Page 42 of Forced Proximity
Webber stayed quiet for a long time as he navigated the traffic before saying, “Is that why you’ve been gone? Why you took this job that you said was only temporary, and haven’t come back?”
I scratched the back of my head. “Yeah.”
“No one blames you for taking the time you need to grieve, man,” Webber murmured as he cast me a quick glance before taking his eyes back to the road. “We just want you to be happy. If that’s all the way in DC, then we’ll support you fully. Would we like you here? Hell yes. Would we be sad that we can’t see you? Double fucking yes. But we’re not going to begrudge you the time. But, just in case you haven’t noticed, everyone has kids, man. Just because you move up there and don’t come home doesn’t mean that they’re still not going to be in your life. I mean, look at today. You had a kid strapped to your chest in the middle of one of the worst days of your life. And you lived. It sucked. It was really hard. But you took care of Dru and that baby…and you lived.”
My shoulders slumped. “It made me want to puke.”
“But you did it.”
I nodded. “But I did it.”
“So what’s your next step?” he asked. “You need therapy. And I know that I’m not usually one to follow my own advice, but Silver’s made me fuckin’ soft, man. And if you don’t want to talk to a therapist, at least talk to someone else.” His eyes glanced in the rear-view mirror. “Like a pretty little nurse that is obsessed with you.”
“What makes you think she’s obsessed?” I asked.
Because if anyone was obsessed, it was me.
I already had my computer and laptop working double time so I could find everything there was to know about Dru Rossi out. I’d know her every single wish and desire by the end of the day.
I’d have her shopping history. Her credit score. Her fuckin’ bookmark history on her computer.
I wanted to know it all, down to the tiniest of things.
If it concerned her, or even partially skimmed just beneath the surface of her, I wanted that knowledge.
Sure, I could ask her, but that wasn’t usually how I worked.
Plus, I doubted she’d go as in-depth as I wanted.
Hell, at this point I wanted to know her average keystroke when she typed. I wanted to know how many times she fuckin’ blinked in a minute.
I was that obsessed.
“She followed your every move. Every time someone came into that hotel room, she’d ask about you. She even Googled you when someone let her use their phone. Wouldn’t leave without you. Got combative when they tried to separate you out to talk to you about the crash. If that doesn’t sound like she’s obsessed, after having known you for only a few short hours, then I don’t know what does.”
I smiled. Her fit when they’d tried to separate us had been epic, and short of arresting her for doing nothing wrong but being irrationally attached to me, they had no other recourse but to bring us in together.
I had a feeling, had they tried to push harder, she would’ve shut down and not answered a single one of their questions.
I’d never felt so wanted in my life.
Webber took the turn that would lead us to my place, and I paused. “You’re not taking her home?”
“Not tonight,” he said. “Unless you don’t want her to go home with you.”
The thought of taking her to that shithole sounded just about as bad as it could be.
I didn’t want her anywhere near her place until I could get some eyes on it.
Which led to me asking, “I have a favor.”
“You want eyes on her place,” he guessed.
I shot him a look. “I want eyes on everything. Inside. Outside. Her car. If it’s possible to get a view of it, I want it. But I’ll take care of everything on my end. I just want to see if you’ll get Silver to run by Dru’s place and get her some things.”
His eyes went a little haunted. “I’m not sure she’ll want to go back.”
“Fuck.” I mentally slapped my face. “I forgot.”
