they learned that she existed.”
I wasn’t sure what to say. Banks had given me an honest answer, which is what I had hoped for. But now that I had it, I didn’t know what to do with it.
