Page 149 of Duty

“Pretty close.”

Valeria let out a quiet sigh. “Are you at least enjoying yourself?”

“I’m enjoying visiting with my parents. I didn’t realize how much I missed them until I was walking through their door, you know?”

“I do know,” Valeria said quietly. “I miss my parents all the time, but I won’t ever get to see them again. Not like you and yours, anyway. I’m glad you get to see them. And I expected you to enjoy visiting with your parents, I meant … are you having a good time in general?”

Well, that question wasn’t as easy.

“Yes, and no,” Haven murmured. “I really needed a break from work. I’ve gone two years nonstop with barely even a regular day off every week. I like having a vacation from the club, and that whole thing.”

“But?” her friend pressed.

Yeah, there was always a but.

That but was the part that was not so easy to answer. After all, Haven had been in Florida for quite a few days, and she still hadn’t figured out what to do to fix this, or if she even wanted to at this point.

“I’m not the type to leave things unfinished, Val. You know that about me. I felt like I just left a lot of things hanging in the air back in New York, and it’s weighing me down.”

To say the least …

Mostly, Andino.

She didn’t want to say his name out loud, though. It would only leave her feeling even heavier than she already did because there was so much about that man that Haven loved and adored, and then there were things about him that left her feeling second-rate, and unwanted.

She had worked too hard, and she loved herself too damn much to be anyone’s second anything. At the same time, a part of her still wanted to try and give Andino the chance to fix what had gone wrong.

But would he want to?

Could he even try?

Those were the better questions.

“Well,” Valeria said slowly, “at least you can check one thing off your list of worries. You don’t have to worry about the club—Jackson has it all handled.”

Haven grinned. “Yeah, I figured. I should let him have a bit more leeway, I think.”

“You should; you could take more time off.”

Didn’t that just sound lovely?

And also, terrifying.

“A week or two is fine for now,” Haven said, “and only because I really needed it. But if I start taking too much time off—”

“The club isn’t going to fall into a pit of failure and despair, Haven.”

She rolled her eyes. “So you say.”

“So I know. And so do you.”

Maybe.

A little.

Haven just didn’t want to admit it, and also, maybe she was a bit of a workaholic. It was the only thing that kept her going a lot of the time, and it was the one thing in her life that gave her actual purpose.

That was part of the problem right now, too. She didn’t have anything to keep her busy, or out of her own head. She was spending way too much time inside the loneliness of her mind, and trying to figure out the way she felt.