Page 21 of Coiled Tight

I’d screamed, too, most likely. I couldn’t say I remembered it, but my throat felt funny in the way it did every time after I shrieked in shock, so it must’ve happened.

Oh, fuck, oh, fuck, oh, fuck.

I was definitely fired.

My feet somehow carried me to change back into something appropriate. Maybe packing ahead of time was a good idea. I’d have to face the guy, but I’d rather save the extra embarrassment of having to head back upstairs to pack up everything.

I’d come to really like it here, dammit.

The sanctuary was good. They were doing good work.Iwas doing good work, for once in my life, instead of just rolling with the punches of whatever my bosses said. The pups were only two weeks old now. They were doing okay, and I knew getting attached to them was a bad idea because there was no way they wouldn’t be adopted as soon as they were out of the danger zone, and they didn’t need their mom’s milk. Even Golden would be adopted easily even when she was still scheduled to have a couple surgeries to fix her broken bones. Now that her fur was clean and she was eating, she was gorgeous and super trusting for the kind of hell she’d gone through.

Shit.

My eyes smarted.

All because I had no chill, clearly, and I couldn’t keep my shit outside of people’s homes, apparently, and oh my god, he was going to be so disgusted, and…

Fine, I couldn’t say I’d stopped being fully awkward around the man, but I thought we were getting somewhere with the horse riding lessons and then Golden and her pups, and I’d started to relax more around him, and?—

I was dropping another bunch of very wrinkled, very unfolded clothes into my suitcase when there was a knock on the door.

Had he knocked earlier, too? Maybe I hadn’t heard it, and that was why he opened the door. That would make sense.

“Cam?”

Shit.

He wasn’t even going to let me get myself together, was he?

Fine.

Blowing hot air and clenching my fists made me stable enough, I could stride across the room and yank the door open.

I kept my gaze trained on his chest because there was no way I’d risk losing the tiny bit of bravado I’d amassed.

“Before you try, you don’t have to say shit, okay? I’m already packing, and I’ll get out of your hair, and I’m really sorry if I’ve traumatized you or some shit, even though I don’t understand why you’d even walk into my room on my day off. You should invest in some locks, but anyway. I’ll just get out of your hair, yeah?” I breathed sharply. “Um. Can you just ask Sofía to send me updates on the pups? I won’t bother you more than that, I swear. I didn’t want to—I knew I shouldn’t have done it, but I was overwhelmed, and—No, I’m not talking about that with you, just… Just give me an hour?”

I didn’t know if an hour was enough, but I didn’t see why not. I’d managed to fly here on only a suitcase, and I hadn’t bought anything since I’d arrived. It should be more than enough time to stuff everything inside.

Hell, if I left anything behind, it wouldn’t be the end of the world. I hadn’t touched my pay for the past three months, so I could afford the trip to the airport and a plane ticket to… I didn’t know where.

Maybe this was fate, and it was telling me to finally open the unread emails from the PI, that I had to go wherever Kara had ended up and beg for forgiveness.

Vets were needed everywhere because there were animals everywhere.

No, no, that would be too creepy.

A PI was more than enough stalker behavior for a lifetime.

Whatever.

I rubbed my arm across my eyes.

They stung.

“Um. Will you get out of my sight now? Because if you wanna ask about whatever it is you saw, I’m not going to explain shit to you. Google is free; I’m sure you can find resources. That’s what most people do, and they turn out okay.”

“Cam.”