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I lean back in my seat, “Honestly, I still don’t think I’ve wrapped my head around it.”
“Did she fill you in on how we met?” Rylie asks.
“Yeah, she explained how she knew you, but I’m sure there’s more to the story though.”
I then quickly explained what Jynx told us all.
“Oh yeah, there definitely is, and I want to know about the link you have with her,” she replies curiously, “did you know her before you came to Serendipity?”
“Yeah, I did. It’s a long story though, and probably best saved for when we can catch up properly. You never know who’s listening,” I point out, aware that we both need to be careful about what we say. This is by no means a secured line.
“I hear you,” she replies with a smile in her voice before she continues, sounding slightly nervous although I can’t fathom why, “That’s actually why I was calling; Mr R has insisted that I take some time off, which is ridiculous. I mean, I’m pretty fucking used to being kidnapped by this point.”
“You do get kidnapped a lot, dude. You should probably do something about that,” I tease.
“Don’t you think I would’ve fixed it if I could’ve? It’s like I’ve got some supernatural fucking gift for being kidnapped,” she replies, and it's good that she can find amusement in it.
“Dude, I don’t think that would be classed as a gift,” I point out.
She’s silent for a few seconds before she says, “Curse then. I don’t know what, but at this point, it has got to be supernatural. It happens so often.”
“Hey, you’re not going to get an argument from me,” I reply, with a teasing note to my voice.
“Fuck off,” she replies before we both start laughing.
Once we’ve calmed down, I ask, “You said that you had a reason why you called before we got distracted by your supernatural abilities.”
“Oh shit yeah,” Rylie replies, “what I was saying was that I’m not going straight on another case, so I’ve got some time. I was wondering if you wanted to meet up and catch up. It would be nice to see you, the guys, and Jynx and her men.”
“Yeah, that sounds great. There’s a restaurant that we like to go to. I can send you the address, and we’ll meet there?”
“Sounds good to me. I’ll never turn down food. Are you guys free tomorrow? I honestly have no idea when I’ll get called in for another job, so sooner rather than later would probably be better.”
“I know that feeling,” I agree, “that should be fine. We’re free for the next few days at least. I’ll contact Jynx, but I’m sure she’ll be free.”
The reason why I suggest that I contact Jynx is that although I’m sure that Jynx will give Rylie her number, there are no guarantees, and there could be a security reason which means Rylie shouldn’t have it, so I will leave that as her decision to make.
“Great, I better go and leave you to your report writing,” Rylie replies.
“Thanks a bunch,” I snark back.
“You are so very welcome,” she replies sarcastically. “See you tomorrow.”
The first thing I do when she hangs up is send her the address to the restaurant. It’s in the closest city, and it's one that we use when we don’t want people to know where we live. Rylie is someone that we knew when we were younger, but we don’t know her now, and I will never take any risks when it comes to my family.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Once that’s done, I quickly make a booking online at the restaurant and send a follow-up text to Rylie to confirm. Then, I call Jynx and explain what we’re doing tomorrow. There’s no point in me asking her if she wants to go or not; I know she’s going to want to catch up with Rylie, and she’s just as curious as I am about what she’s been up to.
“Call Pete and see if he wants to come too,” Jynx suggests, “he’s bound to be going out of his mind with curiosity.”
I chuckle, “Oh yeah, of course he is. I’m actually surprised that he hasn’t bombarded me with hundreds of questions already. I was already planning on asking him. I don’t think he’d forgive me if I didn’t.”
“No chance, you’d never hear the end of it.” Jynx agrees.
After she’s confirmed what time we need to leave here in order to get to the restaurant on time for our reservation, she hangs up, and I flick through my contacts to find Pete’s name. While it’s ringing, it occurs to me that I never checked to see if Jynx finished her report or not. As I expected, Pete is definitely on board and wants to come tomorrow, and although I invited Elijah too, he decided to stay at home and get some errands done that he needs to do instead.
Leaning back in my chair, I smile. I really was worried that she would just disappear again, and this proves that she’s not going to. It’s all reassuring that we seem to have been able to pick up where we left off friendship-wise, and that’s a rare thing to be able to do. I have never doubted that she was one of my people though, those people that you find throughout your life that you instantly click with, and no matter how long it's been since you last spoke or saw them, it’s easy—Rylie’s one of those.