“Sounds good.”
“All right, I’ll see you then.”
“Drive safe,” he murmurs, touching my shoulder lightly as I pass by.
Leaving him in the house, I make my way outside and head to work. As I drive, I can’t help but think about how everything has changed.
It feels weird living with another man. The only man I’ve ever lived with is my dad, and we were more like two passing ships. When I got old enough, he trusted that I would do the right thing. He spent more time at the club and less at home. Not that he was an absent parent. I think he just didn’t know how to handle a teenage girl. Then I grew up and moved out, and I don’t think he had much reason to be at home after that.
At least until he got sick. It was only recently, when he got really bad, that I moved back in. Even then, though, I was stillpaying rent on my apartment. I still had a place of my own to go to if I needed a break.
Now my apartment is gone, and if I need space, the only place I have is my dad’s place. The home that feels like his ghost is watching over me, laughing.
“Just had to get the last laugh, didn’t you, Dad?” I mutter to myself.
All things considered, though, it could be worse. Ridge is pretty easy to live with. I see him in the morning and sometimes in the evening before I go to bed. On the evenings he won’t be home, he leaves food for me. Sometimes it’s in the fridge, and all I have to do is heat it up. Other times it’s in the Crock-Pot.
It’s nice. I don’t know the last time someone took care of me. Make no mistake, that’s what he’s doing. I always built Ridge up to be a villain in my story, but it turns out he’s not as bad as I once thought. It’s been nice having him take care of me. Not that I will ever admit it to him.
When I pull into the parking lot, I push all thoughts of him from my mind and start running through my schedule for the day. Getting out of my truck, I head inside and run into the head of HR, Maxine.
“Hey, Rain!”
“Hey, how are you?”
“I’m good. Hey, I heard you moved. Have you turned in your new address yet?”
“No, do I need to?”
Maxine laughs, shaking her head. “Of course! Just email it over to me, and I’ll get it handled for you.”
“Thank you.”
“No problem. It’s my job,” she says as she walks away.
I make my way to my desk and get situated, pushing all thoughts of Ridge away.
The man takes up more time in my mind than I would like to admit, and it’s becoming a problem.
Ridge
I can’t help but watch her walk away.
I want to call out to her, but I don’t. For some reason, I want to tell her to have a good day, but knowing Rain, that would annoy her, so I bite my tongue.
Something I’ve gotten really good at lately, it seems.
I knew this would be hard. I just didn’t realize how hard it would be. I’ve been trying to spend as much time with her as I can, get to know her as much as possible, but Rain doesn’t make it easy. She doesn’t come out in the mornings until she has to leave for work, maybe having enough time to drink a cup of coffee before hitting the road. It’s frustrating because I can hear her alarm go off two hours before she leaves.
I don’t know what she’s doing in her room for an hour before she gets in the shower, especially since I purposely did not put a TV in there, but it’s time I would like to spend with her. If I didn’t know any better, I would think she was going out of her way to avoid me. She doesn’t owe me anything, and it’s not all her fault either.
I’ve been busy doing shit for the club and with work. I’ve been getting home late lately. Sometimes we eat together in silence, watching something on TV. On other occasions, she will hang out in the living room while I eat when I get home late,but most of the time she heads to her room after I get home and closes the door behind her.
Clearly signaling that she wants alone time.
I get it. Hell, it’s weird as fuck for me having someone else in my space. I don’t even want to think about how weird it is for her. She’s the one who had to move into a new place. I got lucky because this place is mine. Nothing around me is new, with the exception of her. Well, and the bras I found hung up in the laundry room the other day.
Sighing, I turn back to the stove, plate my food, and start to eat while standing.