Page 77 of Almost True
He pursed his lips and raised his eyebrows.Crap.
“Yes, my dear friend, it’s Juliet. And it’s time to have a chat.”
I squinted at both of them. Anthony stood facing me, holding Juliet’s face on the tablet toward me. My pulse had started racing the second I heard Juliet’s voice because that meant real, actual trouble. I couldn’t put her off. Anthony I could sometimes avoid, and I had done for the last week since he’d been asking me if I was okay every five minutes. I loved the man for his protective friendship and loyalty, but I wasn’t about to discuss the pit in my stomach or the general sense of loss I felt.
Except now, apparently, I was.
“I’m fine. I know I’m… different. But it’s just been a lot. I’m still getting back in the groove.”
Anthony brought the tablet up so he could give Juliet a look, then swung her back toward me.
“Honey, I’m not sure you’re fine.”
I sniffed, wholly uninterested in sitting down in the feelings that’d been crowding my mind every second since I left Silverton. Since I left Aidan.
Aidan.Just the thought of his name sent an ache pulsing through me so sharply, I pulled in a breath to ward against it. “I was stalked. Held at gunpoint. I’ve been away from working and being back is… different. I promised myself I’d be ready, but I don’t think I am. I needed that extra week. Maybe I needed another month. But I’m not going to do any good by sitting around drowning in the feeling of failure to bounce back from something I couldn’t control.”
Juliet’s luminous blue eyes looked sad. Not pitying, but sad for me. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry you went through that. I’m so glad you’re safe.”
Anthony nodded. “Yes. If I could watch the video feed of Wilder Saint taking out that horrible man on a loop, I would.”
A reluctant laugh crept out at that, and Juliet grinned. We had seen the video footage of the takedown, but I hadn’t watched anything else. I hadn’t wanted to see or hear the fear in my voice, in my body. But watching Wilder full body attack Taggart, disarm him, and knock him out? Yeah, that’d been sweet.
Still, their agreement that I’d been through something didn’t end the discussion. I felt the giantBUThanging in the air around us and waited for it to come. But I didn’t want to. I wanted to delve into this as much as I wanted to read the accounting department’s summary of the second quarter.
“So? See. You agree. It was awful. That takes some time. I haven’t been working. It’s been a lot of catch-up, and a lot of getting back into the routines of things. I’m used to the quiet of the mountain and not the city noises now. I’m still… finding my way back to breathing fully oxygenated air.”
Juliet gave me a rueful smile and a look that told me I knew better than to think that was case-closed on this little intervention.
“And Aidan? Have you talked to him?”
There it was again, that pain.Aidan, Aidan, Aidan. His name echoed through my mind, rattling the cage of my chest, and utterly battering my heart.
“Not much,” I said, willing her not to ask anything more. “E-mailed with Luca a bit.” Before I left, he’d mentioned a big showcase that happened every fall and how he wanted to do some kind of presentation on the stock market. We’d talked about it a lot, and I didn’t want to just abandon him. It wasn’t fair to him that I couldn’t stay in Utah, that my life was here. And it was a small way I could help that didn’t excoriate my heart. So we’d been talking back and forth every few days. Nothing huge.
Before Juliet spoke again, Anthony approached and handed me the iPad. “I’m going to give you two a minute.” He exited swiftly, the giant office door shutting softly behind him.
I propped up the tablet with Juliet’s face staring back at me on my desk and sat down in the chair. “It hurts.”
Her frown deepened and I could practically feel the empathy wafting off her and through the screen. If she were here, she’d hug me. Thank God she wasn’t because that would definitely make me cry.
“I’m sorry. I just wonder if you’d feel better staying more connected to him, not less.”
I sighed. “We kind of tried that the first few days, but it was brutal. Awkward.” Painful. Miserable. Made me want to charter a flight back to Silverton immediately and never leave again.
She looked truly befuddled. “You told me he told you he’s in love with you.”
I shut my eyes against that. “He did.”
“How is it awkward talking to him? You got so close. Quickly, yes, but in some ways it doesn’t feel all that fast considering when you first met.”
I tsked. “It’s not like we were dating all that time.”
“No, but you were thinking of him.Wishingfor him. And then you had him, and I dare say he turned out to be as good as you imagined. Smart, interesting, handsome as all get out, and bonus, he’s an amazing dad to an awesome kid. Oh and also, he loves you and thinks you’re amazing and wants nothing from you—he’s not about to ask you for business advice.”
I snorted. “Definitely not, though Luca kind of does. In fact, our only real disagreement was when Ididoffer some. But in his usual Aidan style, he was amazing about that, too.”
She grinned. “And so?”
