Her Mane Men (Paranormal Dating Agency Kindle World)(15)

“That’s why we are calling.” Curtis’s voice was off. Crap, they changed their mind. I stopped at the corner, not wanting to cross just yet. “Something came up back at home.”

“So you’re leaving.” I knew from the first night that they were temporary, so I should’ve been more prepared than I was from the way my stomach dropped.

“Only for a few days,” Parker echoed in my ear along with someone shouting about a cheeseburger. “We’ll be back before you know it.” It was a promise, not a nicety. They would be back.

“We wouldn’t leave if we didn’t have to,” Curtis added as if he feared I didn’t believe him. The truth. Always. That was what we decided. Silly man. “A drunk ran the stop sign and drove into the front of our house, and we need to take pictures, file paperwork, and such.”

“That’s awful.”

“It could’ve been worse. We were here and not sitting on our couch when it happened.” I envisioned Parker doing just that and squeezed my eyes shut, willing the vision to go away, the horror of it too much, just too much.

“So much worse,” I mumbled as I pressed the walk signal, the sounds of gate something or other being announced filling my ears. Shit. They were leaving right then and there. “You’re already at the airport.” I failed at schooling my disappointment.

“We are.” Parker sounded just as saddened by it as I was. “We didn’t want to call you during work because of what happened earlier.”

“Never let George change your mind about anything.” He was such a little turd. “He’s not worth it.”

“He’s your boss.” Curtis the Logical. Not that he was completely wrong. Curtis was right, but hopefully not for long.

“I was actually hoping to change that. A promotion opened up in another department.” I didn’t quite meet the qualifications but had double the experience desired and was in-house, so I had a shot.

“They’d be fools not to select you.” Parker was too stinking sweet.

The speaker squeaked again. The whole speaker phone thing in the airport was less than ideal. We’d have to think up a better way to three-way conversation in the future. I was sure my techy beau could whip something up.

My. I thought of him as my guy, my beau. Both of them. They were mine. Mine. It rolled around in my mind again as the speaker squeaked yet again.

“That’s us. We have to go. Stay safe.” Curtis mumbled to someone before a beep filled my ears. They were boarding.

“I plan to. You also.” The thought of something happening to them, amplified by the knowledge of the accident at their house, hurt.

“Rain check?” they both asked at the same time, and I smiled, wondering if Curtis put Parker up to it or the other way around.

“Absolutely.” To be cashed in the very second they returned if I had anything to do with it. “We were talking about getting a month-to-month rental there when we got the call. No pressure. Just wanted to be upfront.”

They were in. Like all in. Apartment-on-this-side-of-the-country in.

“I am more relieved than pressured.” It was the truth. That one little nugget of knowledge meant so much more than anything else they could’ve said.

“Because it meant we really were coming back?” Parker’s question caught me off guard. They had been so upfront with their intentions, had I been holding mine back too much?

“Something like that.” More like everything like that. I needed to make all things clear during our next date. I owed them the same courtesy they gave me. “Did they just announce seat belts?”

“Maybe.”

They totally did. Parker’s coyness only solidified it.

“Shoo and let me know when you get there safely.”

“We will. Night, beautiful.”

“Night.”

I hung up just as the light to cross changed. I was in so much less of a hurry to go home now that it was to an empty apartment.





Chapter Eight


Could the day be any longer? The guys, as I now referred to them in my head, were picking me up at the end of my workday, which dragged on and on. We’d spent the week texting, talking, and video chatting. We talked about the mess they went home to which, sadly, included the drunk being uninsured and structural damage all the way to what our favorite movie was as kids. After six long days, they were finally going to be back, and I was stuck at work, my request to leave early denied. Next week’s meeting with the division head over the job I applied for couldn’t come soon enough.

Focusing on work was not happening. It didn’t help that every pain in the chunk complaint was thrown my way, thanks to George the asshat. He’d always been a jerk, but today he escalated things to a new level and for no reason I could place. I’d been doing the job of two and skipping lunches. Basically, I’d been the ideal freaking employee. Jerk.

A few minutes before quitting time, I informed my section head that I wasn’t feeling well and wouldn’t be there in the morning. It was legit. I was sick of work and had more sick time than I would be allowed to carry over into the next fiscal year. Sick day it was.

Upon my guys’ insistence, they were there to pick me up as I exited the building. What I really wanted to do was sneak home ahead of them and take a shower and put on not-work clothing, but saying no to them was nearly impossible. They were just too sweet and, dayum, I missed them and, if they picked me up, we had more time together.