Page 27 of Conner

“Right, so they would have known if someone came and messed with it,” she said to herself with a sigh of relief.

Conner was quiet. She looked over at him and he was studying her with an expression she couldn’t read.

“What?” she asked defensively.

“Sasha, what’s going on?” he asked seriously.

“What do you mean?” she asked with an obviously fake carefree quality.

“Well, you tried to pepper spray me, then you asked if it was possible someone could have tampered with your car,” he said, his eyes pinning her in place.

“I told you. You just startled me.”

“You can tell me. Is something happening?”

Her traitorous trembling lip gave her away. When Conner’s expression changed and he took her hand, she broke. Before she could get herself back under control, she took her hand back and buried her face in her hands crying.

“Hey,” Conner quickly wrapped his arms around her. She wished it wasn’t as comforting as it was, but something about being in his strong embrace did start to calm her down.

“I’m sorry,” she said. The sound was muffled by the fact that her face was still in her hands, and she was pressed close to his chest. Finally, being able to take a deep sigh, she breathed him in. He smelled fresh from his shower but there was an earthy quality to him, she would wager it was from his beard balm, but he smelled incredible.

“You have nothing to apologize for,” he said, rubbing her back.

She finally collected herself enough to pull away and carefully wipe the tears from her eyes. She looked up into his eyes that were full of so much kindness it almost broke her again.

“Just an unwanted visitor from the past. Hopefully he’ll get the message though,” she said hoping he would leave it at that.

He evaluated her for a long moment. “Okay, why don’t I take you home?”

“That’s not necessary, I can just call for a ride,” she said, getting her phone.

“That’s silly. I can take you home.”

She chewed on her lip and looked up at him. Why did she yearn to be back in his arms? “Okay,” she finally said with a deep sigh.

“Okay,” he said as he unhooked the cables and put them away.

Sasha gathered her things from her car. Conner took her work bag from her and set it in his back seat. Something about that simple gesture pulled at her heart and made her smile. He pulled out his phone and pulled up her contact.

“Put your address in here and I’ll pull it up on GPS and get you home.”

She did so as he opened her car door. This was a version of Conner she hadn’t seen before, but somehow it was exactly what she needed. If she could untangle this messy web she found herself in again, she might just have to change the way she thought of Conner McPhee.

16

CONNER

Conner looked over at Sasha in his car. He wished he knew what was going on with her. She had said ‘an unwanted visitor from the past,’ and while he wasn’t sure exactly what that meant, he could tell it was nothing good. Sasha was always so confident and put together. It was one of the things he found insanely attractive about her, no matter how much he tried to deny those feelings. But first the pepper spray and then her worrying that someone tried to tamper with her car told him this was more than the annoyance of an unwanted visitor.

He followed the GPS to an apartment building a few miles from the center. It was your average apartment building, but it wasn’t where he imagined someone like Sasha living. He had never given it much thought, but this wasn’t a place for someone like Sasha Maloof. He was even more sure of that when they got out and he walked her to the door that wasn’t even locked to the public.

“Is there no security?” he asked.

“There was, but the lock broke a few days ago. So, it’s open until they can get it fixed.”

He carried her bag up the flight of stairs to her apartment.

“Thanks for the ride,” she said as she opened her door.

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