Wait. Nola stomped down the initial flash of jealousy she had no business feeling after knowing this man only a few days and thought through the snippets of conversation she couldn’t help but overhear. She forced her feet to keep on carrying her across the living room, through the dining area toward the kitchen.
He had called Lauren “kiddo.” This must be the daughter he mentioned.
Emotions tangled in Nola’s stomach like two silver dog tag chains clenched too tightly in a fist. Her feet slowing, she willed her stomach to settle and worked to untwine the emotions so she could understand her feelings.
She’d learned the benefit of exploring the causes behind emotions during the darkest months of battle with her disease. Sometimes the process of digging for root causes only unearthed stark fears she couldn’t help. But other times, she’d excavated more tangible concerns that she could combat on a concrete level.
Struggling to recapture the tactic, she realized that relief emerged first, an obvious reaction. Rick wasn’t speaking to another woman. She didn’t have a claim or right to feel that way, but emotions weren’t logical. So there.>The returning salesperson popped that fantasy faster than any cork.
“Um, Captain Seabrook, I’m afraid there’s a problem with your loan application.”
Back home, Nola stared at her computer screen with disbelief.
Still, there was no denying what she saw. Her bank account was empty. Her savings account—also zilch. Her credit cards all canceled.
What the hell was going on?
Her fingers hovering over the keyboard, her hands shook as she studied the mess of her financial life.
She spun in the office chair to face Rick in the extra chair beside her. “Any other ideas I might have overlooked?”
He scrubbed a hand over his five o’clock shadow. “You’re a computer whiz lady. Appears to me like you’ve covered every angle here. This guy must be damn good. Still, there’s always a path. I’m sure the bank will be able to straighten this out fairly quickly. There are safeguards out there against identity theft.”
“And there are nightmare stories about people who never recover from the financial damage.” Her throat started to close up as her mind traveled the path of all the bills she had to meet and couldn’t…
“Nola, breathe. Think.” His hand rubbed along her back. “This could also be a way to track the person who’s been tormenting you.”
She sagged back into the wheeled office chair. This totally sucked. “You’re right. I just feel so…”
“Violated?”
“Pissed off!” She kicked back from the desk, in need of distance. It would be too easy to move closer to him again and continue to take that comfort.
“Atta girl.”
And somehow that distance made things worse because she wanted to move closer. This stalker creep had her really on edge. “And yeah, violated, too.”
“You have every right.”
“My life is so screwed up. This has gotten to the point where they’re going to take me off flying status until things are settled. I just know it because what normal person could think straight right now?”
“Quit focusing on what you can’t do and let’s think about what we can. We can notify the police right away to file a complaint to add to your case. And after Thanksgiving, having the Air Force’s OSI—” Office of Special Investigation “—check into things could be a valuable extra civilians don’t have.”
“I realize that.” She hated feeling so under a microscope again. She needed to think about something else—anything else. “Did you get settled in with everything rehab wise here?”
“I only have to go twice a week now. No big deal. The rest is on my own. My disability pay meets the bills, but once we nab this guy of yours, I’m gonna have to start thinking about something to do so I don’t go stir-crazy.”
She started to ask him what might interest him, but all the memories from her divorce came slamming back down on her. She’d fallen so short of the mark in being supportive for a man she’d claimed to love. How could she be sure she would say the right thing here and now?
And with those kind of thoughts kicking around in her head, the last thing she needed was to dive back in for a repeat of that kiss, no matter how much her body screamed, “Go for it!”
She would stand a better chance at success untangling her messed-up finances.
Rick popped the DVD into Nola’s player and hoped the movie would help her think about something tonight other than the ill-fated car shopping spree. Since tomorrow was Thanksgiving, nothing could be done until banks reopened on Friday. And probably nothing would be solved until the following week.
At least they had gotten the report filed with the police to add in with her other information about the stalker.
He wished he could do better for her than supply the turkey and entertainment, but at least he had an ATM card and a full bank account. There hadn’t been many movies left at the video store by the time he’d talked her into abandoning the computer and making some Thanksgiving plans. So they’d opted for old mysteries.