41. Not Assume

41

NOT ASSUME

“ D id you stay at Regan’s last night?” Betsy asked him Wednesday morning when he walked into the office with a jumbo coffee in his hand.

“No,” he said shortly.

“You left her alone?” Betsy asked.

He wanted to growl, which was completely unlike him.

“The cameras are set up,” he said. “I could see anyone coming and going if I needed to.”

Yep, he wanted to stay, but she didn’t offer it to him on Monday or yesterday. And since they weren’t talking much, it didn’t feel as if he could just invite himself there and make them both uncomfortable.

Not that he was all that comfortable with the fact that his employee was bringing up Regan’s name every five minutes that he was in the office.

“Are you going to apologize or not?” Betsy asked, crossing her arms. “I think this has been going on long enough. You’re being stubborn and if you don’t apologize she is going to kick drop you.”

“She told you?” he asked, his jaw open. She’d said she wouldn’t tell anyone about that.

“She broke up with you?” Betsy asked, her eyes filling with tears.

Yeah, he felt the same damn way right now. “No. At least I don’t think so.”

“Then what are you talking about?” Betsy asked.

He let out a sigh. If he didn’t tell his assistant she’d hound him all damn day and probably blow his phone up at night too.

That was what he got for assuming something without thinking through the context of the statement.

“After I took her to the gun range?—”

“Which was nice of you and she gave in and conceded even though she didn’t want one.”

“Miles told you that?” he asked.

“He did. See, compromise between you two.”

His shoulders dropped. “Yes. It was. I wanted to show her some self-defense moves. Every woman should know them.”

“They should,” Betsy said. “I remember everything you taught me.”

It was one of the things that were a deal breaker when he hired her if she’d said no. He could show them to her or pay for her to take a few classes. But in this line of work, you could get some irate clients and he wanted to know she could handle herself.

Aside from the small pistol she kept in her drawer.

“I’m glad,” he said. “When we got back to her place, before I could even show her a thing, I wanted to let her know what I was doing and came up behind her, the next thing I know I’m on the floor on my back and sucking in air.”

“She knocked you down?” Betsy asked, laughing. “Good for her.”

“Not just knocked me down,” he said. “But knocked my knee out and then flipped me over her shoulder hard.”

Betsy was roaring with laughter. “Taught you a lesson to not assume, didn’t it?”

“Yeah.”

“All the more reason to go apologize to her that you were wrong.”

There was no winning here. He knew that. “I should.”

“You know,” Betsy said. “I know deep down you always worry you’re going to let someone down. That you let your parents down that you didn’t stay on the police force.”

“I should have never let that slip years ago,” he said. His guard was down and Betsy had a way of getting him to talk.

“I’d like to consider us close enough that you could trust me.”

“I do,” he said. “But I know when you’ve got another agenda you could throw me to the dogs like you sneak my leftover lunches to Rocco when I’m not around.”

Betsy laughed. “I do that. But my point is, Regan can take care of herself. She’s a bright intellectual strong woman. She has a job that puts her in positions of knowledge that aren’t always great, but she can talk her way out of it. You know that well. You do it often.”

He didn’t need that pointed out to him. That Regan was even fast on her feet and closed the case with Justin and Tricia.

“I do. It’s hard to be the one to apologize.”

“Yes,” Betsy said. “It is. But a strong man can swallow his pride and admit he’s a jackass.”

He snorted. “I can.”

“And there she is,” Betsy said. He turned his head and saw Regan get off the elevator. She had a large coffee in her hand and was moving briskly as if she wanted to avoid being seen or stopped.

He wasn’t giving her that chance and moved just as fast to whip open his door.

“Can we talk?”

“Sure,” she said. “Are you positive you want to? Our last communication ended with me almost two days ago. I wasn’t sure if you have it formulated in your head yet.”

He wasn’t going to bite his tongue when he wanted to.

He was being the childish one not talking when that wasn’t like him.

“I’m ready. I guess maybe my pride has made it hard for me to do it before now.”

She turned before she opened the door. “You wanted me to make the first move,” she said. “I didn’t do anything wrong. I believe I’ve been very accommodating to your requests even when I haven’t wanted to do it.”

She was being professional and the bite of the words stung hard. “You have been. I’m the one that hasn’t seen it.”

“Or you wanted it all your way. Maybe for me to be the damsel in distress and say what a big strong boyfriend you are to me.”

She said that when she opened her office door and Miles was sitting at his desk, his mouth open.

Guess he wasn’t the only one that was stunned by the words Regan was saying.

“Maybe,” he said.

Admitting that in front of Miles only resulted in a covered laugh.

Their two assistants were getting earfuls today. Maybe working next to each other wasn’t so great.

“Come into my office and we can talk,” she said and kept walking.

He looked at Miles and saw the smirk. “Am I creating an invoice for this?” Miles asked.

“I’ll let you know when we are done,” she said.

Ouch.

He was going to get his ass handed to him.

He shut her door and sat down on the couch facing the chair she normally sat in for her sessions.

Regan took her time removing her jacket and hanging it up and then took her seat.

“I’m sorry,” he said right away. “I was a jackass and didn’t listen to what you were saying. I didn’t ask your opinion. I just started to give mine and say what I think you should do.”

