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Boone wasin Richmond tonight meeting with a vendor, so I’d gotten the entire evening free to work on the HD project. And good thing, because I needed to be one of the first to turn this in, not the last.
Four pages on the project had seemed like an easy goal when I started this evening, but Izzy had other ideas. She had to constantly be told to not chew on my shoes. I should have invested in some of that pepper-flavored no-chew spray.
But the bigger distraction was my impending departure. Like a splinter broken off beneath the skin, the thoughts, questions, and concerns about leaving couldn’t be ignored. As a result, my work slowed, with the need to constantly fix mistakes that were unlike me.
I’d vowed to leave the day after Grace returned, but now it seemed too soon to end my fling with Boone.
Also, I’d said I’d help Pris discover what had happened to Lee Pollock. Despite putting time in at the library, nothing had gelled yet, and we still had no idea what he’d been looking into, and no lead on where he’d planned to go.
Those were two good reasons to stay longer in Clear Lake, but the danger of Kevin finding me grew every day. Also, knowing Grace, it was only a matter of time before she inadvertently let slip that I was here, and that wouldn’t end well.
My fingers cramped as I finished the last of the four pages I’d committed myself to. When I shut down my laptop, it was late, and I still had the biggest choice of the day to make—what to give myself as a reward. Ice cream or a nice long bath?
Since agonizing about leaving had made me tense, I chose the bath. Bodily relaxation over decadent flavor.
Checking under the vanity in the bathroom, I found orange blossom bath oil and wonder of wonders, mood candles. “You surprise me, Grace,” I said aloud.
I managed to find matches by the time the tub filled and settled into the warm water. The flicker of candlelight accompanied the soft instrumental music I pulled up on my phone. Tonight, this was exactly what I needed.
The edge of the tub was high enough that Izzy had to get up on her hind end to check out the bath.
I patted her. “I hope you don’t want to join me. No offense, but your claws are not my thing.”
After a quick tilt of her head, she left and was replaced by Julie demanding a head scratch. King couldn’t care less.
As I closed my eyes and rested my head back, I could feel the tension being pulled out of my body by the heavenly water. This had been the right choice. It was exactly what I needed to decompress and let my worries about the future drift away. I could trickle in a little hot water, if I wanted, to make this outlast the ice cream alternative by a mile. The only thing better would be sharing this with my Boone.
Was it odd to call himmy Boonewith only a few days left to have him to myself? When I left, I’d give up any claim to him, and someday in the future, I’d surely wonder who he’d found to replace me.
The ringing of the phone startled me. Sitting up rapidly, I managed to splash water over the device, which I couldn’t afford to replace.
I quickly wiped it off and then answered the only person I wouldn’t cuss out for interrupting me. “All done conquering the business world, Mr. Benson?”
“For today.” He sighed. “I’m at the hotel, all alone, and I thought I’d see what my girl was up to.”
Being called his girl never got old. Maybe some women would object, but not me. I understood the meaning of his possessiveness and found comfort in it. Strength tempered by kindness described the man who spoke those words.
“So?” he asked, a playfulness in his voice. “What have you been up to?”
“I worked on my project all evening, and now I’m thinking how much I miss you.” All true.
“Miss you too Angel, but I had to have some wine at dinner—to be polite, you know.”
“Oh, the sacrifices you make.”
“And it’s too late to drive back tonight. So tell me more. I want to hear your voice since it’s all of you I’m going to get.”
“After all that work, I’m rewarding myself with a nice, warm bath.” I left off that I’d spent a fair amount of my time thinking about him, about us.
“Holy shit. You’re naked?” he breathed.
The laugh that his question pulled from me felt good, another tension reducer. “As a jaybird.”
“You’re killing me,” he groaned. “I wish you were naked in my bathtub here.”
“I don’t know why you’re surprised. Do you wear a swimsuit in the tub?”
“As a rule, I shower instead.”
