Page 18 of Little Ballerina

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He was pretty sure that she was crying again.

Naomi had locked herself in her bathroom almost an hour ago. Sam wasn't sure what he was supposed to do. Should he go after her? He wasn't sure she wanted him to. She had run away from him after all. And even if he did follow after her, he had no idea what he should say to her. He wasn't good at talking.

Hopefully she calmed down soon. He understood that what was going on was a lot for her to handle, especially on the back of a bad year and another injury. However, they needed her right now.

If he was honest, the thought of strong, tough Naomi crying ate at his heart a little. Or if he were completely honest it ate at his heart a lot. He didn’t like seeing her in pain. Physical pain or emotional pain. He hoped she knew that. He was pretty sure she did, but Naomi could be so hard to get a read on, she disliked emotional discussions even more than he did.

His phone beeped with a text. It was Jonathon, letting him know that he and his partner were only a few minutes away. They were coming to interview Naomi. An unaccustomed desire to coddle her, protect her from the emotional turmoil she would be made to endure washed over him. Naomi was the only person who stirred up these feelings in him. At least he knew that Jonathon and Allina would handle Naomi gently.

Going to collect Naomi, he found her still locked in the bathroom. Rapping his knuckles on the closed door, he called through it, “Jonathon will be here any minute.” He wasn't sure she was going to answer and reconsidered his stance on her sisters being around, maybe Naomi did really need her family around her right now. Part of him wanted to believe he was enough to get her through this, but he was already way out of his league, and things would only worsen.

The lock clicked, and the bathroom door opened slowly until Naomi stood before him. While pale, her eyes were no longer red and puffy, and she appeared calm and composed. “May as well get it over with,” she acknowledged and brushed past him without another word.

Confused as to where he stood with her, he knew she liked him, he just didn’t know how to get her to admit it, Sam followed her back downstairs just as the doorbell rang. He half expected her to try and answer the door herself, but she didn’t, she merely veered off toward the kitchen, leaving him to get the door.

“No problems last night?” Jonathon asked as soon as the door opened.

“All good.”

“How’s Naomi doing?”

“She’s doing just fine,” announced a voice behind them. “If you want to know you can ask me. You don’t have to go through Sam.”

“I wasn't confident you'd give me an honest answer,” Jonathon retorted as he shrugged out of his coat and hung it up on the row of hooks by the door.

“My head feels much better, I haven’t thrown up, or gotten dizzy since last night. Can we just get started?”

“Of course we can.” Jonathon took hold of her elbow and led her into the lounge room, sitting her on the sofa then sitting beside her. Allina took the recliner while Sam remained standing, partly to stay on alert and partly because he knew this was going to be rough on Naomi and he was afraid that if he was too close to her the urge to draw her into his arms would become irresistible.

“Okay, what do you want to ask me?” Naomi was twisting her hands nervously in her lap.

Placing a hand over hers to still them, Jonathon asked, “Still no memories of the attack?”

Naomi shook her head, then winced as the movement caused her obvious pain. “None.”

“We’re going to assume that your memories aren’t coming back and work this case without them,” Allina said. “Do you haveanyideas on who this guy could be?”

“No. I’ve been wracking my brain trying to think of something, but I can't.”

“What about one of your cases? Anyone who might be angry with you and have cause to try to get even?” Jonathon asked.

“No one I can think of. Sure, I’ve had some angry exes but no one who was angry enough to kill people just to hurt me.”

“We’re still going to need to go through your files,” Allina told her.

Naomi turned to him. “Sam?”

“That’s fine, Nick is going through them right now trying to look for anything that stands out.”

“What about any ex-boyfriends?” Allina asked.

“I never date anyone long enough for things to get so serious that they'd be that upset when we break up.”

For that Sam was eternally grateful. He hated it when Naomi dated. He never said anything, but jealousy would eat at him incessantly until she ended things. She was always the one to end things. Naomi didn’t like to let anyone get too close to her, so she always backed out as soon as things even hinted at getting close to serious.

“Anyone you’ve dated who made you uncomfortable in any way?” Jonathon asked.

“No, they're all nice guys. I didn’t break up with any of them because they were creepy in any way, there was just no future. And you can check with Clara if you don’t believe me, she’s met all of them,” Naomi finished defensively.


Tags: Jane Blythe Candella Sisters' Heroes Romance