Retrace

Chapter 9

Reeves

I run by a 7-Eleven for eggs and a gallon of O.J. before getting to the new apartment to wait for the movers, knowing full well how in about an hour my stomach will cause riots if I don't eat a sufficient amount of food. I maintain my body like the oiled machine that it is. I treat sport like a religion, training six days a week. Healthy food is a subsidiary creed. Keeping in shape is a prerequisite in my line of work, together with alertness and strength. I can't let myself slip in either of them.

Having about twenty minutes before the moving bedlam starts, I turn to make breakfast. While the six egg omelet sizzles in a pan, I down half a gallon of O.J. and read the news online. The little talk I had with Katie yesterday intrudes my news skimming. I halt and look out the window. It feels like a rock the size of the moon has been lifted off my chest after ironing out our misunderstanding. I was so glad that she agreed with my resolve on the subject that we could never have anything physical between us. She swore it was a one-time mistake on her part and she'd never pull something like that again. Even if hell froze over, I wouldn't look at Katie any other way but as family, a little sister. I don't know what came over her the other day, but I sure hope it would never happen again.

My thoughts wander to the keen spectator that we had last night.

Nia.

She didn't notice me observing her for a while after Katie and her friends hit the dance floor. I was leaning on the wall behind the bar, behind my laboring colleagues, watching her. There's something about her eyes, I couldn't get my eyes off her. My lips twitch at the corner remembering Dan's smirk when I poured myself a finger of Talisker once I'd decided I was done working for the night. He shook his head at me with a s**t-eating grin.

"You don't want to pull any crap with me tonight, " I told him above the rim of the glass.

"That I know, " he said. "I saw you talking to Katie. . ."

I narrowed my eyes at him, stressing the fact that he shouldn't even imply anything about Katie and me.

He just sighed in surrender and murmured, "I just wish that for once you weren't as blind as you are where she is concerned. " Well, that he got downright straight; when it comes to her, I'm blind, and I will without a doubt forever be. No matter what Katie pulls out of her hat, I'd always be there for her, day or night.

When the movers finally spread into several rooms and start getting the apartment in shape, I get a message that makes my blood freeze in my veins on the spot.

Jake: Hunter is here, he wants to see you.

Seven point five minutes is the exact amount of time that it takes me to show up at Jake's office.

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