“I better get to work,” he smiled, releasing me. I go over and stand with Jess again.
“Do you have surveillance cameras? An alarm system?” Blake inquired.
“Yes, I was the last to leave yesterday and set the alarm before I left. I’m not sure why it wouldn’t have gone off last night.”
“It may be faulty. We’ll take copies of your camera surveillance and our tech guys will come check out the alarm system. I’m terribly sorry about this. You should be right to go back into the store after lunch. That should give us plenty of time to gather the evidence we need.” Blake was using his calm, professional voice, trying not to allow Tracey to blow her top and become angry.
Chapter Thirteen
Abby
Three Years Ago
When we were allowed back into the store, we spent well into the night cleaning up the glass and straightening the racks. Tracey ran around to price new windows. Luckily, we were able to have a glazier come in and they had what we were after. Otherwise, we would have been camping out at the store.
Nine rolled around and Jess and I were finally released from our duties. Walking outside together, we walked silently to our cars.
“Are you all right, Abby?” Jess asked, stopping me in my tracks.
I released a sigh. “Yeah, just a lot going on. As I’m sure you saw today.”
“Yeah, your boyfriend…well, he isn’t very nice.”
“He’s not my boyfriend anymore. I finished that relationship last night.”
“Why was he here?” Her question had me wondering why myself. I knew he said he was coming to see me before he left, but something told me that he perhaps knew the shop was in this state.
“He was coming to see me before he went away for work.”
“Oh, yeah. I could see the way that police officer saw red when your boyfriend hit you. I thought he was going to punch him.”
“Yeah, I’m sure he wanted to as well, but being on duty he had to restrain himself.”
“Are you seeing him?” A cheeky smile swept across her face.
I couldn’t help the smile that flooded my own face. “I don’t know, honestly. I need to close things with Jacob, well and truly. But yeah, I really like Blake, the police officer.” We both giggled like little school girls. It had been a while since I’d had a moment with Jess like that.
“Do you wanna go grab some dinner? I can ring Melodi to come as well?” I secretly hoped she wanted to, or I would just get Melodi to come with me.
“Sure, that would be great! It’s been too long since we hung out. I miss it.”
“Yeah, me too. I’ll give Mel a ring and ask her to meet us up around the corner, at that small burger place.”
“Sure, sounds good.”
Once we were seated, we ordered our favourite burgers and fries and a few drinks. We chatted like we did back in the days, before Jacob. It was a good night. I chose to shut my phone off because I was sure Jacob would have a few choice words for me since I pushed him away today. I figured Blake would be okay for now. I would ring him later.
I was still feeling rather anxious about the whole Jacob thing. He terrified me, but I’m glad I’ve finally cut that cord. I’m not sure he sees it that way, though. He probably thought I’d embarrassed him. I couldn’t deal with it anymore and after meeting Blake, I’d decided not to go for second-best and put up with his crap and abuse. Blake wanted to show me what it was really like in a loving relationship and I planned to let him.
“So, what did the police say about the break-in?” I heard Melodi ask, pulling me out of my thoughts.
“They’re looking at the camera footage and surveillance in hope that they can find something. I couldn’t believe how destroyed the place looked,” Jess said, her voice solemn and upset.
I reached out taking her hand and gave her an encouraging smile.
“It’s okay. They’ll get to the bottom of it and everything will go back to normal. Now all it need is just a few small touch-ups here and there,” I comforted her. The table fell silent as we continued our meals.
Out of nowhere, Melodi piped in with something I didn’t want to discuss. “Where’s Jacob? He usually doesn’t let you out of his sight.” I heard the snide tone in her voice. I know I’d hurt her in the past by closing her out because of Jacob. I needed to work on our relationship again and fix it. I needed my sister back.
“He’s gone away on business for the next week or two.”
Jess looked up confused as to why I didn’t tell her the whole story. I eyed her, practically begging her not to say anything. She must have understood because she said nothing.
“Oh, okay, cool. Well, I’m going to head home. Are you coming, Abs?”
“Nah, I’ll be home later. Going to hang out here a little more.”
After the girls had left, I sat looking around the room at all the couples cuddled together, friends and family together and laughing. It brought a smile to my lips.
What am I going to about this whole mess?
I’m going to have to leave my family. I’ll have to tell them that I needed a fresh start, might even go back to Australia for a little while. I do miss that place. Now I have all these crazy full on feelings for Blake. Will he come with me? Could I ask him to leave his family and life just for me? I released a heavy sigh and knew that I couldn’t possibly do that to him. The guilt would eat away at me.
“What are you doing here alone?” I looked up into the kind eyes of the man who’d quickly stolen my heart…Blake.
I smiled at him, my stomach swelling with excitement. “I wasn’t alone. Jess and Melodi were here with me, but they left not that long ago. I decided to stay a little while longer.”
He took a seat as I explained. He nodded, reaching out and taking my hand in his, causing my body to flame up instantly. He sat there quietly, just watching me with his emerald green eyes. Even his gaze does magical things to me. He looked divine in his jeans and fitted plain black tee. He must have finished work not that long ago, he looked fresh from a shower and he smelled fabulous.
“You looked lost in thought before I disturbed you.”
“Yeah, I was just thinking a few things over.” I tried to pretend it was just something casual I was thinking about.
“Want to talk about it?” he asked, rubbing his thumb over the back of my hand, shooting tingles right to my heart.
I shook my head. I needed these thoughts to stay with me because I didn’t know what was going to happen in the future. I didn’t want him alerted to my plans.
“Would you stay with me again tonight?” he whispered, looking me directly in the eyes.
I beamed back at him and nodded once.
We left together, hand in hand. I was so relaxed and at peace. Blake could quite possibly be my happily ever after, but I knew there was a dark cloud lying over me called Jacob. My fear of him had multiplied tenfold, but with Blake by my side, I was home.
Chapter Fourteen
Abby
Three Years Ago
I was startled awake by my phone vibrating like crazy on my bedside table. It had been two days since I stayed at Blake’s. As I reached for my phone, it stopped, so I left it. If it were important, they’d call back. Work was going well and everything was back to running smoothly, almost as if the break in hadn’t happened.
Today was my day off. I was planning to have a day to myself with some shopping and pampering. With Jacob away at the moment, I didn’t feel the need to look over my shoulder every minute of the day. I could never relax when he was in town because it felt like he was always watching me. You would think he would be at work, but honestly I never really knew. He would always call or text to find out where I was or what I was doing.