Coming Home (25 page)

Mom tried to get me to talk to people from Dallas, but it was
hard. They all wanted to know when I was coming back, and I hadn’t decided yet
if I was. Mom said she knew it was a matter of time before I went back, but
she’d keep me as long as I wanted to stay.

I’d talked to Ryan the most, but, even then, it was just a few
minutes here and there. He was the hardest one to say no to when he asked me to
come back. I missed him like crazy, but I didn’t miss the threats or looking
over my shoulder. He said he understood and I was sure he did. I just didn’t
know how long he was going to put up with me.

I hadn’t talked to Vicki at all. I was sure mom was keeping her
updated with my progress as she called it. I had no desire to hear how I was
disappointing them by not doing my job. I felt guilty enough.

The one that I felt the most guilt over was Ashley. I told her I
would be gone for one night and that turned into sixteen. I’d started texting
her over the past few days, and she seemed excited to hear from me. I hoped she
truly forgave me for ditching her.

I was in the back, swapping out pans in the oven, when mom came
back. “Rebecca, you have a visitor out front.”

“Thanks.” My old friends had been coming around to say hi and to catch
up. I was wiping my hands on my apron when I walked out front and saw the last
person I would ever expect to see. “Wade.” I took the apron off and hugged him.
I was never so happy to see someone before.

He hugged me back. “Hell, I’d have been here last week if I
thought I’d get that reaction.”

“What are you doing here?” I motioned for a corner table so we
could talk. “Do you want anything? On the house.”

He sat down at the table and pulled on my hand to get me to sit
next to him. “I just want you to come back. It’s time. You’ve had your break. Now
it’s time to get back to work.”

“But . . .”

“No buts, Rebecca. Everyone has been made aware of the situation.
We didn’t know half of what was going on.” He let go of my hand. “You could
have told me, you know. I would have listened.”

“I’m sorry.” I had a feeling I’d be saying that a lot when I went
back. “I just didn’t know what to do or whom to trust.”

“You trusted Thomas, though.” He sounded a little jealous and
hurt.

“Wade, you’re a good friend, but I’m in love with Ryan. I trust
him with everything.” I nudged his shoulder. “When you find that one girl that
turns your world upside down, you’ll know what I mean.”

Wade gave me a weak smile. “If I find her . . .”

“What happened between you and Mandy, anyway?”

“Nothing.” He shrugged. “We’ve gone out a few times, but nothing
serious.”

“I think she wants it to get serious. Mandy doesn’t like me
because she thought you and I were dating.”

The surprised look on Wade’s face told me he didn’t know Mandy
had feelings for him. “She’s never said anything.”

“Would you have listened?”

He smiled. “Probably not. I probably would have stopped seeing
her.”

“Are you still seeing her?”

“I wouldn’t say seeing, exactly.”

Now I was shocked. “You’re just sleeping with her? Wade, please
don’t string her along.” I thought Wade liked her a little more than he was
letting on. If I was right about my friend, he was new to this whole
relationship thing and was just scared. “I was thinking of setting her up with
a guy at the home Ryan volunteers for.”

I sat back and watched as his face got a little more red every
passing second. He looked out the window and tried to shrug. I started
laughing. “You like her.” He shrugged again. “Oh, you really like her.”

“Can we talk about when you’re coming back now? That’s all I
really came here for, you know.”

I grew serious and looked out the window myself. “I’m not sure.”

“Well, I’m stuck here as long as you’re here.”

“What?”

“You’re my ride home.” He stood up and started to roll back his
sleeves. “Where do you want me, Hillary?”

My mother was not so secretly listening to our conversation. Even
though she tried to hide it, I saw the panic in her eyes when Wade offered to
help. “Wade, that’s sweet of you, but . . .”

“Don’t worry, Mom. Wade and I are going to head back now.”

Relief was clearly on her face when she came over and hugged me.
“Are you sure you want to go back?”

“Yes, I’m sure. I need to stop hiding and get back to my job.
Thanks for taking care of me again.”

