Mateo, will be here in a week. Mama
said to tell you she’ll send him your way.
Beckett laughed and sighed at the same time while he typed up a response.
Beckett
Hi Elizabeth. Thank you for the texts.
Thrilled you guys can work with us.
Your food is a lifesaver.
Jill received Mateo’s resume. Gray is excited to have him on board.
Looking forward to that lunch. Thanks again to you and your family. In case you haven’t heard, which is
unlikely given where we live,
Chef is doing okay and insisting
he’ll be back in a couple of weeks.
A pleased, optimistic energy rushed through him. Things were going to sort themselves out. They’d all land in a good spot.
He had a bit of time to spend with Presley before this evening’s hike. Maybe just the two of them could share a meal in his cabin rather than going up to the lodge. Immediately, guilt tapped on his shoulderslike an annoying acquaintance. If he didn’t go up to the lodge and Gray wasn’t back, it would be too much for Jill to handle alone.
Beckett stopped short when he saw Presley on his front stoop, staring at her phone like she didn’t understand what the ringing was for.
She glanced at him, a strange expression on her face.
“You okay?”
“That’s a pretty relative term,” she said, her voice sounding distant.
“I figure if you can’t say yes, then it’s got to be no,” he replied, coming to sit beside her on the step.
One glance at her phone gave him an explanation. The face of a blond guy with too much gel in his hair flashed on her screen, the name “Emmett” displayed on the bottom.
“The ex,” he murmured, a strange, uncomfortable feeling impacting his easy and steady breaths.
“We could call him that. I also like idiot, jackass, and asshat.”
The phone continued to ring.
“‘Asshat’ is an entirely underused term,” Beckett said.
When Presley leaned into his side, her head on his shoulder, his breath returned to normal. “You’re not wrong. He saw the posts. Wants to know what I’m trying to prove.”
“You could decline the call. Block him.”
She tilted her head back to look at him. “That’s my gut reaction, too, but on the other hand, I want to tell him off. I’m just not great at that sort of thing.”
He understood the desire to want to say things to another person and being unable to do so.
“Want some privacy?”
Her smile was sweet and soft. He knew he’d see it every night when he closed his eyes after she left.
