Page 90 of Fall for You
She nodded. “Thanks. I think…” She fidgeted with the mug in her hand, trying to pinpoint one last issue she was having. It felt like for the past twenty minutes she’d been circling in on something, and she was close.
He squeezed her hand again, a silent encouragement.
She wet her lips and forced her eyes up to meet his, not letting herself look away from his intensity. Instead, she found comfort in the fact that he seemed to care about what was bothering her as much as she did.
“I think what’s really been killing me is that I don’t even recognize myself anymore. I feel like…” She took a deep breath. “Like after the accident, I woke up and looked in the mirror, and I didn’t know who this stranger was. She’s not me. Because the Ronnie I remember, the one I took pride in being…she knewhow to say no. She stood up for herself and knew what she wanted, and…” Her laugh was breathy, filled with something like disbelief at what she’d just admitted. “And she didn’t talk about herself in the third person.”
He gave her a little smile at that lame attempt at a joke. But his eyes were deadly serious when he spoke. “I still see that woman, Ronnie. She may be a little lost, but she’s not gone.”
His words were the exact ones she needed to hear.
How did he know that when she hadn’t even realized it herself? Her eyes were brimming with unshed tears, and all she could do was nod in response.
He squeezed her hand. “We’ll find her, okay? Together. You and me.”
She nodded again, loving the sound of that. The thought of being part of a team, rather than someone’s meal ticket…
As if summoned by the thought, her phone rang and lit up with Mike’s name.
“Speak of the devil,” she murmured.
“Who is it?”
She sniffed and tugged her hand from Dallas’s with an apologetic wince. “It’s Mike. My agent. I’m sorry, I… If I don’t take this now, he’ll just keep hounding me.”
Chapter Forty-Two
Dallas found himself gripping the edge of the couch so hard his knuckles turned white.
“Yeah, no, I’m just saying, I—” Ronnie was clearly interrupted by Mike on the other end of the line.
He was talking over her.Again.
Dallas’s jaw clenched. He hated this. Ronnie seemed to be wilting right in front of his eyes.
“No, I get it, Mike. It’s just that… Right… No, I know.” She cast him a sidelong look that was part exasperated, part apologetic, and that…
That was a big nope. This woman should never apologize. Not to him, not to Mike, and definitely not for needing to take some freakin’ time for herself.
“But we agreed to this time off so I could focus on the wedding,” Ronnie was saying.
Her voice was quiet, but he could hear the tension rising. Heck, he could practically feel her anxiety from where he sat beside her.
Without even thinking, he snatched the phone out of her hand.
“Dallas, what?—?”
“Mike, right?” he snapped.
There was a pause on the other end. “Uh…who’s this?”
“This is Dallas King. A friend of Ronnie’s.” Dallas shot a look at Ronnie.Friendfelt lame, but now was not the time to dwell on what he’d wanted to call her. “She’s in the middle of something right now, so whatever you need so urgently that you’re calling her on a Sunday and during hervacation…you can deal with me.”
Ronnie’s eyes were wide with shock, but she didn’t look angry that he’d taken over. If anything, he thought maybe he saw a flicker of relief. And that relief echoed inside him.
Man, he hated to see her on edge. She deserved so much better than what she was getting—from her family and her team.
Mike was talking again, and Dallas’s lips curled up in a sneer. Just going by the tone of this man’s voice—he knew the type. He dealt with arrogant fools all the time in the world of developers and high-end real estate.