“It was fun. Give Vicki a huge hug for me. Call me when you get
there, and don’t forget to stop and say good-bye to your father.” Mom gave me a
smirk when I showed my own flicker of panic. I really didn’t want to take Wade
to dad, but I had no choice.

~*~

I made Wade promise not to tell anyone I was back yet.
I just wanted one night to get prepared before getting all the questions about
why I left. The only problem with that was that I didn’t have a place to stay
other than Vicki’s, and I really didn’t want to stay there my first night back.
I was a little apprehensive when Wade said I could stay with him. I only agreed
when he said he would probably be staying with Mandy. He must have stayed with
Mandy, because when I got up early to go workout with Ryan this morning, Wade
still wasn’t home.

I had packed my old running outfit when I packed up my things
from my parents. I didn’t go home with much this time and didn’t really need to
take much back, but I had a plan for this outfit. I smiled as I put it on and
it did exactly what I wanted it to.

I tried my card in the lock and it didn’t work. I thought we had
all of this card crap straightened out. I hit the buzzer for security and heard
Charlie on the other end. “Hi, Charlie. It’s Rebecca. Can you buzz me in?”

“Oh, I’d love to, but I’m not sure you work here anymore,
Rebecca.”

“Don’t be crazy, Charlie. Of course, I still work here. I just
took an extended vacation.”

“No, you walked off the job. I don’t think I’m the one who’s nuts
here.”

He was right. I did, and I should expect to be fired for that. I
hadn’t even talked to Matt or Vicki since I left. “I’m sorry. You’re right. I
did leave. Have they told you I no longer work here?”

“No, they haven’t.”

“Well, since you haven’t been told to keep me out yet, do you
think you could let me in?” I held my breath until I heard the click of the
lock. “Thank you.”

I pushed the door open and practically ran to my office. It was
exactly as I left it—with a little more work piled up. I was tempted to dig in
and get started, but I still had a mission I needed to complete first. I locked
my purse in my desk and headed to the gym. I only hoped Ryan was still sticking
to his workout schedule.

I was standing there doing my stretches in my old outfit that was
way too tight when Ryan finally walked in. It was harder than I thought it
would be to keep a straight face. My sports bra was too small, and I was
practically busting out of it. My running shorts were fine . . . until I bent
over to tie my shoes.

“You’re back.”

I stood up and turned around as if I didn’t see him walk in. “Yes.
I’m ready to kick your butt on the treadmill.”

Ryan walked over to me and started to reach out, but I backed up,
shaking my head. “Rebecca.”

It was hard to back away from him. All I wanted to do was fling
myself into his arms and have him hold me all day. “You know the rules. We do
our workout first.”

He smiled. “Then what are we waiting for?”

We went through the motions, but neither one of us were really
giving it our best. We couldn’t keep our eyes off of each other: me because I
missed him so much, and him, well, he couldn’t keep his eyes off of the outfit.
We decided it would be best to skip the bench press this time.

I enjoyed teasing Ryan the entire workout. Enough was enough and
I really wanted to touch him, but I had one more thing to get through. He
pulled me into his arms once we reached the exit and I allowed him one kiss,
but then I pulled away. I turned him towards the men’s locker room and shoved.
“Shower first.”

I half expected him to be waiting for me outside the locker room
and was kind of disappointed when he wasn’t. It was still early, and I had
hoped to talk to him before everyone else got there. I went to my office and
started looking at the work that was left on my table.

“Hi.” I turned and saw Ryan holding my breakfast of choice and
walked over to him. I started to take it and he raised it above his head. “Two
can play at this game, Becca.” He walked over to the table and looked at the
ideas with my coffee still above his head. “What are you working on?”

I started laughing and walked over to him. I wrapped my arms
around his waist and looked up at him. “I’m sorry I teased you. I was just
trying to lighten things up. Things were just so heavy when I left.”

He put the coffee on my desk and kissed me. I shouldn’t have
teased him at work like that after we’d been apart for two weeks. I knew the
anticipation would be great and would make it harder for us to concentrate on
working until we were alone, but I thought we were mature enough to handle it.
I guess not.

