Page 52 of The Disputed Legacy
“Hi, Willow. Are you okay?” she answered.
“Yes, I am.” And I really was. I wasn’t hurt. Oscar hadn’t been hurt. I hated to see Saul in pain, but it seemed like he meant it when he said he’d be fine. He sure didn’t seem like he was suffering when he’d pleasured me or fucked me. “Are you?” I knew she hadn’t been hit by the bullets or broken glass because I’d made eye contact with her before I ran out of there. But that didn’t mean she wasn’t handling post-traumatic stress.
“Yeah, yeah.” She sighed. “I’m all right. So are the others.”
“No one was shot.”
She harrumphed. “If you ask me, it looked like your handsome man was shot.”
My handsome man.I shook my head as I walked along the path, wondering if this cold snap in the air meant fall would be coming too soon. I wasn’t ready for the cold. It wasn’t fun walking everywhere when it dipped past chilly.
Saul wasn’t my anything, but I wished I could think he was. One night of sex didn’t make him mine.
But he saved Oscar’s life. That makes him our hero…
“No customers were shot. No employees, either.”
“I’m very glad to hear that.”
“The managers asked me to pass word to you that we’ll be closed today. Obviously.” She tacked on another one of her usual grunts that I never knew how to interpret. Was it a sigh? A huff? A laugh? A vocalized smirk?
“Only today?” That was great news for my paycheck, but I was shocked it wouldn’t be longer.
“Yeah. He’s got his son-in-law working on fixing it up already. I suppose it pays to have contractors in the family and all. It probably won’t be pretty, but it’ll be patched up enough that we can go to work tomorrow.”
“Good. Yeah, that is good news, then.” When she agreed on that note, I felt impatient to ask her something else. “Did anyone need to talk to me?”
“Like the cops? That you don’t wanna see?”
I cringed. “Yeah.”
“Nah. The manager ain’t stupid. Ever since you asked on your first day whether you could be paid under the table, they knew you had something to hide.”
I hated that I did. It made me feel so guilty and cheap to ask for no trail of my employment.
“And they are all right with it,” she added. “He’s not going to tell the police to question you about your being there last night. It wouldn’t do their investigation any good. It’s not like you’d solve it. Them assholes were just running by and shooting whatever they wanted. Lazy, bored punks.”
I wished I could believe that, but I had been too shaken up to just dismiss it as a statistic. I couldn’t treat it like it was nothing more than another incident of crime, done for no reason.
“Thanks for filling me in, Margo.” We ended the call just before I reached my building.
Having a rare day off was different. I was so used to workingallthe time that I could hardly guess what I’d do with myself now. Resting wasn’t an option. Cleaning and fixing up more odds and ends from when the apartment was flooded sounded like a solid plan.
Mentally planning what to clean or organize, I headed home and wondered if Saul would come back to the diner tomorrow night. While I was too confused and unsure what the next stepbetween us should be, if there would even be a next step, I knew that I couldn’t be done with him completely.
Yeah, right.
Being just friends is out the window now.
When I opened the door to the apartment and entered, I realized the next step was waiting for me right now.
He hadn’t left.
With that relaxed pose on the couch, he looked casual and patient, as if he had been waiting for me every second I was gone.
“You’re still here,” I announced dumbly, so confused and surprised.
I locked the door behind me, out of habit, and I wanted to chase the excitement that snaked through me at how I wouldn’t be alone here, after all.
