Page 11 of Somebody to Save
“You better. Love you lots!”
“I love you, too.”
I hung up and immediately checked my texts.
Gloria: Hey, Addie. I’m so sorry, but my son is sick and I won’t be in this morning. We have a new resident coming in this afternoon to move in. Can you cover for me? Everything is available in the “new tenant” folder.
Any idea that the day was going to be calm and smooth instantly vanished.
I took a long, deep breath and exhaled slowly when there was a knock on the door and Mr. Peterson poked his head inside. I donned my usual smile and swallowed down my anxiety.
I’d make it through the day. Hopefully.
SIX
BIG GIRL PANTIES
Addison
“Okay,I’m so sorry about that, Ms. Crawford. We’re a little short-staffed today. Our property manager is out, so I’m filling in,” I said quickly.
Our new resident stood before me and smiled no matter how frantic I was. She was so casually elegant with her perfect makeup and her long gray hair pinned out of her face.
The morning had included one crisis after the next, and I was struggling to keep up by myself. Although I’d managed to keep my head above water, I’d forgotten about our new resident moving in. I was trying to quickly shovel my lunch in my mouth when Jen, our assistant, told me she was in the lobby. Thankfully, Michelle Crawford appeared kind and understanding.
But the moment she began to speak, I felt a presence behind me.
Her eyes darted over my shoulder, and I tensed.
Like my body knew who it was before my head, the hair on the back of my neck stood on end, and the second I heard his low voice whisper, “Bubbles,” a shiver whipped down my spine.
I held my breath and closed my eyes for a brief moment,silently hoping that it was all in my head. I would rather be making up scenarios than to have Mr. Phantom standing behind me because how the hell had he found me?
Unfortunately, I would have remembered his voice anywhere and the way he made my body feel without trying. It was all I’d been thinking about since I left him. It was impossible to forget.
My first instinct—ignoring the one that urged me to turn and leap into his arms—was to run. But I was working and that would have been frowned upon. I also really needed my job. All of them.
So, I ignored every instinct and put on my big girl panties. I opened my eyes and squared my shoulders before I spun in place.
Nothing could have prepared me to see his face again. Especially not in the bright afternoon light. His jaw was just as sharp and square as I remembered, dusted with a thick dark stubble that was highlighted with a few gray hairs. The few grays at his temples and the shallow lines around his eyes were the only noticeable signs of his age.
But those little signs only made him more attractive to me. As did his longer, tousled brown hair that nearly skimmed his shoulders. Hair that I’d easily slipped my fingers through that night and reminisced about since.
I tried to hide the way my eyes slipped down his body, but it was hard when he was only a few feet in front of me. Either way, I glanced down quickly and noted that his dark blue suit fit just as well as his tuxedo on Halloween night.
When my eyes met his once again, there was no doubt he’d noticed my appraisal. Mirth sparkled behind his golden irises, and I swallowed hard as he returned the favor, dropping his eyes down, down,down.He didn’t even try to hide how his gaze snagged on my cleavage that was notably appropriate for work.
But not so much when he was looking at me like he wanted to devour me whole.
“It is you,” he muttered, licking his lips like he was trying tohide his smile. “Bubbles,” he said again, and I suppressed the shiver that made me tense.
“Beckett, did you—did you just call Ms. Hawkins, Bubbles? What is a ‘Bubbles’?”
Thankful for the interruption, I shook my head and spun back around to our new tenant.
“Beckett?” I asked, surprise evident in my voice. “Do you—you know each other?”
Ms. Crawford nodded, her dark gray brows knitted together. “Yes, Beckett is my nephew. He’s helping me move in.”
