Page 88 of Dearest Protector
Maybe I just hadn’t been prepared for exactly how much space she required.
Three weeks of total silence from her end was a little more than I could handle.
“There’s every possibility that she’ll never come back,” I said tersely.
Ian shook his head. “That’s not going to happen. I’ve seen you two together. She’s crazy about you. It sounds to me like she’s just trying to pull her life together. Katie said she’s been working pretty hard, and she recently got herself a better vehicle. I think she’s been pretty busy. It’s not like she’s out shopping for another man, Ben. She’s been out taking a lot of photos. In case you haven’t noticed, Ariel has changed. She took advantage of her opportunities and she’s come a long way in just a matter of months.”
She had. I knew that. But the way I cared about her hadn’t changed at all.
It really sucked that my brother knew more about the woman who was making me crazy than I did right now.
I was used to being in Ariel’s life on a daily basis.
We ate together.
Shared our day together.
Hung out together every single night.
And now…nothing.
Christ!I missed her. I missed every single thing about her.
Her scent.
The way her body felt against mine.
The way she laughed, and the way she tried to tease me out of my seriousness.
The way she gave me her total attention when I was talking, like nothing interested her as much as whatever I was saying to her at that moment.
Hell, I even missed the way she nagged me about eating healthier.
My house felt empty and lifeless without her there.
And I’d give anything to know what she was thinking right now.
But all I’d gotten was a fucking…check.
“She’s fine, Ben,” Ian said in a calming tone. “If anything was wrong, I’d tell you. I don’t know how she’s doing emotionally, but her life is good. Her career is good. She’s got more offers for commissions than she can reasonably take on all at one time. Maybe she moved so she could take control of her own life. The condo was always going to be a temporary thing, right?”
“More or less,” I said unhappily. “It was supposed to be hers until she no longer needed it. But she knew she could live there for as long as she wanted. It’s not like I wanted her to find another place to live.”
Unless she wanted to move in with…me.
If she’d wanted to move in with me, I would have happily taken that fucking condo back.
“But she knew that place wasn’t really hers,” Ian pointed out. “It was on loan to her temporarily.”
“Honestly,” I replied. “I would have given Ariel anything she wanted. If she’d wanted that condo to be hers, I would have signed the papers for that in a heartbeat.”
“Luckily,” Ian retorted. “She wasn’t the kind of woman who would take advantage of that generosity. Mom’s coming over to our place later for dinner. I think you should come. Get out of this damn office. Get out of the house.”
“I’m not very good company right now,” I said as I shook my head. “I thought I’d stay here for a while and go over the information for the meetings next week.”
Ian shot me a disgusted look. “We’ve already gone over everything, and you don’t need to stay late. It’s almost five. I’m headed out in a few minutes. I thought we agreed that there are more important things in life than this company, and that we have a perfectly capable staff that can take some of the load off us.”
He was right.