Page 31 of Isolated
A laugh escaped. “My slightly cranky elderly neighbor. Last Tuesday, I called all around town, looking for someone to come and figure out why I had no hot water. When I got home from another stress-filled day at work, Walter approached me. He does that on occasion. Anyway, I told him I didn’t have time to chat, because I still hadn’t located anyone, and he offered to fix it for me. So, really, I don’t have any reason to complain about that, because it’s all fixed now. But the timing of it was very inconvenient.”
“I can imagine.” He lifted his own drink to his lips, and I watched his throat move as he swallowed the liquid down. “Has anything else been happening at home that’s been difficult for you, or is it just the water heater?”
The words were there, right on the tip of my tongue, ready to spill out. I wanted nothing more than to tell him that it had been incredibly difficult for me to go home every night feeling so great about so many other things in my life and hating the state of my romantic life. For a moment, I imagined telling him I occasionally fantasized about coming home from work—or the gym—to find that he’d met me there, so he could ravish my body and hold me close all night.
“The water heater has been the only pressing issue,” I lied.
Landen gave me a look that indicated he believed I was holding back from telling him the truth, but fortunately, he didn’t call me out on it. “That’s good, I think. Only a minor inconvenience.”
Before I could respond, our server arrived with ourlunch orders. Despite the overwhelming sense of despondency that I felt about work and the nerves I experienced being here with Landen, I forced myself to dive in and eat with him. If nothing else, I could always look back and remember having this time with him.
Once we’d both taken a few bites, Landen said, “So, I’ve got a question.”
“What is it?”
“If you don’t want to share, that’s okay, but when we were in my office earlier, you said something about feeling like everyone at work is giving you dirty looks because of a consultant. What’s going on with that?”
A rush of air left my lungs before I shared, “Alan was hired as a means to improve efficiency…”
I went on to tell Landen everything I knew about Alan, why he’d been hired, and what had happened not long afterward. I told him about the way my coworkers looked at me now whenever I walked by, simply because they viewed me as the enemy, now that I was going to be part of upper management. Of course, I assured him that I hadn’t had any part of the hiring of the consultant, nor had I been aware that jobs were on the line as a result.
When I finished sharing, he sent me a sympathetic look. “I’m sorry it’s been so rough lately, Iris.”
“It’s okay. I appreciate that, but to be honest, I feel better now that I’ve had the chance to talk to someone about it.” I let out a sarcastic laugh. “I think that keeping it all bottled up hasn’t helped at all.”
In a move I hadn’t been anticipating, Landen reached across the table and covered my hand with his. The size of his hand compared to mine and the comfort I felt when he offered a reassuring squeeze led to warmth hitting thecenter of my chest and spreading throughout my body. I wouldn’t have been surprised if my cheeks pinkened.
Landen offered a friendly smile. “If you ever need to talk, Iris, I’m always here. I can be a good friend to you outside of the gym, too.”
I would have given anything for that, anything to be able to see this guy at normal times throughout the week. And since he offered, I didn’t want to brush it off. If there was a way to find the silver lining in this situation at work, I’d happily accept it as being more time with Landen. “You’d do that?”
He jerked his chin down. “Of course. Unless… unless you’d prefer to just have me take a look at your laptop, and we keep our friendship to our mornings at the gym.”
I hoped that wasn’t what he wanted, because I was too eager for more. “No! No, not at all. I… Gosh, Landen, I’d love nothing more than to have another friend, especially someone outside of my job. As you know, I moved here two years ago. And I’ve spent a lot of my time working, so it’s no surprise my two closest friends work with me.”
Something that looked a lot like contentment washed over his expression. He didn’t hide that satisfied smile as he shared, “Most of my closest friends are the guys I work with, too. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.”
I smiled back. He was such a breath of fresh air. “Thanks for not making me feel like I’m crazy. Do you think it’s because I’m genuinely not crazy, or is it because you’ve dealt with such extremes at work that this doesn’t seem so bad?”
Landen arched a neatly groomed brow, his eyes roaming over my face with such curiosity. “You’re notcrazy, Iris. I’ve never once thought that, and it has nothing to do with this situation you’re dealing with at work.”
So, had he thought about me in other scenarios, or was I reading too much into that look on his handsome face? It couldn’t just be a misconception on my part, though. Landen was showing me tremendous kindness when he had no reason or obligation to.
Nodding, I replied, “I appreciate you saying that. It’s a huge relief. At least I won’t have to worry about getting dirty looks at the gym, too.”
“Well, it’s not like there’re many people around when we’re there anyway,” he reasoned. “But even if there were, you’d have nothing to worry about.”
The last bits of tension that had been lingering finally left me. “So… you really don’t spend your days following around cheating spouses?”
Landen laughed. “No.”
As we finished our meal, he shared a bit more insight into the actual work he did, and I was surprised to learn that very little of it had anything to do with cheating spouses. In fact, I was quite alarmed to learn how dangerous some of the cases he’d worked on had been. I’d recalled hearing about quite a few of the things that had happened in Steel Ridge, but I’d never really put two and two together and realized that Landen—and the men he worked with—were partly responsible for bringing so many criminals to justice. He really was a hero.
When we finished lunch and our server had brought over the bill, I immediately reached for my purse. Treating him to a meal would be the least I could do. But before I could pull out my wallet, Landen had already taken out some cash and tossed it onto the table.
“Hey, that’s not necessary,” I told him. “You should let me treat.”
He shot me a look that indicated he might have been reconsidering whether I was losing my marbles. “Absolutely not. This has been my pleasure, Iris.”
