Page 67 of Resolution
“What circumstance?” Daggers are shot in his direction again. There’s a clear no BS vibe coming from this woman.
“Well… Since my team has apparently taken upon themselves to personally populate Portland, I thought it would be best to have all you expecting mothers here at one place. This way we can keep you up to date, keep an eye on you, and have a doctor on hand, if necessary.” Riggs shrugs as if we should know this.
I take a closer look at the women at the table around me. Sure enough, each of us have stomachs protruding and if I had to guess, are pretty far along in our pregnancies.How did I not notice we’re all pregnant?
Lorenzo clears his throat. “When Sara and I arrived, we overheard something about making it to checkpoint two.”
“You’re right. You did.” Riggs nods in agreement. “It seems the team has made it to checkpoint two, but there’s a mechanical failure, so they were not able to extract themselves in a timely manner.”
Sara leans forward and places her arms on the table in front of her. “What does that mean?”
“We were right to send in a second team. They’ve made contact and will be extracting the entire Delta team as we speak.”
“So… They’re… Safe?” I mutter, not wanting to have false hope, but desperately needing something to cling on to.
“They’re not out of the woods yet, but within the next hour or so, we’ll know if they’ve made it out of the hostile territory safely, and are on their way home.”
Loud exhales can be heard throughout the room. For the first time since Riggs’ arrival in my office, I take a full breath. There’s still a weight on my chest that I know won’t clear until I see Enzo for myself, but the pressure’s not as deep.
“Ohmigod,” I whisper in relief as I throw myself into Lorenzo’s arms. Tears rush down my cheeks and my emotions are out of control.
“It’s gonna be all right,” Lorenzo whispers as he wraps his arms around me, giving me his strength.
“We’ll know soon enough.” Sara embraces the two of us and we sit here, tangled together.
When we finally break apart, Riggs clears his throat. “I’ll be in command. You’re welcome to make yourselves at home. I’ve made this conference room as well as our lounge available to you, so you won’t be without the comforts of home. If you need anything, feel free to ask.” With that, he walks out of the room.
Once the door to the conference room closes, Carson grabs everyone’s attention. “Are any of you hungry? I’m ordering takeout and would love to get you something while we wait.” He places a variety of takeout menus on the table and says, “I’ll be back shortly to place the order.” With that, he, too, walks out of the room.
Out of habit or perhaps it’s nerves, I grab a menu off the table and peruse it. I can’t for the life of me concentrate on the words printed before me. It’s as if they are jumbled and in a foreign language. I’m not even sure how long it takes for me to realize the menu I’m reading is for a Thai restaurant.
The moment I do, thoughts of asking Enzo out for the first time flood my mind. I’d been so nervous and I had no idea what I was doing. I hadn’t expected him to be outside my door that day. As far as I knew, he was long gone with his father and the only way I’d be seeing him again was in my fantasies. He’d taken me off guard with his deep, green eyes, sexy smile, and dimple that made me swoon. No man has ever made me react the way he does.
My heart still flutters as I recall him approaching my walkway. His complete sexiness had rendered me speechless. Of course, he’d been there to thank me for letting his dad take off for lunch. When his stomach rumbled, I’d seen it as a sign. I had no idea that one little move on my part would have set so much in motion.
There’s a sudden jab to my stomach and the menu I’m resting on it nearly falls from my hands.
“You okay, Sam?” Sara reaches over to place her hand on my arm.
“I was just remembering the first day I met Enzo and couldn’t believe I’d had enough guts to ask him to dinner.”
“If I recall, his stomach did the asking for you.” Lorenzo chuckles.
“Yeah,” I say wistfully as I recall each and every moment of our dinner. I still can’t believe the way he made me feel and the instant connection we shared. That evening when he dropped me off, I truly didn’t want him to leave.
“I’ll never forget the day Enzo came home with that suit.” Sara laughs. “I knew something was up right away and I didn’t even have to resort to my usual tactics to get him to spill his guts about you.”
“Oh, come on, Sara. You’ve never had to do much when it comes to interrogating the boys. Erin… That’s another story. But if there’s ever a story to be told, it doesn’t take you long to get it out of them.”
“Ohmigoodness,” Sara gasps. “Do you remember when Zane and Enzo tried sneaking out when they were in high school? Those fools thought they could actually push the car out of the driveway and we wouldn’t be any the wiser.”
“You’re kidding me,” comes out of my mouth before any further thought.This must be interesting.
Sara shakes her head and levels me with a stare. “You’d better believe it.”
Becoming the perfect distraction for our current situation, Sara continues the story of how she just so “happened” to go out to the garage as they were pushing Enzo’s truck into the driveway later that evening. She’d known they were gone and wasn’t all too worried because they were together, but from what she tells me in her story, I would have paid millions to be a fly on the wall.
Stories about Enzo from Lorenzo and Sara are just what I need to pass the time. They somehow manage to get me laughing about Enzo and the antics of his youth. I don’t even realize almost two hours have passed when Riggs makes his way back into the conference room we chose to stay in.
