She took another step back. “I’ve got to go. I gave my statement to one of the policemen inside the bank, so he cleared me to leave.”
His blue eyes seemed to bore into her. She looked away.
“Laura—”
“It was nice talking to you. Glad you seem to have a job you like. Take care, Joe.” There. A reasonable, polite statement.
Now get out.
She took another step back and to the side. Her car was around the other corner, but she’d walk around the entire block out of her way if it meant she could make a clean getaway from Joe.
“Laura, let me take you out to dinner tonight.”
“No.” She knew she was too abrupt, but reasonable, polite statements seemed beyond her now.
Joe put his large hands out, palms up, in an endearing, entreating manner. “Just to catch up. It’s been what, six years? It’s great to see you.”
She shook her head. “I can’t.”
“Why?” He took a step closer and she immediately took a step back. She had to keep some sort of physical distance from him. “Are you married? In a relationship?”
“No.”
The attraction was still there for her. She didn’t want it to be, but it was. Laura had done her best not to think about him for the last six years while also having to admit that the man had shaped her life like no one else. Because of him the whole course of her career and even her thought patterns had changed.
One brief, cruel conversation with him six years ago had made her into the woman she was today.
“Then why?”
Was he really asking this? Couldn’t figure it out on his own? “I just can’t. There’s too much...” She almost said ugliness, but that reminded her too much of what he’d said to her that night. “There’s too much time and distance between us.”
Faster than she would’ve thought possible his hands whipped out and grabbed both of her wrists. He held them gently but firmly. “There’s still a spark between us.”
Laura’s laugh was bitter, unrecognizable to her. She wasn’t a bitter person. Even though Joe’s words six years ago had shredded her she’d never let herself become bitter, even toward him.
“Spark was never the problem, at least not on my end.” She wrenched her arms out of his hands. “The fact that you thought I wasn’t attractive enough to be in a relationship with you, that was the problem.”
Joe watched Laura hurry down the corridor between the bank and the coffee shop next door then round a corner. He wanted to run after her, to stop her, to explain.
To explain what, exactly? That he’d been a jerk six years ago?
Seemed evident she already understood that pretty clearly.
How about that he’d been a fool? That he’d realized long ago how stupid he’d been to let her go? That Laura’s honesty, authenticity and love for life had been something he’d missed day in and day out for six years?
Perhaps he could tell her that he’d nearly called her dozens of times. Had stood outside her house in Colorado Springs like a stalker more times than would make anyone comfortable. That every time he got a little tipsy out with friends it was her number he wanted to drunk-text.
That he’d never stopped dreaming about her even when he’d forced his mind not to think of her while awake.
When he’d seen her holding that baby today, an icy panic had gripped his heart. Because she’d been in danger, but more because he’d thought he’d been too late to right his wrongs. She’d met someone else and fallen in love and made sweet beautiful babies.
When Brooke had stood up and taken the baby from Laura and he’d realized they weren’t Laura’s children, something had snapped into place for him. He hadn’t realized it at that moment but he sure as hell realized it now.
He wasn’t waiting any longer. He had to make things right with Laura. He didn’t know why he’d waited until now to start trying.
By her own admission Laura wasn’t married or seeing anyone. Joe planned to change that. If he could convince her to forgive him. That was a huge if.
But he planned to try. Fate, in the form of two moronic bank robbers, had brought them back together. It gave him the perfect opening to ease back into her life, to apologize in every way he knew how. And think of a few new creative ways if needed.
That would be his pleasure.
And if he couldn’t talk her into giving their relationship a try, he could at least prove himself a friend to her. To erase from his mind forever that haunted, shattered look that had taken over her features when he’d let the press and gossip columns get the best of him and convince him he could do better than Laura Birchwood.
News flash: he couldn’t.
He wouldn’t blame her if she would never become romantically involved with him again, but he was going to try to convince her.
Starting tonight. He’d take a note from his get-whatever-I-want past playbook and follow her home. He’d charm her into going out with him.
He began walking back toward the bank. As soon as he cleared the building he could feel eyes on him. Press and bystanders were all taking pictures and recording the scene and him. Most weren’t looking at him, just knew something exciting had happened at the bank.
But a few people in the crowd knew who he was. He could feel eyes following him in particular. It never failed to make him a little uncomfortable when people seemed to be hostage “groupies.”
Derek, Lillian and Jon were talking to the sheriff when Joe walked up to them.
“We’ll get the rest of the statements and proceed from there. It looks like the manager and assistant manager of the bank were the only ones injured and neither of them seriously.” Jon nodded at Joe in greeting.
That was good. Hopefully the judge would take that into consideration when sentencing Ricky and Bobby, aka Mitchell and Michael Goldman.
“Lillian, Joe and I are going to head back to Omega HQ since you seem to have everything under control,” Derek said, shaking the sheriff’s hand.
“I’m going to stay around for the rest of the evening, if that’s okay,” Jon told the sheriff. “I work crisis management in a lot of cases for Omega and may be able to help you with press or any questions you have.”
“We appreciate Omega sending you so quickly.” Sheriff Richardson turned to Joe. “And we especially appreciate what you did in there. That you kept it from becoming bloody.”
Joe shook the man’s outstretched hand. “The Goldman brothers didn’t really want to harm anybody in my opinion. They just made some bad decisions, which led to panicking and more bad decisions.”
“Either way, me and my men are thankful for how the situation got handled today. I’m sure the hostages are, too.”
Jon and Sheriff Richardson turned back toward the bank while Lillian, Derek and Joe began walking the blocks to where the helicopter had been landed.
“Alright, mission completed. Let’s get home,” Derek said.
Lillian nodded as they began to make their way up to the roof. Joe wanted to move quicker, to rush them, so he could get back to HQ and back to Laura. But he knew it wouldn’t accomplish anything but cause them to dig into why he was in such a hurry. Joe was rarely in a hurry.
But