Page 37 of The Quiet After The Fall

I leave him standing in his office, walk down the stairs and out into a morning that’s too bright for my shitty mood. I don’t pull out my phone until I’m in the car with the doors shut.

The folder’s there in my emails. I can go through it with a fine-tooth comb later. For now, I swipe it away and open my tracking app, finding Sawyer’s dot at the hotel where I knew she’d be.

I start the car.

The folder can wait. My father can wait. Right now, there’s only one thing in this town I give a damn about, and she’s eleven minutes away.

Chapter 10

Sawyer

There’s an event at work today. Lucky me. I’m not sure if it’s a prom or sweet sixteen or some other party that has teenagers dressed in formal wear packing into the banquet room in droves, but whatever it is has brought pure chaos upon me since noon.

I know our body capacity says the inn can fit this many people, but on paper and in person are two entirely different things. The lobby wasn’t designed to absorb fifty seventeen-year-olds in rented tuxedos and too much cologne. And the girls…they’re gorgeous in their tulle and satin, but holy hell they’re loud.

Since the accident, I’ve been suffering with more migraines than usual and right now their high-pitched squeals and the flickering bulb leading to the elevators has my head feeling like it’s being squeezed between two giant hands.

I’ve been asked where the bathrooms are one hundred times. Been asked if we have a pool double that. A tired chaperone in a teal blazer asked me to keep an eye for alcohol bottles coming in. I nodded but I’m not going to rat out some kids. I was that age once, and I wish I had more fun than I did.

I’m staring at a list of check-ins on my screen when awareness sparks along my skin. I know he’s there before I lift my eyes.

Knox is standing near the coffee station, watching me. I swore I saw him by the entrance about an hour ago and now I know that was definitely him. I don’t want to give him the satisfaction of knowing he’s rattled me, so I train my face into a neutral expression and focus back on my work.

Don’t think about last night.

It keeps resurfacing no matter what I do. What he said. What I did. How good it felt.

My face gets warm and I space out on a single word on the monitor.

He comes to the desk a few minutes later, passing by a gaggle of teenage girls all trying to sneak a peek at one of their phones.

I shoot him my practiced customer service smile and ask in an overly sweet voice, “Can I help you?”

“There’s a coffee situation that needs your immediate attention.” He gestures back where he came from. “You’re out of sugar packets.”

“The coffee is for hotel guests.”

“You should probably come with me to check it out,” he says, ignoring my reply.

“I’m busy.”

“Thorne.”

“Aldrich.”

He leans against the counter, flashing me that infuriating smirk. I know he won’t leave me alone until I relent. Lucky for him, I can be patient too.

“You’re pretending my presence doesn’t get to you.”

“Not pretending.”

He reaches over and hits backspace. “You typed the same letter five times in a row.”

I look up then, because I can’t not. He’s too irritating and he knows it. I swallow hard as our eyes meet. He looks like himself again, or I should say, the non-broody asshole version of himself. That’s a problem…I can’t have him looking like that, giving me those eyes, acting like it’s a perfectly normal activity to be stalking me at my place of work.

“Was there something you actually needed?” I hold back my eye roll just in time, as the same chaperone shows up behind Knox looking like he needs a drink and a long nap.

Knox’s mouth does that almost smile thing that I love so much. “Nah, I’m good for now.” Then he taps the desk and turns, but before he heads to wherever it is he’s going, he nods to the chaperone. “Best employee here. You’re in good hands.”