Page 23 of Finding Carly
Carly hugged her boss before joining him.
“All good?” Jag asked.
“Yeah.”
She didn’t tell him what they’d discussed, whether she’d gotten her job back or not, and before Jag could ask, two of the servers approached.
Once again, he watched as Carly was welcomed back. She introduced them as Justin and Charlotte. As they talked…it was just as he’d expected. Carly seemed to glow from within the longer she spent around people she liked and respected.
It took another forty minutes before she finished speaking with the staff she knew, and even a few of the customers who were apparently regulars stopped her to say hello.
As he walked them back through the mall area and toward the main street that went through Waikiki, Jag took her hand in his once more.
They didn’t talk as they headed toward the parking garage. There were a lot of people around, and he concentrated on weaving in and out of the many tourists. Once he’d gotten her settled in his car, and he’d locked the doors behind them, Jag turned to her and asked, “So?”
Carly gave him a small smile. “Apparently Alani never turned in the paperwork to terminate me. So she doesn’t have to rehire me at all. I can start whenever I’m ready.”
“That’s great news, angel.”
Carly took a deep breath. “Yeah, I guess it is. I wasn’t all that fired up to start working again, especially not back at Duke’s where everything happened. But being there today, and seeing everyone, made me realize how much I’ve missed it.”
Jag couldn’t stop the smile from forming on his face.
Carly saw it and rolled her eyes. “Go on and say it.”
“Say what?”
“I told you so.”
“I’d never say that to you. I was pretty sure things would go well today, but there was always the chance you would decide this wasn’t what you wanted anymore. That there were too many bad memories. It’s obvious how much you’re respected and liked by everyone at Duke’s, that says a lot about not only the kind of waitress you are, but who you are as a person.”
“I’m still scared though,” Carly said earnestly.
“I’d be surprised if you weren’t,” Jag said.
“Alani said I could work the same shifts as Kenna for as long as I want to, which makes me feel better. I just hope Kenna won’t mind.”
“She won’t,” Jag said with confidence.
Carly looked down at her hands for a moment, then lifted her chin and met his gaze. “Do you think I’m being paranoid? Maybe Detective Lee is right and there isn’t anyone out there gunning for me. It’s been months. Even if there was someone working with Shawn, it’s possible that they have no interest in me now that he’s gone.”
Jag could hear the hope in her voice, and while he didn’t want to scare her any more than she already was, he couldn’t in good conscience agree with her. “I don’t think you’re being paranoid,” he said carefully. “I think you’re smart to be cautious. Until we figure out exactly what Shawn had planned, and who he’d planned it with, you do need to be careful. I don’t think he was so unhinged that he hallucinated an accomplice. And your ex was obviously the mastermind behind the insane plan, but I’m not willing to ignore the possibility, no matter how small, that his partner might want to carry through, even with Shawn gone.”
“Yeah. That’s what I thought.”
When she looked down at her hands once again, Jag put his finger under her chin and lifted her head. “But that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t live your life. You just have to be a bit more cautious than you would otherwise.”
Carly stared at him with emotion swirling in her blue gaze. “Can I ask you something?”
“You can ask me anything,” Jag reassured her, dropping his hand.
“If you really think I could still be in danger, why aren’t you insisting I stay locked away until the person is caught? I mean, I can’t imagine Mustang letting Elodie keep going to work if she was in my shoes. And Aleck definitely wouldn’t be happy with Kenna if she insisted on waitressing while Shawn was still on the loose.”
Her question was a good one. Jag wasn’t sure she was really ready to hear his answer, but he didn’t want to lie to her. He never wanted to lie. “The short answer is because locking you away would kill you. Slowly but surely. You have to admit the last few months have been hell for you.”
Carly nodded in acknowledgement.
“As I’ve already said, you aren’t the kind of person who does well with solitary confinement. You need your friends. You need people. Is this ideal? No. I want this asshole caught as much as you do. But I can’t lock you away. It’s not what you need. And I’ll tell you this right now, angel, I’llalwaysdo what I think is in your best interests, even if it kills me.”
