Page 29 of Soft
He nodded, satisfied, and didn't say anything else about it. He didn't need to.
I pulled out my phone and opened the thread with Grizzly one more time. Our texts sat there, a reminder that the ball was in his court. I didn't send anything else. I just let it be what it was.
Patient,I reminded myself.You can be patient.
CHAPTER 10
Grizzly
I read the texts three times before I could put my phone down. Ten seconds later, I picked it back up and read them again, because apparently two in the morning was the right time for me to be doing detective work on a total of three sentences.
I meant what I said. No pressure. I'm around when you're ready.
The thing about Paxton was that he said exactly what he meant. I’d understood that much from our video call, and it had been further confirmed in person. There was no reading between the lines because he was so transparent. He wasn't the type to bury a message in subtext or wrap his intentions in layers that required a degree to decipher.
That should have made it easier. Instead, it made me feel like I was standing at the edge of a diving board too high up when I’m the type of person to always need a life jacket.
I typed backThank you for the message. I'm sorry about last nightbefore I could overthink it, and then I set my phone face down on the nightstand and stared at the ceiling for a while.
I didn't sleep particularly well after that, but at least I tried.
Cheyenne had orange juice waiting on her desk when I came in the next morning, same as always. She was good about keeping things steady without making a production of it.
I grabbed the bottle and cracked it open before I even said good morning. She had long since stopped being offended by my lack of manners.
Some people needed coffee to function. I needed cold juice and friendly faces.
"You look like you've been up thinking all night," she said.
"Good morning to you too."
She smiled at her computer screen. "Moseley called out today. His grandmother's in from out of town, and she doesn't do well with being left alone. He said he'd make up the hours later this week."
"Tell him not to worry about it. Family comes first."
I settled into the chair beside her desk rather than going straight to my office. I only ever did so when I wanted to talk and wasn't sure how to start. She'd learned to wait me out.
I turned the juice bottle in my hands a few times. "What do you think of Paxton Wells?"
She didn't react the way most people would when asked about a client. There was no careful professional hedge, nowell he seems nice enough. She turned in her chair to face me directly and said, "I think he's exactly what you've been needing for a very long time, in more ways than one."
"That's a lot to put on someone you've only met briefly."
"I've got good instincts, and you know it." She folded her hands in her lap. "He came in here and his first concern wasn't his career. It was you. He wanted to know if you were okay, if anyone had checked on you. He offered to bring soup. He didn't know you at all and his first thought was to take care of you. You tell me what that says about a person."
I didn't have an immediate answer. The truth was it said plenty. That was part of the problem.
"He's young," I objected, curious to see if she agreed with me.
"He's twenty-two, not fourteen. And before you say it, yes, the age gap is real, but it doesn't make him wrong for you." She tilted her head. "I think you're looking for reasons to talk yourself out of a scary new thing. If you really thought it through, then you’d see it too."
"You've been waiting to say that, haven't you?"
"Since about the day you got off that video call and put your head on your desk." She was entirely unapologetic about it. "I didn't push because I thought you needed time. But we're past time now. The man is here, in the flesh."
I took a long drink as I contemplated her points. Working with someone who knew you well meant that they tended to be right a lot of the time. Cheyenne had seen me through the buildup ofthis business—from when it was nothing to what it had become. She had watched me navigate things, and she had never once pushed past what I was willing to share.
That she was pushing now showed the importance of the situation.
