Total pages in book: 49
Estimated words: 47165 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 236(@200wpm)___ 189(@250wpm)___ 157(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 47165 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 236(@200wpm)___ 189(@250wpm)___ 157(@300wpm)
I twist my neck to tell Steve, but he only gives me a calm, knowing look.
“Already taken care of,” he murmurs without a care, gripping a forest of French fries and topping the inside of his burger with them.
I open my mouth to say something, but the waitress reappears, looking worried.
“You’d better tell your friends we don’t need any trouble in here,” she hisses.
Steve looks her in the eye, calmly telling her to go back for a few minutes and not worry.
“They’ll be gone in a…,” he starts to say, but another group enters the already cramped diner.
Headed by the two familiar security guards from his building, the rest of the group are uniformed cops and a couple of guys in suits so cheap, they must be detectives.
With a simple, silent point of his finger to the booth at the end of the diner, it’s as he predicted.
All over in moments and without too much fuss.
As the thugs are led past our booth, Steve wishes them all a Merry Christmas before casually resuming his meal.
He calls the waitress over to order another couple of burgers. When she leaves the check to be paid, Steve slides a thick bundle of bills to her, wishing her a Merry Christmas too.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Steve
I was worried Holly might get shaken up a little seeing those assholes again.
I texted my security team as soon as I spotted them. All my security is ex-Navy Seal. They get bored sitting around all day, so this was something for them to chew on.
They’re pretty tight with the local law enforcement too, which is handy.
But if anything, I think it’s me who feels something more as they’re led away.
There’s something about the city and how it brings out the best and the worst in some people.
How I don’t think I want to raise our kids in a concrete jungle, no matter how nice the castle we have in the sky is.
Thinking about how much I don’t like the city, period.
I never have, really.
“Which small town do you hail from?” I ask Holly, relieved when she’s happy to play along like nothing just happened.
She tells me the name, but I admit I’ve never heard of the place, geography never being my strong point.
“Liked it there?” I ask her, helping myself to a second burger.
“Loved it!” she beams, her whole face lighting up at the mention of it.
I offer Holly another burger, even just a bite of mine. But she shakes her head, having hardly touched her first.
“I was actually planning on heading back since the job fell through. Until…,” she trails off, blushing as she takes a noisy last sip from her thick shake.
“Until you rescued me,” I remind her, meaning every word of it.
She blushes a deeper red, and as I try to convince her to eat some more, she politely says she’s full, and I have to eat everything left over.
Something I don’t mind at all. I haven’t been back here for years.
The food’s still pretty average if I’m honest, but the memory of where I came from is worth a night of mild indigestion.
Plus having Holly see justice served against those thugs, letting her feel a little safer around me too. It’s worth it.
“How about we take a stroll around town?” I suggest listing off things to see and do a few days before Christmas in the city, sounding like a travel brochure.
“Any place with you is fine with me,” Holly says, smiling until her face shifts as if she suddenly remembered something.
“What about Sister O’Halloran, the hospital?” she exclaims. “I feel terrible for running out on her like that and over something so stupid,” she adds, being hard on herself again as she remembers everything that’s brought us both to this moment.
“She called while you were getting changed… The first time you got changed,” I assure her, smiling to myself at the recent memory of myself deep inside Holly on my desk.
Holly’s expression shifts from discomfort to a forced twisting of her mouth as she tries not to smile for the same reason.
“She was worried about you. We all were,” I remind her. “But I told her I found you and that everything’s fine.”
More than fine. But I don’t think aging nuns want to hear about my sexual exploits.
“We can pay her a visit tomorrow if you like?” I suggest, and Holly readily agrees.
“She’s so sweet,” she reflects, and I have to agree. I only frown a little when I notice again how little Holly had to eat.
Sure the food’s not great here, but I don’t think she eats anywhere near enough for my liking.
She’ll be eating for two soon enough as well… I hope.
“We can go somewhere else to eat,” I add, noticing her face become a question before she asks if I literally have a tapeworm, making us both laugh.