When Benji had finished and every question that could possibly be asked was asked, we made our way out to the parking lot. Rais was preparing to fly to New York to meet Nash. A job had come up, and he was needed.

“I’m sorry I have to miss the search for Caleb Harrison tomorrow.”

“I’ll let you know how it goes,” I told him.

He offered Benji his hand. “I texted you the passwords for the security system. Keep Shaw out of trouble, all right? I’m counting on you.”

Benji’s smile was enormous.

I hugged Rais, the quick guy-clench, and he gave me one final wave as he drove away.

“You seem sad.” Benji held my hand as we walked toward my SUV. “You’ll miss him, won’t you?”

“It’s always nice to have a friend with you,” I explained. “But with Brasher and Rodriguez here, at least now I know I have competent backup.”

He nodded. “Nice to know that if something happens, there’s someone to go to who’ll help.”

Putting my arm around him, I led him to my rental. Once we were in with our seatbelts fastened, I started the SUV and asked him where he needed to be this afternoon.

“Nowhere,” he replied cheerfully, turning his head to smile at me. “I told Sian I was done for the day. I plan for us to go home and destroy my bed together.”

I squinted at him.

“What? Too crass? You need more romance?”

“You did not say that to your friend.”

“The hell I didn’t,” he assured me.

My sigh was loud. “We need to get groceries first, though, because your refrigerator is crying out for staples.”

“So you’d rather have food than sex? This is what you’re saying?”

I was so out of my depth with him. Talking to him, being around him, everything was so easy. It made no sense.

“You’re looking at me funny again.”

I had no idea how to explain it.

“This all seems so normal,” I finally settled on. “Like something started, but I missed how and when. I can’t point to a time and say, ‘Oooh, this is when we began.’”

Both of his eyebrows were raised.

“You think I’m nuts.”

“No,” he murmured, “I think you’re adorable.”

I scoffed. “Just what every man wants to be. Fuckin’ adorable.”

His snort of laughter made me shake my head, so he reached over to take hold of my hand. “Shaw, I don’t believe in love at first sight either, but I feel so connected to you in a very magical way.”

I groaned loudly. “No, don’t say magical.”

“And why is that a bad thing?”

“It’s not bad,” I stressed. “I just like things that make sense and can be explained.”

“That’s fair, but haven’t you ever met someone and known, beyond a shadow of a doubt, they weren’t new to you? That you’d met them somewhere before but couldn’t place where or when?”

“Yeah, of course.”

“And when that happens, can’t a deeper connection also occur? Isn’t that possible?”

It was. He was right.

“Then maybe we should go with that instead of—oh,” he said, looking concerned, before pointing over my shoulder.

Turning, I saw a woman shivering in the rain and rolled down my window. “Ma’am, do you need help?”

“No, I—can I get in?”

“Of course.” I unlocked the door and would have gotten out to open the door for her, but as soon as she heard the click, she scrambled inside.

The rain was coming down harder now, and I turned the rear heater on for her, then turned around to give her my attention. Benji had his arms wrapped around the headrest, facing her.

“What can we do for you?”

She took a breath, and only then did I notice how red and puffy her eyes were. “I’m Suzie Belmont. Caleb Harrison and I were in love.”

“That’s nice,” Benji said and I turned to look at him. “What? It is.” He sounded defensive.

“Where do you live?” I asked her.

“In Gearhart.”

“Start from the beginning and explain what’s going on.”

Suzie Belmont and Caleb Harrison had met when he was traveling cross-country on his motorcycle. Rais had been wrong; it wasn’t a dirt bike, even though it resembled one, but was a street-legal bike that Caleb had ridden from Kentucky all the way to Oregon. He had met Suzie when he stopped at the bar in Gearhart where she worked, and they had more than hit it off.

“It was like fireworks from the start,” she told us with a sigh.

The problem was, Suzie was married. She and her husband, Peter Belmont, owned the bar together. Pete had been away on a hunting trip with his friends for a week when she met Caleb, and she never got around to telling him that, just because she didn’t wear a ring, it didn’t mean she hadn’t gotten married right out of high school.

A laundry list of lies had kept Caleb away from the bar after that.

“I told him Pete was my boss, and that he didn’t like anyone in the bar to socialize with the waitresses while we were working, and since Caleb was on a shoestring budget, he couldn’t afford to sit and order drinks all day, so there was no excuse for him to be there.”

Tags: Mary Calmes Torus Intercession Romance
Source: readsnovelonline.net