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“She didn’t give me a time, but she did say that she just wasn’t ready to talk about what was bothering her right now,” Flora shared.
A rush of air left my lungs. This was beyond frustrating. “Nothing about what you said indicates that she’s ever going to talk to me again. If she didn’t tell you what was wrong, those words just might mean that she’ll eventually share the truth with you. I don’t understand, Flora. Can you think of anything I did that would have upset her? Is it because I danced with Landen that night? She can’t be mad about that, can she?”
“I don’t see why that would bother her. Not to this extent, anyway.”
“And you’re sure she said nothing else? She didn’t give you any idea what’s bothering her? This makes no sense.” My words came out harsher than I intended for them to. I couldn’t help it, though. Thoughts scrambled, I tried to find an answer, an explanation, and something that felt a lot like desperation was taking over.
Flora’s voice ticked up a notch in response. “I know this is upsetting to you, Iris, but you don’t need to take it out on me. In fact, I don’t need to be the middleman here. You’re both my sisters, and I’m not interested in choosingsides. Whatever is going on, the two of you need to work it out on your own.”
“How can I do that if she won’t take my calls?”
“I don’t know, but I’m going to ask that you leave me out of it. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go.”
Flora didn’t wait for me to respond. She disconnected the call, and the line went dead. If I wasn’t already in such a state of disbelief, that certainly would have pushed me over the edge.
I would have called Flora back to apologize and clear the air, but I didn’t think it’d do much good at this point. Truthfully, I didn’t think I could handle another rejected phone call.
So, I gave myself a few minutes to replay my conversation with my sister in my head as I thought back on the weekend that she and Eleni had spent here with me. When nothing obvious popped out as a possible explanation, I realized there wasn’t anything else I could do today that would give me the answers I was seeking.
If this went on long enough with Eleni, I’d have no choice but to head back to Grouse and try to work it out in person.
For now, I had to follow through on what I’d said I was going to do and get some work done. Monday morning would be here before I knew it, and I was fully prepared—and determined—to go in and have a great week at work.
With that, I set my phone down, got up off the couch, and went in search of my laptop. Then I got to work and only stopped to think about Landen half as much as I had been before I started.
The way I saw it, some progress was better than none.
Landen
A soft moan escaped from Iris, forcing me to tear my mouth from hers.
“It was only a day, and it feels like it’s been a month.”
My hands, which had been at her hips, slid around to her lower back and drifted toward her ass. “Yesterday felt impossibly long, like today would never arrive.”
She touched her lips to mine in a chaste kiss. “That’s not normal, is it? Is any of this normal?”
With my back resting against the side of her car, I urged her weight forward against me. It didn’t matter that it was Monday morning, and we’d just finished our gym session. I didn’t care that we were both sweaty from particularly challenging workouts today. I hadn’t seen Iris since Saturday evening. I needed to make up for lost time.
“I don’t care if it’s normal or not,” I told her. “I missed you. And truthfully, when you kiss the way you do, I’m not sure you can blame me for feeling like that.”
Iris watched her fingertips as they brushed lightly against the side of my face, her mouth curving into a satisfied smile. “You have no idea how relieved I am to know that you feel that way. Do you think you’ve gotten enough to make up for yesterday?”
I didn’t think I’d ever have enough of her. “One more kiss should do it.”
“That’s excellent, because then I’m going to need at least two more beyond that to tide me over until tomorrow morning,” she teased.
A groan escaped, and I buried my face against herneck, her skin warm and flushed with a slight sheen of sweat. “Tomorrow is going to be even worse.”
Her body stiffened. “Why?”
Pulling my face back to look at her, my eyes roamed over her gorgeous, rosy face. “You don’t come here to work out on Wednesdays.”
“Crap,” she hissed. Her eyes darted around frantically. “Do you work late?”
I shrugged. “Depends on the day and what cases I’m working on. Why? Do you want to try to get together after work?”
She smiled at me, but her eyes were pleading. “Would you be okay with that? We don’t have to go out or anything. You can come over for dinner, and maybe we can just spend an hour or two together.”
