“I won’t read it as forgiveness. I never should’ve stopped picking you up. That was an asshole move.”
“It’s whatever.” Her teeth dug into her bottom lip. “Carina’s been driving me home.”
“Coworker?”
“Yeah. She doesn’t mind, so I’m covered. Don’t worry your pretty little head about me, Theo.”
My brow pinched. “I’m going to worry. If there’s a time Carina can’t drive you, call me. I’ll be there. I don’t want you on the bus again.”
Her mouth opened, but before she could say whatever she was going to, Lock said my name. I exhaled, taking one last look at Helen. All the soft I’d coaxed out of her was back behind her spiky walls. Still, even with her defenses up and her lips turned down, she was the most beautiful woman I’d ever laid eyes on.
“I gotta go.” I pulled her into me and pressed a kiss to her forehead. It might’ve been stolen, but I needed it, so I took. “Call me, Tiger.”
Lock was frowning at me with deep furrows around his mouth when I got to him. I grinned back.
“Let’s go,” he gritted out.
“Ready when you are,” I replied.
We’d gone two steps when Helen called out to us, “Hey, lovebirds, where are you going together?”
I turned around, walking backward beside Lock, whose steps hadn’t even stuttered. “Gotta get to work, baby. No time to chat.”
“What!” She threw her arms out.
“You call me, I’ll tell you all about it.” Then I tossed her a wave and spun forward.
Lock glanced over at me, tense. “You’re getting cocky. The finish line is too far off for you to be this cocky.”
That sobered me somewhat. “Point taken.”
After a minute of silence, he added, “She was kinda nice to you, though.”
I barked a laugh. “Yeah, she kinda was.”
“Don’t fuck up the little ground you’ve gained back, Whitlock.”
“I’m not going to.”
Whether I was patient enough to wait for Helen to come back to me was another story. But if my first day on the job the previous day had been any indication, Lock was going to keep me so busy with backbreaking labor for the next four hours, I wouldn’t have the chance to think about Helen. And that was good, since this was aboutme. Yeah, I wanted the girl, but this was more than that. This was me taking the reins of my life back. This was me standing on my own feet and being able to look at myself in the mirror without disgust. This was me living clear and clean. Then, and only then, would this be me going after my girl.