Page 55 of Owen
“Can I work here for a while? I need a place to crash.” Sophie took a look around. Luna’s cabin was about twice the size of the one she was sharing with Owen. The large central room contained a kitchen and dining area along with a comfortable living room. A pair of floral upholstered wingchairs were in front of a stone fireplace and a deep green plush-looking couch sat where it caught the light pouring in from a wall of windows on the back wall. Sophie noted a deck with lounge chairs outside. On her right, a flight of steps against the wall went up to a loft. The bedroom must be up there. She could be cozy here. “This is nice. Beautiful, actually.”
It was peaceful. Serene. Exactly what Sophie needed at the moment.
“Thanks, I like it.” Luna got up and walked toward her. “Just right for me, and a handy retreat when I can’t get anything done in my office at the lodge.”
Shoot. Luna must have wanted her privacy that morning. She knew the polite thing would be to make an excuse and leave, but she didn’t know where else to go. “Will I bug you if I stay? I promise I’ll be quiet.”
“You’re fine. You know we can get along in a small space and both get our work done. Our dorm rooms were tiny compared to this.” She gestured around. “Make yourself at home. Coffee?”
“I’d love some.” She hadn’t had anything to eat yet either.
“There’s fruit and muffins on the counter,” Luna offered.
“Healthy ones?” If she knew Luna, those were bran muffins.
“Blueberry, actually. Try them. They’re excellent, of course. Eduardo has a real knack for making healthy things taste great.” Luna gave her a sly smile. “I had imagined a grand romance forming between you and Eduardo, but…”
Luna left it at that, and Sophie chose not to rise to the bait. She was avoiding the subject of her love life because she wasn’t going to even think about Owen—nor was she going to think about their relationship. If you could even call it a relationship anymore, after he’d shoved her away yesterday and slept on the loveseat last night. He’d made it clear that she was a job to him, a favor to his buddy. Well, that was just fine.
She poured herself a cup of coffee and snagged a muffin before sitting on the couch and opening her laptop. She checked her email, responding to a few questions from Micky before doing some additional research into The Green by digging into the newspaper’s digital archives and police records. She was searching for every connection she could find between the club and drugs or illegal activity.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t much on the official record. Social media might proclaim the place to be a drug haven, but that wasn’t reflected in criminal proceedings. There had been some arrests for drunk and disorderly by patrons. One incident where a bartender was stealing from the till and had to be escorted off the property.No drug busts.
Next, she tried to generate a list of ways to prove that Wilson was near Razor’s apartment on the day the drug lieutenant was killed. But short of going door-to-door in the neighborhood and seeing if any of the businesses had security camera footage they’d share—which wasn’t likely to lead to anything even if Owen would let her go—there weren’t really any options other than accessing traffic cameras, which she couldn’t do. Frustrated, she put her laptop aside with a sigh and stared at the fireplace.
“You ready to talk now?” Luna asked from across the room where she’d been working steadily. “I’m guessing you and Owen had a tiff.”
Sophie could try to shrug it off, but she never could hide much from Luna. She took a big breath.
“He’s clipped my wings, grounded me, turned into a control freak.” Sophie aired her grievances. “He’s refusing to let me off the property because he’s scared something will happen to me.”
“That’s not unreasonable on his part since it is his job to protect you,” Luna reminded her as if she didn’t know. “Something must have happened to make him lock you down.”
Sophie wasn’t going to get into Razor’s death and how guilty she felt about that or the bullet at the golf course. “My job can be risky at times. It’s the nature of investigative journalism. I’m fine with taking precautions, calculating risks, and making smart decisions—but I can’t just stop doing what I do. Especially not now.”
“And you can’t be with someone who is reluctant to take that chance. Is that it?”
Oh. That pulled her up short. Okay, so maybe, this wasn’t solely about Wilson and the drugs and Razor. Maybe this was Sophie’s concern about what being with Owen meant to her beyond this story. Would he want her to limit her dreams and aspirations to something safe? He wouldn’t be the first. But the real nightmare scenario wasn’t that he’d try to control her…but that he wouldn’t care enough to stay and try anything at all.
“What if he’s not willing to take a chance onme?” she asked, hating the whine in her voice.
“Do you want him to?” Luna questioned gently.
Did she? Sophie was starting to see why Luna was good at this relationship thing. She was drawing truths out of Sophie that she usually didn’t share. “I think so. But then, what am I doing even thinking about my love life when I’m in the middle of the biggest story of my career? Shouldn’t I be focused on that?”
“You never know when you’re going to meet the right guy,” Luna said.
“But I met Owen years ago.” Sophie’s thoughts went to the New Year’s Eve kiss they’d shared. She’d immediately put up her walls and Owen had, too—her by saying the kiss was a mistake and him by pretending he didn’t even remember it happening. So much had changed between them since then, though.
“You need to talk to him about your relationship. Not about the case, about the two of you and what you both want. Open and honest communication is the only way.” Luna smiled. “Trust me on this. I’ve taken all the classes.”
Sophie couldn’t help but laugh. “You are the expert.”
“And in my expert opinion, Owen’s serious about you. I can see it in his body language and everything he says when he’s around you. The way he looks at you. You started this as antagonists and now…”
“We’re enemies to lovers?” Sophie had never believed in those romantic tropes, but she’d never been in this situation either.
“It happens more often than you think. Sometimes the negative tension between people is just their unwillingness to explore their feelings of attraction. Once both parties lower their barriers, magical things can happen.”