The Summer Deal

Forty two - Workplace sanctuary respect

When I woke up this morning, I had absolutely no idea how I wanted to spend my day. Maybe I was hoping for lots of sex, sleep, eat, and repeat with Noah. Maybe have a deep, intellectual conversation or two with him, but we were never supposed to step out of my room unless it was necessarily required.

What I didn't want was to hide in a stuffy storage room filled with old and rusted vehicle parts two hours away from my hotel room with Noah.

"You know," I began. "If I wasn't worried about getting a tetanus shot after getting screwed by your rusted penis, I think I should be now."

"I'm sorry," Noah whispered quietly, his head lowered. "I never should have told you to come here. I wasn't expecting this to happen today. You must be upset at me."

There was enough space for us to move freely in the room, but I didn't want any accidents by getting hurt with junk lying around everywhere so I stayed close to Noah. Close enough to a half arm's length.

"Are you bloody out of your mind?" I snapped. "Of course, I am. You left in a hurry, which I can now understand because I respect what you do for a living very much, but throwing money at me as if I was one of those sluts you used to visit for relief? You disrespected me. You insulted my dignity and my pride as a woman. You made it even worse when you dragged me into this junkyard room despite my protests."

He tried to touch my waist. "I'm sorry, baby."

I slapped his hands away. "Don't touch me!"

"It was an accident."

"Right," I nodded, furious. "So was bringing me here. Who are you hiding from anyway?"

He didn't meet my eyes. "No one."

"And I'm supposed to believe that," I scoffed. "You nearly dropped Dora in panic and fled here." Something heavy settled in my stomach as I continued. "Once we're done hiding, I'm leaving. For good. Don't bother showing your face to me ever again."

"What?" That sinking feeling in my stomach intensified when I saw that I had cracked him. "No. Sarah, don't do that to me. I thought... We were supposed to stick together. We had a deal. Tomorrow's the wedding. I can't survive it on my own."

My anger didn't falter. "I don't think so. What damage can a few hours do when you seem perfectly fine spending an entire weekend with them."

He shook his head. "That's not it. It's just that—it's complicated."

Then we heard voices coming from outside. It was Archie and Steve, but I didn't recognize the third voice as Joe's. It was another man.

"... doing really great. My boy loves her so much. He keeps bringing her toy trains, hoping she'll play with him. Trains are his new obsession, did I tell you that? Grace ordered an entire set from Amazon and he loves it."

Grace. Grace... Grace. My brows furrowed. "Noah, why does that name sound familiar to me?"

His expression had morphed into something unreadable and he didn't reply.

"I know my wife. She feels guilty for spending more time with the new baby so she's spoiling him."

"Is it possible to spoil a four-year-old kid?" Steve joked.

I kept my gaze fixed on Noah while hearing the conversation outside. It was mostly about a new baby, late-night feedings, and diaper changes. I also got to learn that the construction of the man's home was nearly over, and they'll be moving out next week. Noah had completely zoned out of this world, and I was instantly reminded of our time at the fair and how he completely blanked out after seeing a certain pregnant redhead. That was Grace, I thought with a frown. So the man outside was her husband. Why was Noah hiding from them?