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You’re not the only one.
“I’ve already been through this with Travis and Harlan.”
“Oh, well, in that case, I’ll just shut up.”
“I didn’t mean it that way. I only meant that I can’t think clearly right now. Can we talk tomorrow?”
She looked exhausted. Beat down. Upset. Much as he wanted to talk about their future, he knew it wasn’t the time. Suck it up, Bannister. Anything you say tonight will either piss her off or go in one ear and out the other. “All right. We’ll talk about it tomorrow.”
Relief swept over her face. She came over and sat in his lap. Put her arms around him and kissed him sweetly. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For understanding. For not pushing me.”
But he didn’t understand. He didn’t know why moving in with him was so difficult for her. And the only reason he hadn’t pushed her was because he knew it would do more harm than good.
He kissed her. “Finish your dinner. And then you should get some sleep. I’ll pick you up in the morning and we’ll go to your apartment.”
“Okay.” She leaned her head against his. “Tobi said she’d take the kids to daycare for me. I don’t want the children to see the apartment looking like it does. I’m going to call work in the morning and tell them what happened and that I won’t be in.”
“Good idea. I was hoping you wouldn’t feel like you had to go to work.”
“I don’t think I’d do much good. Besides, my boss at Kelly Boots is a sweetheart. She’ll understand.”
“I’ll pick you up at nine. Earlier if you want.”
“Don’t you have things to do at the airport? You can just drop me off to get my car if you want.”
“I don’t want. Travis and Levi can handle things there.” Zack patted her hand. “There’s no way you should have to deal with the aftermath of the robbery by yourself.” Before she could speak, he held up a hand. “Yes, I know you’re perfectly capable of handling everything completely by yourself, but you don’t have to. Besides, I want to help.”
“I wasn’t going to argue.”
“You weren’t?”
“No. I was going to thank you.” She kissed him. “Thank you, Zack.”
*
To say Laurel’sapartment was a disaster was a vast understatement. Along with taking everything electronic, the robbers had pulled out drawers and rifled through them, thrown things they didn’t want on the floor, destroyed breakable items, and adding insult to injury, had even eaten some of the food in the refrigerator and pantry, leaving the mess behind.
Then the police and CSI had come in and dusted for fingerprints, leaving behind a fine, black powder on nearly everything.
Laurel looked sick. Zack couldn’t blame her.
“I don’t even know where to start,” she said, voice wavering. Which wasn’t at all normal for her but then, neither was an armed robbery.
“One room at a time. Why don’t you write down what you know for certain was taken? I’ll start the cleanup while you do that. At least they boarded up the balcony door. I wondered if they would.”
Casting him a grateful glance, she pulled a small notebook and pen out of her purse. “I wish I could just write, ‘They took everything of any value’ and be done with it.”
“I don’t think the insurance company will go for that. But at least you have renter’s insurance.”
“Yes.” She made a face. “Only now I’ll have to thank Travis and Harlan for making me get it. I wasn’t going to bother but it didn’t cost much at all so I did.”
Zack smiled. “I doubt they’ll rub it in. At least, not right now.”
“Which will be even worse.”
