Page 36 of Break the Barrier
“Maybe you’re right.”
She doesn’t say much more than that, and I don’t need her to. I’ve known this woman in my arms for over three years, and after last night—hell, after last week—I knew to my core that I want to be the one who asks her to dance. I want to be the man she turns to when she needs something.
I want her to be the only person I seek in a room full of people.
Maybe that was too fast too soon, but I’ve waited this long, and I was willing to wait as long as Thea needed to get her to fully trust me.
13
thea
I sighand rest my chin in my hand, my emails open on the laptop in front of me. It was Monday afternoon, and there was not much going on at Bottle Grounds today, which was a good thing because after the weekend we had, we’d all needed a break.
There had been a fight break out last night between two wannabe cowboys fighting over, you guessed it, a woman. It hadn’t even been her fault. One guy wouldn’t leave her be when she came up to get a drink, even though she and I repeatedly told him to leave her alone, and her boyfriend, who apparently had been watching this go down, had come up to “handle the problem.”
After a few fists were thrown and beer bottles shattered, the police had come in to break up the fight and strongly recommended we hire a security guard for any future mishaps.
We didn’t quite have the budget for more employees yet, but it was going on the list of things to do.
I gave Annmarie and June the day off so they could get some rest, as they’d stuck around late with me to clean up and deserved the time off to get some sleep.
I glance at the sent email again.
For over a week, I’ve been checking to see if it’s gotten a response, and so far, it had gone unread. Or at least not responded to. Tori was ignoring me.
Or she was somewhere in the middle of a jungle or on a volcano where she couldn’t reach anyone.
It was hard to say.
But it was hard to let go, hard to let her live her life, even if what she said to me—though true—had been hurtful.
My phone rings, distracting me, and I glance around to make sure Heidi, the only waitress on right now, has the tables covered before I pick it up.
“Phee!” I say excitedly into the phone to my youngest sister, putting a little extra glee into my tone for her sake. Something we’d all always done.
She was the baby of the family, and we all treated her as such.
Ophelia was a bright girl with a very big future ahead of her. I was excited to see where she went, but us big sisters missed her fiercely.
“Hey! I’m sorry I haven’t called back.”
I wave my hand like she can see me. “It’s fine. I know how busy you are.”
“Too busy, it feels like.”
She tells me about her studies, how they weren’t quite what she expected them to be, how she was struggling being so far away in New York without us girls there with her.
“But New York is your dream,” I say, frowning when I realize what she might be trying to say.
“I know, and it still is,” she rushes to say. “I just…I just haven’t found my family here yet, you know? Like that tight-knit group of people that are mine.”
I smile into the phone. “You really liked that visit over Christmas, didn’t you?”
“It was fascinating! We couldn’t go two feet in town without someone stopping you to chat! What town is like that?”
“I’m sure there are lots of towns like that. But I highly doubt New York will ever give you a small-town feel.”
I hear a big, heavy, exaggerated sigh. “I know. But the fashion is here!”
