Page 96 of Embers in Our Souls
I hatelong nights in the office, and one of our authors is on a big deadline. Noah’s home with a babysitter and I just got off FaceTime with him. He’s happy as a clam, going on and on about school and what he did at recess with Harley. He’s unaffected about me working late, while all I want to do is cuddle up beside him instead of being here right now.
I sit back and stare at my computer. I rub at my eyes, no amount of coffee fixing this headache that’s bound to breakthrough.
A few more hours pass, everyone looking just as wiped as I’m feeling as we go through content in the conference room.
Once we get everything in order, we call it a night. I stand up, realizing it’s already after ten. My assistant and I walk toward my office.
“Angela, I’m going to work from home tomorrow. Make sure if anyone needs to get ahold of me, you forward all calls to my cell.”
“No problem, Ms. Ranton,” she says, following behind me. “Is there anything else you need from me before I head out?”
“Not right now. I’ll contact you tomorrow and we can go through a few more items before the Filmore meeting on Thursday.” The up-and-coming author is one I’ve been looking forward to connecting with.
“Sounds good. Have a good night.” Angela leaves my office and I finish gathering my things. I make sure I have everything I need to work from home and head out a few minutes later.
Walking to my car, I start to mentally plan out my morning. Maybe I could work from Tyler’s place instead of my own. Once I drop Noah off at school, I could take my laptop to his house and do everything there instead.
I crave his presence now. For someone that was wanting to divorce Tyler Hunter not long ago, now all I want to do is blanket myself in him. I’m realizing he is everything my life was lacking. And I realize Noah agrees from the way he lights up each time Ty enters the room.
In all honesty, we both radiate happiness at the sight of my husband. We’ve been taking things slow when it comes to Noah, but behind closed doors, we pick right up from this starting point that we’ve been bound as husband and wife for more than a decade. I won’t pretend it doesn’t make my heart race.
The drive home is quick due to the late hour. Walking in, I note how quiet it is. My babysitter, Evette, is sitting on the couch with a cup of tea and a book.
“Hey,” she says, placing a bookmark and standing.
“Hi,” I whisper. “Sorry. My night was a lot longer than I anticipated.”
“It’s fine. Noah went right to bed. He’s a good kid.” She waves me off.
“That’s sweet of you to say. I didn’t anticipate it taking up so much of my time tonight. Thanks again,” I say. “Did dinner work out?”
“Yes. It arrived and Noah loved it,” she says, putting her mug in the dishwasher. “He said Hunter makes a better burger though.” She looks at me expectantly, hoping I’ll give her the scoop.
“Hunter is my boyfriend,” I tell her. It’s hard to contain my smile.
“I picked up on that from the way Noah talked about him.” I expect her to press further, but she pats my hand, then gives me a wink. “That boy seems to really like him.”
I smile brightly and nod. “Yeah, he does. They get along really well.”
“That’s good. He had some worksheets to do for school, so we got those done. Other than that, it was an easy night. Hopefully you can relax.”
She gathers her things and starts to head for the door. I follow her, thanking her for everything.
Once I say my goodbyes, I grab my phone and see a missed call from Kalli. Even though we work together, I haven’t seen her since this morning when we had our routine coffee together.
I head to Noah’s room and peek my head in, seeing him sleeping soundly. I let him be, not wanting to disturb him.
Looking back at my phone, I decide to call Kalli back in case it’s an emergency.
“Hey,” she answers. She doesn’t sound upset.
“Hi. You okay?” I ask.
“Yeah. All good. I wanted to see how the night was. I know you had to stay late. Did you just get home?”
“Ugh. Yes. You know I hate when I have late nights like this.” I try to avoid it because of Noah, but it’s part of the job. I go through the cupboard to grab a glass to pour some wine. I need to unwind a bit. “Aren’t you usually trying to go to bed about now?”
Since having her daughter, Kalli is all about sleeping on the earlier side. This is considered late for her.
