Page 46 of Finding Jess

“I have something for you,” she said, her face completely neutral as she turned, stepping toward a backpack on the ground.

Sam waited as Jess unzipped it and pulled a manilla folder out of the pocket before turning back around.

She held it out, nodding once. “I can email this all to you too, if that’s easier.”

Sam took the folder and flipped it open, scanning over the neatly organized pages inside.

“It’s a more detailed breakdown of some of the stuff we went over last week.”

She skimmed over the first page, quickly reading the headings.

“Look it over whenever you have time,” Jess continued. “Then when you’re ready, let me know and we can meet about it and finalize everything.”

Sam nodded, raising her shirt to wipe away a trickle of blood that rolled down onto her cheek.

“Ready, Hayes?” a woman on her team called out. She looked up to see her walking back out onto the field, along with most of the others.

She nodded, then turned back to Jess with an appreciative smile. “Thank you for doing this.”

Jess gave her a tight nod, her eyes locking once more on the cut on her brow.

Sam crouched, tucking the folder carefully into her backpack before dropping her water bottle beside it. She swiped a hand over her face, wiping away the last trace of blood and sweat.

Jess cleared her throat beside her. “Try not to get hurt in the second half,” she said, not meeting her eyes. “Otherwise the bloods gonna stain your shirt.”

Chapter ten

Sam stared down at the laptop, the movements of the people in the coffee shop blurring around her.

She’d needed to get away from the office that day. And her apartment too. She just needed somewhere separate. Somewhere she wouldn’t feel the sense of crushing stress, but also didn’t feel entirely alone.

So, she’d settled for the coffee shop a few blocks from her apartment.

It hadn’t been a terrible choice. At least not at first. But as the day progressed, the stress did too.

She typed out a line of code, headphones blasting music so loudly she could barely make out the lyrics.

She deleted the line, immediately retyping a few more before releasing a frustrated breath. Then she punched a finger down on the delete key, erasing all the work she’d completed over the last thirty minutes.

Her phone buzzed in her lap with yet another text from Caleb, directly followed by one from a developer with some new changes for her to approve.

The words on the screen blurred together as she blinked away the tired haze covering her eyes.

More than anything, she wished she could just shut her laptop, take her motorcycle, and ride for hours on some empty road far away from it all. She imagined the nip of the wind whipping against her—the road whirring by so fast she couldn’t think about anything else, even if she wanted to.

The phone buzzed in her lap again.

This time with an email. Another developer. The first few words of a question filled the notification preview.

She sighed, leaning back in the chair as she swiped the phone open.

Texts were usually the most urgent, so it would be best to reply to those first.

She glanced at the first few unopened conversations, but her eyes didn’t stop. They continued downward. All the way down to the thread with Jess where she’d sent her the address to her apartment.

She stared at it for a moment, her thumb hovering above.

They hadn’t spoken since the soccer game. And maybe if she was really honest with herself, she’d admit that she sort of wished Jess would reach out. Even if it was just to follow up on the PR packet she’d given her.

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