Chance Encounter - Jerry Cole Page 0,23

never knew that I moved, at least not from me. I don’t know why he would do that.” Shock covered his face, making me pull him against me.

“We’re going to the police with this. He thought you lived there and tried to kill you.” I took deep, slow breaths. “Was anyone hurt in the fire?”

“No. Everyone escaped.” We both breathed a sigh of relief. “We can go tomorrow to tell them. I don’t know how much weight his drunken slur will hold up, but he could find out where I do live.” It was so much more than just me and Hayden now. “I missed you. I love you.”

“I should have told you. I think I just tried to block it out or something.” I clung to him, realizing how far apart we’d been drifting.

“I didn’t talk about the fire with you, either. I mean, apart from when I first heard about it. I’m sorry about that.” We snuggled together for a moment, and I realized how much he meant to me. I realized that we might have been losing each other.

“Let’s go to bed. I am taking tomorrow off, and if you don’t have it off, call in sick.” I stood up and locked the door before offering him my hand. We walked to our bedroom, undressing before we fell to the bed in a deep kiss.

I made love to him, first hard and fast. The second time, it was slow and sweet. I told him how much I loved him when I held him afterward, asking if we could work harder on us. I didn’t have to work as much as I did, and neither did he.

We talked in the morning over breakfast, agreeing that we needed to cut ties with Vivian. She pushed a boundary with me and our relationship. The girls would take care of her and Ava, and hopefully, Vivian might find her way in life.

I also promised to work normal hours, and he told me that he’d push to hire someone. They knew how good Hayden was and inadvertently took advantage of him. It wasn’t malicious on the part of the theater, or at least that was what he thought.

We had lunch with Becca and Mari in the city to explain why we were backing away from Vivian. They were stunned by what she did, confused as to what they should do. “Don’t do anything based on this. She’s a good person, if not misguided. She might need a couple of friends.”

Becca and Mari shared a look. “She’s putting us down as the godparents.”

“Shit. Not her mom?” Hayden asked, and Becca shrugged.

“I guess not. Should we decline?” Mari asked, and I shook my head.

“No. She needs someone.” I sipped my water, remembering the day Vivian kissed me, cupping her hand over my cock. I pushed her away immediately, but she cried and told me that she was lonely. She told me that she loved me. I didn’t take another call from her until the night she called me several times in a row to tell me that she was in labor. “I think she was just in a bad place.”

“We both had stuff going on that we weren’t talking about. It’s fine,” Hayden told them as Becca frowned at him.

“I remember when you used to talk to me.” She crossed her arms over her chest, and he sighed.

“We’ve all been too busy to talk about anything. I thought living in the same building might bring us all closer, but we only see each other on Sundays.” We looked at each other, all slowly smiling. “Okay. Sundays are awesome.”

“They are. That’s almost worth moving into the building in itself.” Becca smiled, and we all laughed. “We’ll make an effort. The theater has been crazy for us, but Helen said they’re planning to hire two more people. It is a little ridiculous that we see each other less living one floor away from each other.”

Becca said she would tell Vivian why we were keeping our distance. She wasn’t shy about knowing what happened or confronting Vivian. We hugged each other before parting, telling each other that we’d see the others for dinner in two days.

I held Hayden’s hand as we entered our building. “Feel better?”

“I guess so. I didn’t realize how bad things were getting. I just thought we weren’t spending time together.” He paused in front of Gram’s door. “Want to say hi?”

I cut off any new clients to allow me some free time. I