Page 51 of The Confidentiality Clause
I’d never admit it out loud, but tonight has actually been fun. After the first game of rummy, everyone started to loosen up more. We trash-talked and shared some more stories. Now it feels like old times again. I didn’t realize how much I missed this.
“Ha! I won. In your face!” Sutton says to Shaw, even though she beat Ariel.
“You won by manipulating myself and Brock out of the game,” he says with a laugh.
“A win is a win.”
He starts to tickle her. “Is that so, Mrs. Daniels?”
She squeals and pushes him away.
“Can you both get a room?” I groan, but it’s not so bad. After all they both went through, it’s nice to see them happy and together.
Shaw lets up. “We should probably head to bed anyway. It’s getting late.”
“Yeah, I’m going to go, too,” I say, and stand with a wince. Keeping my legs folded up under the coffee table for so long does not feel good.
Sutton helps Ariel up and hugs her, murmuring something in her ear too low for me to make out. Ariel pulls back and nods. Sutton looks unsure, but seems to let it go.
Shaw and Sutton head off to her childhood bedroom. I nod to Ariel and make my way to mine. I wait for everyone to settle in their rooms, then I head outside to get my laptop bag. I can squeeze in a few hours of work. The rain is coming down hard, but I’ll change afterward.
I run outside, squinting as rain pelts my face. I manage to get my laptop bag and get back to my room unnoticed. Once inside, I change into sweatpants and a t-shirt, then pull out my meds that I thankfully stashed in my bag. Though I’ve felt better lately, I don’t think I’m going to be off these anytime soon. After I’ve taken it, I climb into my bed and start on work. I’m not sure how much time passes as I lose myself in emails and contracts.
A loud crack of thunder shakes the house, making me jump a little.
I’m rubbing my tired eyes when I hear a knock at the door. I stash my laptop under my comforter. “Come in.”
The door clicks open. Ariel stands in the entryway of my room, a quilt my grandmother made wrapped around her shoulders.
“I knew you’d be up,” she says as she walks in and shuts the door behind her.
My brow furrows. “What are you doing here?”
“Confirming my hypothesis.” She looks around my room. There’s Carolina merch everywhere. A framed jersey on the wall, old trophies of mine from my hockey days, the room is even painted the signature Carolina blue. “This is atrocious.”
I laugh. “Did you forget why you call me Carolina?”
She scrunches her nose. “I think I blocked out how bad it was.”
“What are you really doing here?” I ask her. “Because if you were coming to confirm what you already knew, you didn’t need to close the door behind you.”
She glances over her shoulder, like she didn’t realize she’d done that. Her gaze drops to her bare feet. Another crack of thunder rattles my window, and she winces.
“I don’t like storms, okay?” She keeps her head down. “I got in an accident last year during a bad storm, and now they freak me out.”
Surprise mingles with sympathy in my chest, but I still don’t understand why she’d come to my room.
“So you came to my room?” I ask, confused.
Her head lifts. “It’s not like I could go knock on Sutton’s door.” She shrugs. “I didn’t know where else to go.”
The pained look on her face softens my heart. I sigh and scoot over in the bed, moving my computer back into my lap.
“You can hang out here until it passes.”
Relief washes over her expression. “Thank you.”
She climbs up onto the bed and settles in next to me, still cocooned in the quilt. “What are you working on?”
