Be With Me(36)

She capped the bottle and then licked her thumb.

“Are you guys working today? I thought you said you had a tight deadline or something.”

“Wel , technical y, Cam has the tight deadline. He’s the architect. Hutch and I are just the grunts who do the hard labor. I turned over the two job sites that are under construction to our foreman so that we could be here,” Sawyer said.

She lowered her fork back to her plate and glanced over at Sawyer. “I’m curious about something. Your office is in Houston. You have a house in Houston. And yet here we are in this brand-new house an hour away. Obviously my little run-in with Mr. Freak Show had nothing to do with your relocating here. What about your business?” Sawyer glanced at Cam and then at Hutch, and it amused Hutch that there was a light of panic in Sawyer’s eyes. No doubt he would love for Cam, Mr.

Smooth, to step in and take this one.

Cam cleared his throat, and Hutch had to look away or risk laughing. Yep, he’d nailed that one.

“We’ve had plans to relocate here for a good while,” Cam said.

“Obviously,” Reggie said dryly. “This house must have taken eons to build.”

“For now we’re keeping our office in Houston. We have four crews working under us and two others that we contract with when we’re pressed for manpower. I can draw plans anywhere. We’l have some traveling back and forth to do, but it’s only an hour.” Her eyebrows drew together. “I had no idea you guys were doing so wel . I mean I knew you had a great start, but didn’t realize you’d expanded so much.”

“If you’d spent more time around us and less time running bal s to the wal , you’d know that,” Sawyer pointed out.

She flushed and dropped her gaze to her plate.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” she mumbled.

She ate a few more bites then glanced back up again. “If one of you isn’t too busy later, I hoped you could run me over to my house so I could get my car.” Hutch frowned. “Why do you need your car? You sure as hel don’t need to be driving yet.” She blew out her breath impatiently. “I would feel better if I had my vehicle here, just like I feel better that I have my gun.”

Sawyer broke in. “If you’re worried about being here alone again, that’s not going to happen.” She shook her head. “I’m not worried about being alone. My concern is having a means of transportation. I don’t want to have to rely on one of you to get around. You’re busy. You have jobs. I have a job too.”

Cam and Sawyer exchanged uneasy glances, and Hutch spoke up before either of them could.

“I’l take you over after breakfast.” Sawyer shot him a dark glance, but Hutch ignored it. Reggie smiled grateful y at him and resumed eating. Hutch shrugged when both Cam and Sawyer pinned him with their stares.

Both of them should realize by now that trying to pigeonhole Reggie was the fastest way to push her away. And she’d already done way too much damn running. It was time to start pul ing her in, not shoving her away.

Chapter 14

After breakfast, Regina went upstairs to shower and change. She stripped the brace from her wrist and flexed her hand experimental y. It was stil tender, but the swel ing had gone down.

She viewed her reflection in the mirror as she waited for the water to warm, and to her satisfaction, the bruising around her neck wasn’t nearly as visible.

The dark purple had faded to light green and yel ow with streaks of darker red. The mark on her face was barely noticeable. In a few more days, she’d be as good as new, and then maybe she could get back to work. Which reminded her that she needed to put in a cal to the chief to get an update on the progress of the case.

She stepped into the shower and groaned in pleasure as hot water cascaded over her body. She scrubbed her hair and rinsed quickly before stepping out to dry off. Several minutes later, after dressing, she stepped back into the bathroom to try and tame her hair into some semblance of order. Final y she opted to push the curls back from her face and secure it with barrettes.

Then she set about trying to put the brace back on her wrist. After cursing and fighting the sticky Velcro, she tossed it aside in disgust. She didn’t need it anyway.

She hurried out of the bathroom in search of her shoes and quickly discovered that no amount of contorting al owed her to bend enough to put them on without causing considerable pain to her ribs. She posted a huge mental note to get her slip-ons from the house when she went to get her car.

With a resigned sigh, she col ected the shoes and socks and headed downstairs.

“You’re moving better today,” Cam said when she hit the bottom of the stairs.

She looked up to see him standing a few feet away watching her. “Not exactly,” she muttered.

She shoved the shoes at him and walked past him into the living room, where Hutch was waiting for her.

Cam fol owed behind chuckling.

She sat down on the couch and pinned him with a glare. To his credit, he didn’t say a word as he dropped to one knee and began putting on her socks.

She glanced up at Hutch, whose eyes twinkled with merriment. She twisted her lips in disgust and looked back down at Cam. He slid the tennis shoes on and quickly laced them up. Then he patted the top of her foot.

“Al done.”

“Thanks,” she mumbled.

“You ready?” Hutch asked.