Page 54 of Nothing to You
She shook her head.“Wasn’t interested.He lived with us for a couple of years, but my mom just got to be too much.It’s not easy, I get that.And maybe talking wouldn’t have solved all the problems, but I always thought…” Inhaling, she held the breath a second before releasing it.“If there had been someone, anyone, to even pretend like they cared for her, for us, it would’ve made a difference.There was no attempt to help her, to support her, even within the community, that might have allowed us to stay together.”
“Oh, honey,” Roxie said and took her hand, startling her.“Have you talked to Rourke about this?”
Sitting up, she put her glass on the coffee table.“He knows I have strong opinions on the subject.On a lot of subjects.”
“You must really have hit it off at the SIT pitch if he’s inviting you into his home.”
Had Zairn not told her or was Rourke tightlipped?
“We met before the pitch, sort of.We knew each other online, through Huddle,” she said.“If you can believe it.”Roxie’s neck relaxed.“What?”
“You’re not the…” Slowly, the woman smiled.“Oh my God, I know who you are.”She looked all around.“Where’s my phone?”
“Who I am?”she asked, not following.
“I need my phone.Notmyphone.Obviously.Aphone.”
“Why not yours?”
“It won’t be charged,” Roxie said quickly.“Where did our guys go?”
“Upstairs,” she said.“Probably to Rourke’s lair.I’ll show you.”
If Zairn had access, there was no reason Roxie shouldn’t.They went up.She didn’t expect to open the double doors and see the guys sharing the desk, stacks of files everywhere.
“What’s going on?”she asked, frowning at the piles as she approached.
“Give me your phone,” Roxie said, rushing over to grab Zairn’s jacket from the back of his chair.
“I’m hiring someone to follow you around with a charger,” he said as his fiancée fished his cellphone from his jacket pocket.
“We used to laugh at the couples who shared phones,” Rourke said.
“Laugh.I’d laugh if it wasn’t so infuriating.She thinks nothing of being cut off.”
“You’re used to people being around when you need them.Especially when you’re being faithful to one pussy.Doesn’t she understand the potential urgency?”
Files.Three piles.
She opened the first and then the second.“These are the SIT files.”
“These are the no,” Rourke said, pointing his pen at one stack then the next.“Yes.”
“And the third?”she asked, switching to open the first.
“The maybe pile.You have to review them.”
“You want me to review them?Review your work?”she asked, subduing a laugh.“Why are you doing this anyway?I thought your time was too valuable.”
“Z can’t look at work that needs done and ignore it.When the Kyst-meister isn’t in the room anyway.When she’s around, his priorities are straight: tits and ass.Same place every respectable man’s focus should be.”
“Mm, right,” she said.
“There’s still a box on the floor we haven’t touched.You’ll be up all night.”
“Will I?”she asked.When her eyes slid up to his, the slant of seduction wasn’t far from his lips.“We have work tomorrow.”
“Maybe,” he said.“Depends how well you do tonight.”