Ryan went to lock the door, and I moved all the idea boards that
were on the table to the floor. The fire in his eyes when he stalked back to me
made me shiver. “Rebecca. I’m close to the point of no return here.” He kissed
me again. “If you don’t want this, I need you to tell me now.” He sat me on the
table and pressed his body closer to mine.

I reached down and unbuckled his belt. He started to unbutton my
shirt and looked a little disappointed I had on regular clothes instead of the
outfit I had worked out in. I started laughing. “It was all sweaty. I couldn’t
put it back on after my shower.”

“Yes, you could have.”

He started kissing my neck as he unbuttoned the rest of my shirt.
He put his hands under my skirt and looked down as my hands unfastened his
pants. I looked up at him when he stopped. “What?”

He looked at me for a minute, and all was silent except for our
breathing. “Rebecca. I’m only going to ask you one more time if you’re sure you
want this here and now. I can’t stop if we go much further.”

I grabbed both of the open ends of his belt and pulled him
closer. I was already at the point of no return.

Chapter 17

Vicki tapped on the door as I was smoothing my hair
down. I had already been to the restroom twice to make sure I looked okay. I just
knew everyone would be able to tell that Ryan and I had sex in my office. The
few people I did run into only welcomed me back and didn’t say anything about
sex. I still knew Vicki would be able to tell.

“I heard you were back.” Vicki stayed in the doorway. “I just
came down to see for myself that you’re okay.”

“I’m okay, Vicki. I’m sorry I left like that.”

She waved her hand. “Don’t worry about it. You’ve been through a
lot and deserved the break.” She looked at the table. “What happened to the
boards I put on your table.”

“Oh, I’ll go through them. They’re around here somewhere.”

She stepped further into the room. “Do you want some help?”

“Um.” I looked at the table and back to her a couple of times. “Sure.”
I went over and picked up the boards on the floor.

“How did they get down there?”

“Ryan brought me breakfast, and I didn’t want to get anything on
them.”

Vicki smiled that knowing smile and I blushed. She took the
boards from me and started to walk out. “Let’s go over these in my office. I
don’t think you’re going to be concentrating on work if we sit at your table.”
I slapped my hands over my face as she laughed and walked out.

I spent the morning with Vicki, getting caught up on everything.
I could tell that I was going to pay for my little vacation. There were many
late nights ahead with me trying to catch up on what I should have been doing
in the first place.

I thought for sure that Vicki would have hounded me for answers
or would have been mad that I hadn’t talked to her. She went on with work as if
nothing had happened and I was just on vacation for two weeks. We worked right
up until lunch without anything personal being discussed. Maybe she was upset.
I really needed to do a lot of apologizing.

“Um, Vicki.”

“It’s time for lunch. Why don’t we break and you can come back up
when you’re finished.” She started picking up the boards we just completed.

Now she didn’t even want to have lunch with me. “Vicki, I . . .”

“Stacy is probably waiting for you. I know she’s been dying to
talk to you. Go on and have a good lunch. I’ll be here when you get back.”

I sat and looked at her for a minute, ashamed that I acted like
such a child and came back thinking nothing had changed. I got up and walked
towards the door. I turned before I opened the door, trying one final time to talk
to Vicki, but she was on the phone.

“I was just wondering if my gorgeous husband was free for lunch.”
She smiled at his response. “I was hoping you’d say that.”

I walked out and Mandy looked up at me and rolled her eyes. I didn’t
have patience to deal with her today. I wondered if she knew that Wade went to
her last night because of our long discussion about relationships and how they
are worth the risk if you can find the right one. I was starting to wonder if
she was the right one for him.

“What’s the matter, Rebecca? Didn’t get the parade you were
expecting when you came back?”

I briefly closed my eyes, but kept walking. Nothing I said would have
made a difference. I didn’t need her to like me.

One thing that hadn’t changed was lunch with Stacy. She was still
talking my ear off and filling me in on all the gossip since I’d left. I was
glad she wasn’t angry or acting weird. I was also glad that she wasn’t telling
me that my morning with Ryan was going around the office yet.