“Yeah.” Brad stretched and rubbed his face. “Except I’m not sure where a pencil is. It’s more like mouse clicking these days.”
Jon pushed himself to his feet. “As much as I’d rather hang with you two ladies, I am headed home. I have a long day tomorrow and it’s closer to midnight than I’m willing to admit.”
Brad stood, too. “I’ll follow you.” He did a quick visual sweep of the area and made sure he hadn’t left any garbage out. “See you tomorrow, bro.”
Ken lifted a hand as he unplugged the lights and immediately cast the area into darkness. Brad blinked a few times before he went inside and grabbed his clothes. When he came out of the bedroom, Ken leaned against the back door, pulling his boots off. “‘Night,” he said, and left through the front door.
Valerie pulled into her drivewayat ten minutes past ten. She had not anticipated spending the evening with Sami and Calla, of having so much fun that the time just flew by, of letting the sun set around her and darkness fall over the city on a night she forgot to leave her porch light on.
She distinctly remembered turning it off that morning, knowing she’d come home about six and settle in for the night. When she’d accepted Sami’s invitation, the porch light never once crossed her mind.
Now she sat in her car contemplating driving to a hotel instead of walking up the dark drive into the dark house.
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Her heart pounded in her chest, and she couldn’t think about anything but that stretch of path between her porch and the car with bushes on either side. Between the bushes and the dark, someone could hide so easily. Lie in wait until she had her back to them while she unlocked her door. They could attack from behind and get her into the house, and she’d have no way to escape.
Sweat beaded her forehead. The sound of a whimper escaping her throat startled her. She gathered her purse and clutched it to her chest. With keys in one hand and the other gripping her cell phone so tightly her palms ached, she pushed open her car door and got out. The dark path loomed in front of her.
Suddenly inspired, she ripped the car door open again and reached in, flipping the headlights on. Suddenly, the path lit up. Mouth so dry she thought she would choke, she ran to her front door, lunging forward with the key. It barely found its way home before she turned the lock and ripped the door open. Once inside, she shut the door behind her and leaned against it, panting, sweating, glancing wildly around the room as she fumbled for the light switch.
With the foyer illuminated, she gripped the door handle with her hand. She had to go out there and turn the lights off. She couldn’t just leave them on. Her battery would die and then what would she do?
Replace it in the morning light.
No. No. She would go outside like a normal person and turn the lights off. She’d turned the porch light on and all the reasons for her fears would vanish in the glow.
Putting a shaking hand on the doorknob, she closed her eyes, took three deep breaths, then pulled the door open. She started to race to the car but stopped and locked the door, making sure no one could sneak in behind her while she had her back turned. Keys in hand, she raced to the car and pulled the door open. Reaching in, looking all around her, she turned the car lights off and ran back to her door.
Safely back inside, she rested with her back against the door, staring into the darkened house. She would never, ever leave the lights off again. Wanting to just curl up into a ball in her foyer, she licked her dry lips with her dry tongue and said out loud, “Do the search. Make sure no one is here. Then relax.”
Turning lights on as she went into each room, she checked corners, closet locks, behind furniture, inside cupboards, under her bed, inside the bathtub. Once she made her way into the kitchen, she thought she ought to check one more time and did another run through the house.
Finally, she sat in her living room, her back pressed against the corner wall, able to see the kitchen in one direction and the bedroom hall in another. She strained to listen, to hear the sound of another person breathing, of another heart beating. Sweat rolled down her back and her hip ached and protested sitting on the hard floor. Instead of moving, she pulled her legs up, trying to find a more comfortable position.
An hour went by, then two. Her heart finally stopped pounding, and the sweat cooled on her body. She felt foolish, stupid, more than a little insane. With shaking limbs, she pushed herself to her feet, stumbling as her hip didn’t immediately respond.
She couldn’t possibly shower. Maybe tomorrow morning, when the sun came up and the world came back into light. Maybe then. For now, she kept her keys and cell phone in her hands and went to her bedroom. After checking under the bed one more time and double-checking the lock on the closet door, she crawled onto her bed and collapsed, still fully dressed, and closed her eyes.
Brad pushed away from hisdesk, restless and edgy. He didn’t feel overcome by spring fever like before. He had reconciled those feelings and embraced his job like never before. But he’d arrived at work at six and had worked solidly for five-and-a-half hours. He needed to move his body.
He slipped out the door and saw Sami’s empty office chair. He figured she had gotten up for a break, too. Just as he started out her door, he ran into her coming in.
“Hi,” she said, startled. He noticed she wore glittery purple eyeshadow and wondered how that didn’t affect her vision. “Do you need anything?”
He shook his head. “No. Just going to stretch a bit. I’ll be right back.”
She set a bottle of water on her desk pad. “Sure thing, boss.”
As he wandered to the elevators, he looked out and saw the top floor of the empire his dad built. Here on the executive floor, project managers oversaw multiple projects, and the executives handled the background details. He went to the elevator and hit the button for the sixth floor. In the front of his mind, he headed to his friend Ian’s office. In the back of his mind, he hoped he had an opportunity to run into Valerie.
When he stepped off the elevator, he found the noise level elevated on this floor compared to his own. Architects and engineers lined the offices, and assistants, interns, and junior architects and engineers filled the cubicles in the center of the floor. Telephones rang, people talked over cubicle walls, and a meeting was taking place in the glass conference room in the center of the floor. An engineer rushed by him, an arm full of building plans, a cell phone held up to her ear.
He loved the energy on this floor, the creativity and logic that came from the brains who worked here.
Casually strolling along the wall of offices, he glanced around, not really looking for Valerie, but hoping maybe he’d see her. When he got to Ian Jones’ office, he felt slightly let down that he hadn’t come across her. At his light tap on the door, Ian bid him enter.
He found his friend perched on a stool at his drafting table, one hand on the mouse pad of his laptop, the other holding a pencil. He looked up at the monitors on his wall. Brad followed the direction of his gaze and saw the intricate design of a truss system.
“Yes?” Ian hadn’t looked his way.
