One More Taste (One and Only Texas #2)(80)
Murph shrugged. “She said she was, but I wouldn’t hold her to it. People who’ve been through what she has, they’re light as a feather. Doesn’t take much of a storm to blow them away.”
Knox had to believe she’d be back. If nothing else, then for the birth of Carina’s baby. He dropped his credit card on the glass countertop. “I’d like to become a member of the gym. And I’m going to need a personal trainer, someone to teach me kickboxing.”
Murph flicked the credit card back toward Knox. “What is this about? What’s your move, here? You stalking our girl for real this time?”
“I’m in love with her.” It felt weird to say aloud, as the truth often did.
“Doesn’t make you any less of a stalker.”
He wasn’t going to get anywhere with Emily unless he could win over the men who protected her and show them that he was a stand-up guy who valued her as much as they did. “True. So run my ID and credit card, look me up online, start a file on me. Meanwhile, you can train me. I’ll even let you or any of your guys try to beat the shit out of me in the ring.”
Murph’s stone-cold expression cracked with a snort of laughter. “Need me to go over the rates?”
“Nope.”
“Pay by the month?”
“Let’s do a year. Or two,” Knox said. “Whatever max amount your system is designed for.”
“That would be the lifetime membership.”
Sounded about right to Knox. He planned to stick around for as long as Emily would have him. A lifetime, even. “Sign me up.”
Murph raised a single eyebrow. “You want to hear how much that costs?”
“No. But get on with it. I could use a good fight this morning.”
Chicago, Illinois …
For the fourth day in a row, Emily sat at a café across the street from the building that had housed her parents’ penthouse apartment, wondering if that was even their place of residence anymore. She supposed she could have made her life easier by looking them up online, but that ran the risk of discovering a gushing society page article about their participation in a charity gala or news of her father’s latest business deal. She didn’t want to see their pictures on the internet. That wouldn’t do her any good.
When she’d set out on the trip, she hadn’t been clear on why she was driving twelve hundred miles north, or what she’d do if and when she saw her parents. All she knew was that fear of them—and fear of who she really was—had held her back for far too long. As she had when she’d quit the resort, with this she knew that the only way to change the trajectory of her life was to ignore her misgivings and force change to happen with sheer will.
It wasn’t until she crossed the state line into Illinois that she’d figured out her purpose for traveling there. She wanted to look into the faces of her parents and remind herself that she’d done the right thing by leaving. All she needed to do was see them, if only from across the street. There was no need for words to be exchanged, or for them to even know she’d been there.
Seeing them in the flesh was the only way she could bring them back down to the status of human beings rather than the larger-than-life, all-powerful monsters she’d created in her imagination. And then, once she’d corrected the image of them in her mind, she’d let go of all the fears and resentment she’d been harboring so she could move on to the next phase of her life with a clear heart.
The trouble was, she was running out of time. She had to get back to Texas soon because Carina’s baby was due any day. As important as it was for her to discover what had happened to her parents, being there for her best friend was priority number one, even though it meant apologizing to Carina’s family for leaving her job so abruptly. Even though it meant that she might see Knox before she was ready.
After her second day of fruitless surveillance, she’d debated approaching Louis, the doorman, who’d been watching over the building and the tenants who called it home for as long as Emily could remember. But she couldn’t quite convince her legs to walk across the street. For reasons she didn’t need to analyze, she needed a four-lane buffer between herself and her old life.
Of all the things she missed from her old life, Louis topped the list. Often, when her father would be dragging her along beside him, handling her too abrasively or quietly berating her, Louis would find a way to distract her dad and slip her candy. He was always ready with a smile and a willing ear when she got home after school, to listen to her expound about playground drama and the lessons she’d learned in class. Most importantly, he’d always kept her secrets, and was the last person to talk to her on the day she ran away with nothing but the clothes on her back and a full backpack, though he didn’t know she was leaving for good at the time. He’d held the door open for her that day and had slipped her a twenty-dollar bill, explaining that he didn’t have much, but he wanted her to go buy herself a sweet treat.
In the early afternoon on this fourth day of watching and waiting, Emily stood, once again trying to work up the courage to walk across the street and talk to Louis. She busied herself collecting the trash from her table, sweeping up crumbs from the muffin she’d eaten and bussing her dishes, as she tried to talk herself down from her fear. He was just a man. A very nice man. She had nothing to be scared of.