Page 17 of Fierce-Hyde

“I know,” he said. “I’ll never be able to move on from my past.”

“I did,” Ryder said. “You can too. If you want to. The right person will be out there and will understand that and give you a chance. And if they don’t, then they can go suck balls. Someone else’s balls.”

He smirked when Ryder said that. Something they’d said when they were out carousing women and getting shot downwhen they were in college. Not that either of them was shot down much back then.

Would Ryder’s wife kick his ass for saying that? Most likely.

But Hyde would never rat his buddy out.

“You make a good point,” he said.

Ryder turned to leave and he heard him say, “He’s in his office.”

He kept staring at the door and saw Tori standing there.

She didn’t say much and he had a moment to just look at her.

Her light brown hair was past her shoulders and straight, tucked behind her ears. Her eyes were brown, but light in color giving him the time he needed to look her over.

The yellow silky shirt with a thick white band around the waist was resting on her hips. Her pants were navy and her shoes the same color. A cute pair of flats.

He’d peg her about around five foot five. A good eight inches shorter than him.

“Did you want to talk to me or just stare?”

He felt his face light up like a flare after a car wreck.

That was what all his interactions with her were. One crash after another.

“Sorry,” he said. “Please come in.”

Tori moved in a few steps, assessing him with curiosity more than anything else. At least it wasn’t annoyance even with the question about staring at her.

That was better than nothing.

“May I?” she asked of the seat in front of his desk.

There went his manners again. “Yes. Sorry. My mother raised me better. She has already kicked my ass verbally for my interactions with you.”

Tori lifted an eyebrow. “You told your mother?”

If his face could show any more embarrassment, he didn’t know. “Yes,” he said. “I felt bad. She called at the right time whenI was feeling some shame and I confessed my sins. She knows her son’s shortcomings. Having my phone in my face all the time is one of them. So I apologize for being rude there.”

“Apology accepted,” she said. “You’re not the only one that does that. When I’m meeting with students and filling in for my staff, I try to squeeze some etiquette in there. I feel it's a major shortcoming in society now.”

“It is,” he said. “I stopped you the other day to apologize for my behavior in the bar weeks ago.”

“Over a month at this point,” she said.

“Boy, time flies when you’re feeling like shit,” he said.

She smiled and her eyes softened some.

Maybe his heart was racing and he couldn’t understand the reason for it.

Back to a glutton.

“I might agree with that a time or two.”

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