Page 90 of Help Wanted

Rather than find more reasons why they wouldn’t work out, she’d decided she was going to go for it.

As Shelly, the new Executive Production Coordinator, entered the few invoices there were for the new location, Kenley pulled out her phone to send Zane a text. He was out at the dock, but she didn’t think she could wait another second.

I changed my mind about no promises.

Thirty seconds later he wrote back:

Good. I want to make some.

Followed by:

I’ll be done here in a half hour.

* * *

Fortunately, his new service manager wasn’t a big talker and didn’t need a lot of instruction. He’d done the job for sixteen years, so there wasn’t much Zane could tell him he didn’t already know.

“If you have any questions, you have my number.” Zane wrapped up his speedy training session, eager to get back to Kenley. The text she’d sent seemed simple, but he knew what it meant. They were moving things along. This wasn’t just casual anymore. It meant something.

For him it had meant something from the first time they’d kissed.

She smiled when he walked into the office. It was so good to see her smile. Her real smile. She’d been forcing them for his benefit since the robbery, but he could tell the difference. He could also tell when she felt anxious about being alone. And he’d noticed the way she flinched when someone stepped too close to her.

She’d insisted she was fine, but he knew it wasn’t going to be easy to forget having someone put a gun to her head and threaten her life. It made him crazy just thinking about it and he hadn’t even been there.

“You feel better here?” he asked as they locked up the building to go back to the hotel.

“There are no bad memories. I guess that makes it easier.”

“If you want, we could always move here.”

“Move? Together?”

“You said you changed your mind about no promises. To me, that means considering the possibilities of cohabitation.” He laughed, but she looked a little stunned.

“But move the whole way out here? You would miss all the things your niece will be doing in the next five years. Trust me, it’s like every day there is a new event.”

“There are other ways to keep in touch. If you want to stay here, I’d be willing to at least think about it.”

The smile she gave him was real and full of some emotion he’d never encountered before. While neither of them said the words, he thought she might be at the same place he was.

“Thank you for the offer, but I don’t want to run away from this. I’m stronger than this silly fear.”

* * *

“I have bad news,” Zane said as he got off the phone and fell into bed next to her that night after the party. She could already tell by his end of the conversation that he was being called away on a job. “I have to take a detour to Michigan before going home tomorrow.”

“I’ll take care of changing your flight.” She reached for the laptop.

“Do you want to change both flights so you can come with me?” While she was happy he’d invited her along, she knew the reason. He knew she was frightened to be alone. She couldn’t follow him around the country like a scared puppy forever. It was time to face it head on.

“No. I’ll be fine.”

“I didn’t ask because I think you’re weak, Ken. I do like having you with me. And maybe it makes me a little nervous when I’m away from you.”

Well, that was better than feeling like a burden. “Thank you. I appreciate it. But I do need to take the next step toward getting past this.”

“I’d feel better if you told your friends.”