Page 18 of Instinct & New Identity

“He wants you.That’svery obvious,”Vincesaid. “Heseems like the type of guy who is willing to bide his time for you to come around—untilIshowed up.”

I knewStevewas interested in me—this was obvious every time he asked me out, invited me over or even sometimes invited himself into our home—but he didn’t strike me as the type to go gonzo about it.

“I’ll meet you back here tomorrow morning, and we can either pack everything up, or we can just spend the day catching up on life, but promise me you will call my number if anything happens,” he said, looking at both of us. “Promise.”

“Deal,”Valsaid and handed him her cell phone so he could program his number in.

Realizing this was whatIhad asked for, and he wasn’t being completely unreasonable,Ipromised him the same and also handed over my phone.

Instead of programming in our phones, he used them to call his own phone, first mine and thenVal’s.Ashe handed them back, he gave me a charming grin. “SonowIhave both of yours as well.”

Then he made his way to the front door and turned to me asIfollowed him.

“Sorry for kind of kicking you out,”Itold him and looked into his eyes. “Ireally am happy to see you.Notbeing able to write to you again once we were put inWITSECwas really hard.Imissed writing to you.I’msorry you thoughtIdidn’t want to write anymore, orIdidn’t care.That’snot true at all.”

“I know that now, sweetheart, and it’s all good,” he said, bringing me in for a hug, and it felt amazing and warm and comforting.

“I’ll see you in the morning,” he said to the top of my head.

The sweet endearments, the way his body felt hugging mine…Icould get used to this.Aguy likeVincewould make that so easy.

He walked out the door, andIlocked everything back up and turned to see my sister standing there with her arms crossed with the biggest grin on her face.

“Hesowants you,”Valsaid, giggling.

“He’s just being friendly,”Ireplied, and she laughed.

“Sis,Iknow we haven’t had a lot of experience with men, butI’mnot blind,” she said. “Thatman did not callmesweetheart or hugme.Justsaying.”

I’d noticed that as well but didn’t want to think about it at that moment, soIchose to divert.

“Let’s talk aboutGeorgia,”Isaid.

“Let’s do this,”Valsaid back. “Youmake your pros and cons list like usual, then come find me when you’re done, and we’ll discuss.”

“What are you going to do until then?”Iasked.

“Keep packing,”Valsaid, grinning, and walked back into her room.

I sighed as she closed the door but realized she was doing this for me becauseIdidn’t like distractions whileImade my lists.Isat down at the kitchen table with my notebook and pen and started my lists.

Over the next hour,Iwrote down my thoughts while simultaneously thinking ofVince.Howgood it was to see him in person, how muchI’dmissed writing to him, how good he looked, how great it felt to be in his arms, how oddly safeIfelt when he was here, what it would be like to have someone from our previous life join up with the new life.Ihad also looked up his security company—you can never be too careful—but that only triggered even more thoughts aboutVince.

By the time the threat was gone for us and theMarshalsServicetold us we were on our own and free to live life as we wanted, ourabuelahad died.Ourmom was an only child, but my father had two brothers, our uncles, but we weren’t that close to them or their families, so we opted not to take any chances by re-opening communication with them.

HavingVincearound would help me feel more likeIused to before the robbery, when life was less complicated.

My list was done, butIwasn’t ready to talk toValyet, soIwent into the kitchen and started cleaning some dishes.Thenmoved to swap out some laundry.WhileIwas folding clean towels,Valcame up behind me.

“Let me guess…Youfinished your list but don’t want to talk about it yet because you knowI’mright?” she asked with a knowing smirk on her face.

Sometimes, living with a person who knew you so well was great, and other times, it was aggravating.Isighed, and she just chuckled.Definitelynot fun living with someone who knows you well.

“Come on.I’llmake dinner and you can read me off your list,”Valoffered.

I pulled out the list, sat on a stool at the kitchen counter bar, and began reading her my list as she cut up some vegetables.Wediscussed some of the items, line by line, and for others, she just nodded.Oneof the last items on my list was that we didn’t knowVincevery well and that was moving in with someone we didn’t know was probably not a smart decision.

“Cat, that’s a valid concern, but we’ve been moved around with so many people the last few years via theFBIand theMarshals.Tome, this isn’t much different,”Valsaid. “Iknow those people were slightly safer because they were paid to protect us, butVinceand the guys he works with were able to find us, despite the marshals telling us we had a very minimal footprint for anyone to figure out our location.Thismay sound weird, butIthinkIwould actually feel safer with someone likehimthan some of theMarshalswe had.”

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