Total pages in book: 146
Estimated words: 141951 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 710(@200wpm)___ 568(@250wpm)___ 473(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 141951 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 710(@200wpm)___ 568(@250wpm)___ 473(@300wpm)
Who cared?
“Fair is fair,” she told him, “because I think I might have some things to figure out, too.”
Lucas didn’t ask what those particular items on her life shelf that were needing rearranging, but they also wouldn’t change anything.
“I’ll still be wherever, waiting,” she said.
He nodded, and then kissed her again before Delaney could prepare for the way her heart had not quite recovered from the first one. That time, he ended it with their foreheads pressed together while the quiet gallery gave an illusion of privacy.
That couldn’t last forever.
“Good news,” came the familiar voice of the funeral director as he swept back into the room, “Kiesha’s eyeglass case has been found—and Lucas, I heard back from my friend at the government garage. They’re on track to finish clearing the highways within the hour. She’s safe to travel back to Fredericton tonight.”
Lucas put distance between himself and Delaney as soon as their guest announced his presence. To be fair, it was his building.
“Thank you, Kody,” Lucas said.
“Are we getting everything loaded up in the Bronco?”
“Shortly,” Lucas agreed.
At the confirmation, the director spun on his heel to exit the gallery and once again, leave the two alone.
“See, I told you,” Delaney put in, winking. “The roads are good.”
Not even her lifted Jeep meant for tough terrain had been enough to convince Lucas that he could let her leave to start the journey home. Proclaiming she had work in the morning hadn’t done the job, either.
“Can’t be too safe,” he told her, then.
The same thing he told her before.
“Driving here was worse—trust me.”
“Yeah, well … Forgive me for caring.”
“Not necessary, Lucas. Stop apologizing for loving me … or anything. I’m not sure that’s how it’s supposed to work, okay?”
He squeezed her hand tight. “I’ll work on it. How about that?”
“It’ll do,” she said, matching his smile with her own.
Effort surely counted for a lot, too.
Delaney could tell—just by the way he stared at her—that it had nothing to do with the weather, road conditions, or whether she could manage the drive. He simply didn’t want her to leave. Frankly, neither did she.
There came that bad timing …
And the bits of their lives they each had to work out.
“Call me as soon as you get to your place?” he asked, dropping more kisses to her knuckles after flipping over her hand inside his own. “I’ll worry, otherwise.”
That just wouldn’t do.
“The second I park,” she assured.
Chapter 32
Returning to work on the last day of the week hadn’t been in Lucas’ original plans, but stepping inside the brewery on the Friday after his brother’s memorial sobered him, nonetheless. He intended that to be the last time he crossed the Dalton Brewery threshold as an employee beneath his father, and that made him see things a bit differently.
Or maybe he appreciated the warm greetings from the familiar faces as he entered and made the trek upstairs more than he might have on a regular day.
This wouldn’t be another one of those days.
That made everything different.
Even the elevator seemed to pick up on that change within Lucas, taking longer than usual—although, that could have been his mind playing tricks on him—to deliver him to the upstairs.
Nola, despite Lucas’ friendly smile and good morning as he stopped at her desk, took note of the mood change while he dropped off her typical morning coffee and sugar-glazed donut. “Thanks—are you okay? I thought you were coming in over the weekend?”
“No, my father wanted me to come in this weekend for a meeting,” Lucas explained, “and I’m in the process of making other plans.”
Not that he offered those plans.
Nola peered up at him from her swivel chair that she nervously rolled from side to side. “Oh, okay. You know, he’s been interviewing secretaries all week, right?”
“I didn’t, actually. Let me guess, he’s had you being the go-between for every interview, hasn’t he?”
“Basically.” She chewed her lip, and toyed with the rolling shelf on her desk that held or hid the keyboard for her desktop. “Where exactly will that person go? Because my desk is here, and the room where your office should be is not big enough—”
“It’s storage, not an office.”
And he wouldn’t pretend otherwise.
Nola sighed, and her hands flitted anxiously in front of her face. “I know, but that’s not the point. I’m kind of concerned about my job right now.”
Honestly?
“You should be,” Lucas replied.
The young woman openly frowned. “That hardly seems fair.”
It wasn’t.
Sadly, for Ronald, it didn’t have to be fair. It was his company—a business where he held majority shares that remained privately owned, and as such, Ronald could do and behave as he wanted. Including when it came to his employees.
“I didn’t work here back when he used to be here,” Nola said lamely. “I’m not really familiar with the way he likes things or does them, I guess.”