Katie had no doubt about what Rill wanted to say. He was going to tell her they’d crossed the line. She’d gone too far. She’d ruined their friendship forever.
He was going to throw her out on her ass.
He looked up when she entered the kitchen. He stood by the counter. The glass he was filling with diet soda nearly overflowed before he glanced down and righted the bottle. He wore a pair of faded jeans and a dark blue collared shirt. Rill always had been able to wear jeans better than any man she knew.
“Do you want some?” he asked, holding up the soda.
“Yeah, okay.” Her awareness of him ramped up exponentially as she stared at his strong forearms sprinkled with dark hair while he prepared her drink. It was so strange to relate to Rill like this, to feel this awkwardness and straining tension.
He handed her the iced soda and nodded toward the living room. Katie followed him. Something felt as if it were coming to life in her belly and squirming around to get out. He sat on the worn sofa, and Katie perched on the edge a foot away from him. A friendly fire crackled in the fireplace, but the cozy ambience did nothing to still her nerves. She opened her mouth, figuring she should be the one to speak first . . . to apologize for the other night, but Rill cut her off.
“I called Morgan and Watkins today.”
Katie paused in the action of raising her soda to her mouth. Shock coursed through her at hearing Rill say her former place of employment. It’d been the last thing she’d expected him to say. “You . . . you did what?”
“I called Morgan and Watkins. I’ve met your boss, Steve Fedderman, at a couple parties at your mom and dad’s house. Did you forget that?”
“Forget i
t?” Katie sputtered. “I’ve had no reason to think about it one way or another, let alone forget it.”
His mouth twisted slightly in dissatisfaction at her answer. “Fedderman told me you handed in your resignation at Morgan and Watkins three weeks ago. You just became partner last year, Katie. Are you mad, quitting a job after you worked your ass off for years?”
Katie just stared, at a total loss for words.
“When were you planning on telling me you’d quit your job?” Rill asked intently.
“I . . . There hasn’t been a chance. We’ve hardly talked since I arrived.” She blushed when she recalled what they had found time for.
“I called your mom and dad, as well.”
She felt like all the blood rushed out of her head. “You didn’t tell them, did you? About my job?”
“About your lack of a job, you mean? What were you thinking, quitting your job like that and driving halfway across the country by yourself?” he demanded.
“Don’t accuse me of being irresponsible,” she retaliated, pointing a finger at him. “You’re the one who hasn’t had gainful employment for eighteen months now. If I want to take a couple months’ sabbatical from work, that’s my business.”
“You made it my business, as well, when you showed up on my doorstep, Angel.”
Katie went very still. Her breath burned in her lungs. Something had flashed in his eyes when he’d said . . . showed up on my doorstep, Angel. For an anxious few seconds, she thought he’d remembered what’d happened the first night she arrived. He’d never called her an angel before that night, and never had since. Her alarm faded when she noticed Rill seemed irritated and confused, but not suspicious.
“You told them, didn’t you? My parents?” she asked grimly.
“I can’t believe you’ve kept Stan and Meg in the dark about this.”
“Did you tell them about Morgan and Watkins or not?”
He gave her an annoyed glare and then took a sip of his soda as though he were trying to cool off his temper with the frigid beverage. “No, I didn’t. But I told them you were in Vulture’s Canyon. I told them I didn’t want you here, but you wouldn’t listen to me.”
“What did they say?”
“Your father just laughed,” Rill muttered under his breath. When he noticed Katie’s small smile of triumph, irritation flared in his eyes. “He laughed until I told him a woman wasn’t safe here in this house with me.”
“Safe?” Katie uttered before she snorted. “I’m sorry for having to tell you this, Rill, but you’re starting to have delusions of grandeur in regard to your foulness. That bathroom might have been a threat to my health before I cleaned it, but that’s the only risk to my safety I’ve encountered since coming to Vulture’s Canyon, unless potentially catching Barnyard’s fleas counts.”
He leaned forward, his elbows on his knees, clearly astonished. “And what about the other night?”
“I’m the one who took advantage of you. Not the other way around.”