Shit, shit, shit.
I pinched my lips together as hard as I could to stop myself from crying out. But the pain in my palms, elbows, and knees made it impossible to keep the groans from escaping. I patted the ground around me trying to find my phone but after the third attempt, I gave up and rolled to my hip, groaned some more, and finally got back to my feet.
I wouldn’t say I was a total klutz, but neither was I the most athletic person on the planet. And I was definitely out of shape, but even being out of shape my spill was caused by a very large stack of logs. Which meant I didn’t just take a fall, I tumbled over the logs, and landed on my elbows, shoulder, and knees. If there was a deer camera somewhere I was positive the recording would end up on the internet and millions could have a good laugh at my idiocy.
This time when I ran, I did it with a limp. It was a crazy thing to think but I was pretty sure at this point I was certifiably crazy anyway. I had fled my house after all. And I wasn’t even positive someone had broken in, but I truly hoped someone had. And that was my crazy thought. Who wanted their house robbed? Me. I wanted my house broken into and ransacked. Something to make the pain worth it. My poor thighs hadn’t seen this much exercise in years. And I was pretty sure my knees and elbows were skinned. And that hadn’t happened to me since I was a kid.
I avoided all things that were physically exhausting.
Except for sex with Reese.
Stop.
Abort mission.
Friends don’t think about having sex with their friends.
Thankfully the senior center came into view. My legs were giving out and my heart was pounding so hard it was nearing heart attack range. I rounded the fence at the same time as Reese’s Rover skidded into the parking lot. Then the luxury ride demonstrated its superior braking system and did what the commercial advertised—fifty to zero in under two-point-five seconds.
Reese was out of the vehicle and running full sprint in my direction.
“Jesus, fuck,” he growled and scooped me up into his arms.
I wheezed out a pain-filled breath.
“Jesus, fuck,” he repeated.
Reese took off running back to his SUV, carrying me like I weighed nothing. Obviously, he wasn’t out of shape. I would’ve appreciated this more if my shoulder wasn’t throbbing with every pounding stride he took.
He wrenched open the passenger door, deposited me into the seat, and I watched him do a full-body scan.
“What the fuck happened?”
“I fell.”
“Jesus, fuck!”
“You shouldn’t say the Lord’s name in vain,” I scolded.
Reese’s scathing eyes snapped to mine then they slowly closed. When they opened again the contempt was gone but there was a lingering look of fear. I blinked twice, just to make sure I wasn’t seeing things. And nope, it was still there.
Then he confirmed what I knew in both words and deed.
First, he said, “You scared the shit out of me.” Then he leaned in close and pressed his lips against my forehead.
I should’ve been wondering if friends kissed each other’s foreheads. But I didn’t have the willpower. His lips felt too good. So did his proximity and his concern. Before I could figure out which part I liked the best he pulled away.
“Buckle up, Sadie.”
He didn’t wait for me to follow directions before he stepped back and closed the door.
There were a lot of things I should’ve been freaked out about, and now that I was safe and not running through strangers’ backyards some of my crazy subsided and I prayed my house hadn’t been burglarized. I couldn’t afford it, I needed to sell what I had left. I’d been putting off selling my TV so if that was missing it’d be a bummer. Then there was my phone, which was probably broken but I still needed to find it just in case because that was something I seriously couldn’t afford to replace and I didn’t have insurance on it.
Story of my freaking life.
Insurance.
If I’d only bought the stupid freaking warranty, I might not be so screwed.
I was never hanging up on those telemarketers offering extended warranties again.
Reese angled into the SUV just as his phone rang.
I glanced at the oversized, in-dash display that was bigger than my iPad. Wilson’s name appeared and Reese touched the screen to answer the call.
“Are you there?”
“Yeah.” Wilson’s voice came over the speakers.
Jeez, the sound quality was so good, if I closed my eyes I’d swear I was in an IMAX movie theater. Which reminded me, I’d fallen over a stack of logs and was probably getting Reese’s seat dirty.
I shifted and looked down at my funky, navy blue Hey Dude loafers and sure enough, they were caked in mud. The bottoms of my jeans and my knees were filthy.
Great. Awesome. Perfect.
“Front door was cracked open when I got here,” Wilson continued, and my heart sank. “Did Sadie leave it open when she left?”
“No. I went out the door in the garage.” Then I thought of something and looked over at Reese. “Did you lock the front door when you left?”
“Fuck,” he clipped.
I guess that was a no.
“Davis is walking the street, checking the cars,” Wilson carried on. “Give us five minutes.”
“Copy.”
Reese reached up, tapped the end icon, and turned to look at me.
“Damn, Sadie. Fuck, baby. I didn’t think to lock the door.”
Even if his tone wasn’t so tortured, there was just enough illumination inside the car for me to make out his features and he looked devastated.
“It’s not your fault. I don’t always keep the door locked when I’m home.”
One of his brows lifted, only one, and I thought it was cool he could do that. I couldn’t. And I’d tried many times, standing in front of a mirror looking ridiculous as I attempted to get my facial muscles to do something they refused to do.
“That’s not safe,” he informed me.
“You’re right. But it doesn’t mean I sometimes forget until I’m locking up for the night.”
