Reveal (Wicked Ways #2)(71)
Will I ever know what it’s like not to have to look over my shoulder at every turn? Will I be able to get my teaching credential without anything from my past rearing its ugly head and ruining any background check that might take place? I press my fingers to my temples and close my eyes, the latest round of bill paying just the icing on the cake to a rather shitty week.
When my phone rings, I half expect it to be Priscilla on the other end of the line but am surprised to see Ryker’s name.
Every part of me sags in elation at the sight of it.
“Hello?”
“Hi.” His voice. Sigh. “It’s okay for you to pick up the phone and call me sometimes, you know.” His chuckle rumbles through the line.
“I know.”
“Do you?” His tone is playful.
“I do.”
“Good, because I was worried you were over there sitting behind your desk convincing yourself of every reason we shouldn’t be together instead of every reason that we should be. I vote for the glass-half-full approach.”
“I prefer it half-empty.”
And isn’t that the two of us in a nutshell? My whole life I’ve been left hoping for more while dealing with less. And then there’s Ryker, who has had access to everything, and yet he allows himself only so little.
“You need to change your outlook.”
“I do?”
“Mmm. Like one where you look up and see me standing in your doorway because I missed you and wanted to see you,” he says, and I immediately turn around to look at my front door, half expecting him to be there and being slightly disappointed when he’s not.
“You’re not standing here, though.”
“You haven’t invited me to be.”
I laugh. “You’ve never been one to wait for an invitation.”
“Now. Tomorrow. I need to see you,” he says, and the raw emotion in his voice hits me deep in my core.
“Seeing you scares me.” My unexpected confession takes me by surprise.
“What?” His voice is part amused, part leery, while I fill the line with nervous laughter.
“Everything has been calm. Quiet. Uneventful. I bet you a hundred bucks that if we see each other, the crazy will somehow reveal itself once again.”
“Stop thinking that way.”
“You know I’m right. Brian. Carter. A meteor strike. Who knows?”
It’s his turn to chuckle now as he realizes I’m right. “True enough.”
I pick at my nail polish as I weigh what to say next. “Yes. But . . .”
“Outside influences shouldn’t matter.”
“It seems these days everything matters.” I sigh.
“Just let us be us, Vee. We’ll figure the rest out.”
“Easy for you to say.”
“It’s the truth,” he says matter-of-factly.
“How do you know this, though?”
“Because I’m fucking miserable sitting here not knowing when I get to see you next. Because you and I are better when we’re together, even if a meteor might strike. Because why would we let us be anything else?”
“A work in progress,” I say to cut him off.
“Exactly.” His laugh makes me smile. “So do I get to see you again?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
I hesitate to answer, even though every part of me is screaming yes.
What I’m fighting against I’m not quite sure.
My battle against needing someone? My fear that he’s bad for me and therefore I don’t need him? Or is it my fear that he just might be that fairytale ending that Lucy always watches? The one that’s never happily ever after until you turn to the very last page?
Maybe I’m just trying to see what chapter we’re on so I know how much more there is to our story until we can turn to that ride-off-into-the-sunset page.
“When?” I finally respond.
“Yes, when?”
“The next few days.”
“Should I pick you—”
“I’ll come to you.” I draw in a shaky breath, suddenly nervous. “Good night, Ryker.”
“Good night.”
And when I end the call and hold my cell to my chest, the smile on my lips just might reflect a glass half-full.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Vaughn
“Aren’t you a sight for sore eyes.” Exhaustion etches the lines of his face, but his expression is one of pure surprise when he sees me standing out front of his office building.
“Truth be told, I was debating whether to come in and see you.”
“Yes. The answer is always yes.” He says the words but doesn’t make a move toward me.
We stand and stare at each other like two awkward teenagers for a few moments as the world buzzes on around us. People are leaving for a night out after work. Some are rushing home.
But it’s just Ryker in his sleek suit, a little rumpled, a lot sexy, and me in my exercise clothes with a bag under my arm that holds my uniform for work.
“You’re leaving early today.” I take a step closer, knowing he typically leaves the office long after rush hour, and reach out to run a hand down his cheek. “You look exhausted.”