Claiming Sarah (Ace Security #5)(31)

So everything he’d done for her so far—giving her recommendations for real estate agents to help her decide if she wanted to sell her house, talking to the manager of the apartment complex in Castle Rock with the security he thought was vital, sending her reviews of the best video cameras for outside her house and lightly badgering her to make a decision already, even telling her he’d researched the Adoption Exchange and had made a donation on behalf of Rock Hard Gym—had been done because he was thinking, and worrying, about her.

So far, she hadn’t seen that he was all that traditionally romantic, but she’d take someone looking out for her well-being and safety over roses and candy any day. She’d had enough of the latter two to last a lifetime.

The second Sarah pulled into her driveway, she saw the box tied with a big red bow on her front porch.

It was dark outside. She’d had to stay late and finish up some paperwork before she’d been able to leave the hospital. Then there’d been a wreck on the road, and she’d been held up for an extra fifteen minutes or so.

Hating that she still hadn’t cleaned out her garage, and vowing that was the first thing she was going to tackle when she started packing up the house, she turned off her car and took a deep breath. Gathering up her purse and holding her phone in her hand, her thumb hovering over the speed dial for 911, she got out of the car and headed for the front door.

She didn’t see Owen or anyone else lurking around her front porch, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to leap out of the bushes or come running around the side of her house the second her back was turned.

The box was smaller than the one that had held the dollhouse, but Sarah had learned when it came to Owen’s gifts, sometimes the smaller the box, the scarier the contents. She wanted to leave it sitting outside, but knew she needed to open it and document whatever he’d sent her this time.

Feeling sick, she quickly unlocked the door and pushed the box inside with her foot. Once the door was shut behind her, and she’d locked the dead bolt and put on the safety chain, she relaxed slightly.

Then, doing the thing she hated the most, she put her purse down on the kitchen counter and started her walk-through of the house. She turned on every light she passed, checking inside the closets and under the beds to make sure she was truly alone in her home. Her greatest nightmare would be to wake up in the middle of the night to Owen climbing out from under her bed or something.

Once she was one hundred percent sure she was alone, she stood in the middle of her bedroom and shot a quick text to Cole.

Sarah: I’m home.

The three dots on the bottom of the screen letting her know Cole was responding showed up immediately.

Cole: It took longer than usual for you to get home??

Sarah: Accident.

She knew she wasn’t being as chatty as she usually was, but the dread of having to open the box downstairs was hanging over her like a wet blanket.

Cole: What’s wrong?

Figured he’d pick up on her feelings.

Sarah: Long day. Long drive. And a freaking box on my doorstep.

Twenty seconds later, Sarah startled badly when the phone rang in her hand. She saw it was Cole calling.

“Hi,” she said after she unlocked the phone.

“Are you all right?”

Sarah sighed. She loved Cole’s voice. It was deep, soothing, and just hearing it made her feel a hundred times better.

“Yeah. Just dreading finding out what he sent me this time.”

“You been through the house yet?”

Cole knew her ritual. She’d told him how she’d started searching the house to make sure she was truly alone after she started receiving the presents.

“Yeah. It’s empty.”

“Good. You want to come earlier tomorrow?”

Damn, he was sweet. “Yeah, but I can’t. I promised myself that I’d get some packing done. I’ve been putting it off way too long. I have a ton of stuff I have to take to Goodwill, and I really want to clear out one side of the garage so I can park in there.”

She heard Cole sigh. “I wish I could come and help you, but I’m meeting with Grace and Felicity to talk marketing in the morning, then I have a couple of classes I’m teaching in the early afternoon.”

“It’s okay,” Sarah told him.

“It’s not,” Cole insisted.

“Cole, I’m a big girl. I’ve been putting this off, and I need to get off my ass and get it done, once and for all. Besides, I have a feeling it’s going to be hard, because I know I’m going to have to get rid of a lot of Mike and Jackson’s stuff that I’ve been holding on to. I wouldn’t be good company.”

“You don’t have to always be ‘on’ around me, angel. That’s part of being in a relationship with someone. You see them when they’re upset. Or angry. Or sad.”

“I know, but . . . I don’t want you to have any reason to not want to be with me. Cole, we’ve barely been dating.”

“Sarah, that’s one thing you definitely don’t have to worry about. I swear I feel as if I’ve already come to know you better in just a few weeks than anyone I’ve ever dated before.”

Sarah sat on the edge of her mattress and closed her eyes. She felt exactly the same way. They’d had some pretty open conversations on the phone since they’d last seen each other. They talked about a lot of the things that new couples wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot pole. Gay marriage, politics, sexual harassment in the context of celebrities and public figures, the death penalty, even the legalization of marijuana.