was. Movers had come in to his and Sonya’s apartment a few months before he had left for Australia and packed up everything except for his small amount of personal items he was taking with him.
“How can that be, you live in the same city and work together. Haven’t you asked her out again?”
“Haven’t had the chance.” He carried the silverware to the drawer next to the stove and started to dump it all from the paper.
“What are you doing?” His sister rushed to him and snatched up the items from his hand and the few out of the drawer.
“I’m putting them away. Isn’t that what unpacking means? Why you harped on me when you got here two hours ago?” He placed his hands on his hips, frustrated as he watched Jessie take everything to a drawer beneath the cabinet where she was stacking dishes and set them down on the counter.
“Well, baby brother, you have been in this apartment for almost five months now. You should have unpacked a long time ago.” Turning she searched one open boxes after another until she pulled some kind of wooden tray out. She went back to her workstation and placed it into an open drawer then loaded the silverware into it. “Also, you have to put things in a reasonable place when it comes to the kitchen.”
“Well, I unpacked what was necessary.”
“That means your office at the museum.” She wagged a finger at him. “Not even your bedroom. Since you put me in the only room in your place for the night I’m here, don’t think I didn’t notice that you’ve only made your bed and hung up your clothes for work.”
“Hey, I put away my jeans and underwear too.” He tossed an oven mitt at her then moved to an open box that had pots and pans figuring he couldn’t go wrong with that.
He was wrong. Apparently, they should go by the stove not beside the dish cabinet.
“You really need a wife,” Jessie teased.
“I’m trying to get my ex back.” He squatted before the space his sister had directed him to put the cookware.
She peered down at him. “Now, why haven’t you asked her out again?”
“Because even though we work in the same facility, Sonya manages to be either locked in her vault or out to lunch. She won’t answer any calls or text messages from me either.”
“What’s the problem? Go to her a few minutes before she takes lunch and wait.”
He glanced up at his sister. “Really, Jessie, I have a PhD and you don’t think I could come up with that on my own? She keeps changing her lunch hour.”
She slapped a hand on her hip. “Well, Dr. Hayden, how are all your bright ideas working out for you?”
Snarling at his sister, he reached for the last pot and put it away. Rising, he asked, “So, what do you suggest oh Relationship Guru?” He gave her a mocking bow.
“Keep it up and I’m going to call in your mother.” She poked him in the shoulder as he came up.
“Did you stop in to help me or threaten me?” He loved his mother and one thing he knew about Ida Hayden was that she cared about Sonya a lot. His mother had been the one that berated him about going to the Rainforest instead of finding Sonya.
However, then he’d been hard headed and believing Sonya’s words. They had been young and had rushed into marriage not knowing what they were getting themselves into. He’d let her go and drowned himself in his degree to mask the pain of loss.
“To help. First your apartment then your marriage.”
“Ex marriage.”
Jessie smiled and shrugged. “Semantics. She’s still your wife in your heart and that’s where it counts.”
He hoped his love for Sonya counted for something even though she was playing hard to get.
At his refrigerator getting out a can of soda, Jessie frowned at him. “How do you plan to feed your company if you have no food?”
“Take out.” He opened the narrow drawer beside the refrigerator. “Here are all the local places that deliver, take your pick.”
She fanned out the thirty different menus.
K. Sterling
Jacquie Rogers
Rebecca Hamilton, Conner Kressley
Shiloh Walker
Elizabeth Moynihan
Mary Balogh
Tara Fox Hall
Jonathan Maberry
Jane Hunt
James Kakalios