Page 35 of Love.V2 (Occupational Hazards #2)

Three Years Ago

Tess

“I’m almost done.” Dylan spoke before I’d made it fully into the doorway of his office. This was such a frequent exchange for us, I apparently didn’t even need to speak anymore.

Still. “It’s almost midnight.”

“I know.”

“And it’s not even a school day tomorrow,” I cajoled, wrapping my arms around his chest from behind. Friday night usually meant ordering a pizza and throwing on HBO, but that little ritual had been getting skipped a lot recently.

“Every day is a school day now,” Dylan murmured, eyes on his laptop. I tried to ignore the tightness in my stomach. Ever since his promotion a few months ago, it felt like I lost a little more of him every week.

I should say something , I thought. I hated how he was so consumed with work. He needed a break, and I…needed him. I missed him.

Dylan’s fingers tapped decisively on the keyboard and an email jettisoned off into the Internet ether.

He spun around, sliding his hands from my hips to my ribcage as he pulled me into his lap. “Hi.”

“Hi.” I smiled. This was more like it. Maybe he’d just had a busy couple of weeks.

This new role was hard—more demanding than he was used to.

I wasn’t losing him; it was just the ebb and flow of working at a higher level.

Now that he was working with more international clients, it was normal to have wonky hours, right? This wouldn’t be forever.

My skin tingled where his hands roamed—my arms, bare legs, arching neck.

“Shouldn’t you be in bed?” he teased, leaning forward to run his nose up the length of my throat, inhaling.

“ You should be in bed,” I shot back, tilting my head to give him better access. “You know I don’t sleep well without you.”

“Poor thing.” His lips pressed hot against my skin. “We can’t have that now, can we?”

He rose, carrying me across the room and down the hall. I snuggled into his chest, my legs wrapping around his hips. I loved this. Feeling so small and safe. His fingers squeezing into the soft flesh of my butt. It was everything I’d been missing for the last few weeks.

I used my teeth to scrape the skin of his throat. Remember me? Us?

Later, naked and panting, he gathered me close, squeezing me into his chest like I was precious.

“We should go for a walk in the morning. It’s supposed to be nice.” I broached the topic I’d been hesitant to bring up all week. But he was here now, with me. Not just sitting with me, but actually thinking about a spreadsheet .

He grunted. I could feel him already slipping into sleep, arms growing heavy around my stomach.

“We can walk over to that new coffee shop that just opened up,” I whispered. “They have something called a lavender latte.”

“Sounds gross,” he muttered, breath shifting a few strands of my hair.

I pinched his arm, and he grunted again, pulling me closer to bite my shoulder.

“I wanna try it so bad.”

“Then we’ll go.”

When I woke later that night to the sound of Dylan’s phone, I shifted, watching him rise and answer the call.

“Is everything okay?” I asked when he came back into the room.

He bent, placing a kiss on my forehead. “Issue with one of the UK clients.” The next morning when I woke, he was already gone.

***

Two weeks later

Dylan

“It feels great out there,” I told Tess, coming in from grabbing the mail that had been piling up our mailbox. Bills. Coupons. More bills.

I dumped all of it on the counter.

Tess mumbled something affirmative, curled up in her favorite squishy armchair by the window, soaking up the puddle of sunlight with a book in her lap .

Winter was just beginning to melt into spring. The air was warm without being hot. The kind of day that brought people into their yards for the first time in months to mow and have a beer with their neighbors.

And I, somehow, had a pause in the incessant deluge of work, calls, and emails that consumed my life. I wanted to take advantage of it.

I studied Tess for a few more moments, bare feet crossed, legs hanging over the arm of the chair. She looked warm. Comfortable. Like home.

I rubbed my chest, suddenly guilty about all the hours I’d been putting in at the office. She hadn’t complained, but she’d started asking more and more for me to come home at a reasonable hour, or grab dinner together. I’d probably said no too many times over the last few weeks.

A vague, sleepy memory surfaced. Lavender latte.

“Hey, didn’t you want to go to that coffee shop a few streets over? We can go for a walk. See if that farmers' market has anything good for dinner?”

Was it my imagination, or did her shoulders hitch up a millimeter? Her brow furrowed. “I’m not really in the mood.”

“You can finish your chapter, then we’ll go,” I tried again. I hadn’t had a day to myself in…too long to think about. I wanted to hang out with Tess. Feel the warm air on my skin. Hold her hand. Hear about what she’d been up to for the last few weeks.

I saw her every day, but she felt distant right now, like we were orbiting around each other and never quite connecting.

“No, thank you. ”

When I peered back at her, she looked the same. Sitting in the same spot, same position, same thoughtful frown on her face. But everything felt weird.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. Reading.” She raised her book and her eyebrows at the same time, the universal 'you're bothering me' face. I held my hands up in surrender.

“Must be good. I want to hear about it later.”

I tried not to take it personally when she didn’t respond. She didn’t look up when I passed through to the kitchen. I stood there, glass of water in hand, looking around my house like it was a strange new planet.

What did I usually do with my free time?

Hell, when was the last time I’d had any?

Fabric rustled as Tess shifted in the other room. I thought about the emails I’d left untouched last night, knowing they could wait until Monday.

I grabbed my briefcase from the chair in the kitchen and made my way to the office. I could work with the window open.