There was a beat of silence and during this I took Reese in. Normally, he was downright good-looking. But him sitting next to me full of concern and anger that was not directed toward me was seriously sexy. Well, the concern was for me but for once he was angry at me. Though perversely, his anger at me for not wanting to take money from him was hot, too.
“You don’t have an alarm,” he weirdly stated.
“Reese, this is North Idaho, not the city. Of course, I don’t have an alarm. As a matter of fact, I don’t know anyone who has an alarm.”
“Yes, you do,” he countered. “Brooklyn and Letty have alarms.”
I couldn’t stop myself from rolling my eyes to the headliner, only instead of fabric, I found myself peering at a moonroof. Like everything else in the Rover, it was oversized.
“I’m afraid to know, but I think you paid more for this car than most people’s down payment on their first house.” My gaze swung back to him, and I finished. “And the only reason Brooklyn and Letty have alarms is because of Rhode and River. I know for a fact, neither had them before.”
“They have them now,” he unnecessarily reiterated.
“Do you have an alarm?” I inquired.
“I’m a man with an arsenal of weapons at my disposal.”
I felt my eyes narrow on behalf of the sisterhood.
“Sexist much?”
“Let me rephrase.” He smartly backtracked. “I have an arsenal of weapons I’m not afraid to use.”
“That’s not much better, Reese. How do you know I don’t have a gun? And what’s to say if someone broke into my home I wouldn’t shoot them to protect myself?”
“Do you own a gun?”
Damn.
“That’s not the point.”
“Yeah, Sadie, it is. You live alone, with no protection. And your outside lighting sucks. You got no streetlights in your neighborhood. You need motion lights front and back.”
“Motion lights?”
“Yes. Something to cut through the dark if someone approaches.”
“What else do I need, lasers? That way I can fry every moose who wanders through my yard after I blind it with high-powered beams of light?”
“Don’t be cute.”
“I’m being serious. I love seeing moose in my yard.” Reese tilted his head and stared at me like I had a screw loose. Since he had nothing to say I carried on. “And speaking of guns. I hope you keep yours locked in a safe. CDA is mostly safe but break-ins occur and gun ownership is a huge responsibility that includes keeping them out of the hands of criminals.”
Reese blinked rapidly. Once he was done with that, he smiled and asked, “Are you lecturing me about gun safety?”
“No. I’m not lecturing you about anything. As a citizen, I’m merely asking if your guns are locked up.”
“Yeah, Sadie, my guns are locked up and the one that is not is always within my reach. Now that we’ve established your love for seeing moose in your yard outweighs your desire to be safe in your home and I am indeed a responsible gun owner, maybe can we get back to you needing an alarm?”
No, we could not. Alarms were expensive. And even if I wasn’t broke and in danger of losing my business, I still wouldn’t waste money on an alarm. Not the installation of one and not the monthly fee to have it monitored. But luckily, I didn’t have to explain this to Reese because Wilson was calling back.
“What’s going on?” Reese asked.
“All clear to come back. We’ll wait for you.”
The line went dead.
“Do any of you say goodbye?”
Reese started his Rover and was moving through the parking lot before he answered, “Waste of time.”
“Saying goodbye is a waste of time?” I sought clarification.
“Yep. We say what we need to say and that’s it. There’s no need to say goodbye when the other person knows the conversation is over.”
“How did Wilson know you didn’t have questions before he hung up on you? And what’s with you not saying hello, either? You just start talking.”
“That falls into the waste of time category as well.”
He was kind of right but still, I told him, “It’s rude.”
Apparently, Reese felt any further conversation on the topic was also a waste of time because he didn’t say anything so I carried on.
“Just to say, when we talk on the phone and we’re getting ready to get off and you don’t say goodbye and hang up on me, it’ll piss me off.”
“Noted,” he mumbled.
Reese stopped at a stop sign and made a turn onto my street. He was correct, there were no streetlamps, however, most of my neighbors had their porch lights on as well as some sort of landscape lighting. I always thought it looked pretty; the darkness of the street even with the dim porch lights meant you could still see some stars. They weren’t drowned out by city lights.
“And you could answer my calls with a hello, too. It wouldn’t kill you to waste the millisecond it would take to be polite.”
“Do you always babble this much when you’re nervous?”
I wasn’t nervous.
“I’m not babbling,” I lied.
“Babe. You are. Everything’s gonna be okay.”
Reese pulled in front of my house and parked at the curb. My car was parked in my driveway since I was using my garage to store the furniture that had been sold. I might not want to blind the moose population, but I did take my safety seriously. I didn’t allow strangers into my house when someone came over to pick up something I’d sold. I also wore a fake wedding ring and I made sure to slide in a comment about “my husband” at least twice during the pickup.
Anyway, my car was there, so that was good. And the front of my house looked…unburglarized. Was that a word? And could a house look burglarized from the outside?
Oh, God, I was babbling. To myself no less.
Yep, fleeing my house, running in the dark through my neighborhood had officially sent me to Crazy Town.
“Okay, I’m a little nervous,” I admitted. “But mostly I’m really freaking mad I tripped and lost my phone.”
“I’ll find your phone.”
My gaze remained on my house, but I was no longer seeing the pretty trimmed hedges that ran the length of my porch. My mind was no longer filled with thoughts of woe. All I could think about was a simple statement that sounded like a promise and how I believed Reese would keep his word.
He’d find my phone.
Something simple.
But I believed him.