She sat there and looked at him for five seconds. “Why is that?” she asked. Yep, she was in professional mode and not even accepting what he said.

He had that coming, he knew.

“I’ve got this fear I’m going to let you down. Not just a protection part because I’m standing behind that right now. I feel this is serious and we have to address the threats too. But more from a relationship part. My parents have a great marriage in my eyes. They were able to do it with both of their demanding careers. I haven’t had that luck.”

“Have you tried before?” she asked.

“Maybe not as much as I should have. Could be I haven’t found the person I wanted to with it. That falls on me, but the relationships failing or not working out still stung when women told me I was selfish.”

It was the first time he was saying any of this.

If she continued to be professional and not address him personally for his apology it was going to be hard to continue.

She didn’t.

She got up and sat next to him on the couch.

She grabbed his hand. “Why haven’t you said this before?”

“Do you accept my apology?” he asked first.

“Of course,” she said. “I should have led with that and maybe I was being petty. I’ve had a couple of bad days and nights trying to figure this thing out with us.”

“You want to figure it out and make it work?”

“Yes,” she said. “Part of why I went into this career was because my parents just gave up. They didn’t even try. And to find out how stupid it was for them to walk away from marriage now only ticked me off more. I’d never walk away, but that didn’t mean we both didn’t need some time to figure it out.”

“You left it in my court,” he said. “I know. I guess I might not have been ready to talk before now anyway. I needed to calm down and you’ve admitted that you lock things up to stay grounded too. You’ve been more open with me than I’ve been with you.”

“I want you to know that I wouldn’t have waited much longer. How strong we feel about each other doesn’t take away from the fact that it’s still new between us. We are navigating a lot and this is one of those things.”

“We’ve fought before,” he said.

“We have, but not like this. This is more important. It’s not a fight about an individual action or a dislike. This is about feelings and taking others' opinions and thoughts into consideration. Serious thoughts and opinions. You made a decision and didn’t talk to me about it. I didn’t argue with you over the cameras completely because I was being reasonable. But…” She held her hand up when he went to interrupt her. “I would have liked you to have asked me first. That we could have talked it over and you would have found out if I had any fears over why I didn’t want them. Or what I might personally be feeling over this whole situation. Did it ever occur to you that I let you stay at the house the whole weekend even though we didn’t talk? I did that because it made us both feel better. You were the one not talking and if you weren’t so stubborn we could have bypassed all of this.”

“I’m sorry again,” he said. “I didn’t realize that. I saw the letter and threat and reacted.”

“You did. You didn’t let me explain why I wasn’t as fearful as you in that moment.”

“But you are nervous?” he asked. It just occurred to him that she’d wanted him to stay. She just said that. Which would be the reason she wasn’t afraid.

“I’d be stupid not to be concerned, nervous or fearful. You know those things. But my level of concern and yours are different. I know my clients. I’m a good judge of character. I don’t see anyone that I feel is extremely violent. And trust me when I tell you that Miles and I have been going through everyone.”

“You didn’t tell me that,” he said.

“You didn’t ask or give me a chance to.”

“It might not be a client of yours,” he said. “Did you think of that? Maybe it’s an ex of someone you see that isn’t happy. They could think you are turning someone against them. Or maybe it has to do with Sophia.”

“I’ve thought of all of that,” she said. “If you talked to me about it, we could have discussed it without me giving names and I could have relieved your mind.”

“You don’t think it’s either of them?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” she said, rubbing his arm. “I’m being honest. Nothing is coming to me right now. Nothing to Miles either. But I don’t believe I’m in serious danger. If I jump every time someone is mad at me or sends me a letter or email in their emotional state then I can’t effectively do my job. Can’t you see my side of it?”

Something he hadn’t thought of, but she had brought it up more than once.

“I can now,” he said.

“This is why people have to talk it out,” she said. “If you’re the type of person who needs some time to figure out your next move or what you need to say, then tell me that right now. I’ll honor it and not push you.”

She was the one being reasonable. Maybe she was doing that because she didn’t know enough about him and if he needed the time he had.

He did lick his wounds more than figure out exactly what to say.

“I might need it at times. And if I do, I’ll tell you that.”

“Good,” she said. “I accept your apology. I’ll even say I’m sorry that I didn’t express myself the other night, but I was annoyed with you.”

He pulled her under his arm and gave her a cuddle and his body all but sagged with the knowledge that things between them were going to be just fine.

“Maybe I’ll tell you I need more time and we can avoid this in the future.”

“Sounds like a good plan,” she said.

“Just not a five-year plan?” he asked.

She started to laugh and pushed back to look at his face. “I’m glad we worked this out. And I know we can in the future.”

“We can,” he said, kissing her. “And I need to go and I’m sure you’ve got work to do.”

“Yes,” she said. “I love you, Zander.”

“Love you too, Doc.”

She giggled a little and gave him a quick kiss on the lips. “This session was on the house. I’ll take my payment in a different form tonight.”

“You’ve got yourself a good swap.”

He left and went back to his office, saw Betsy sitting at her desk waiting for him to say something, but he didn’t.

Betsy came in. “Well?”

“We’re good. Did you think differently?”

“No,” Betsy said. “I knew she’d straighten your ass out.”