With her finally gone, he was able to finish Viper’s email and had pulled up another when she breezed back in again, carrying a jacket.
“Where are you going?”
When Ginny pinched two fingers together and slid them across the front of her lips, then pretended to throw something over her shoulder, he knew he was getting payback.
“Locking your lips and throwing the key away is juvenile. I need to get this done, but hey, if you want to go out ….” Snapping the computer shut, he started to get up to go with her, irritated the work he told her he wanted to get done would have to wait. When he would have gotten up, though, she raised a hand to stop him as a knock sounded on the door.
Walking to the door, Ginny flicked the locks before opening the door.
“Don’t open ….” He got up so fast his thigh hit the leg of the table.
She didn’t listen, opening the door as Reaper came to limping stop to see Nickel on the other side.
“You ready?” Nickel asked, eyeballing him from over Ginny’s shoulder.
“Yes. I hope I didn’t disturb you.” Ginny gave Nickel the same sweet smile she gave him that turned his dick on like a circuit breaker.
“No.” Nickel grinned at her. “I could use some groceries, too. Rider only left half a jar of peanut butter and a few cans of soup. You mind if we grab some lunch before we go? I’m starving.”
“Works for me. All I’ve had is toast. You in a mood for some burgers?” Ginny asked, placing her phone in her purse.
She was taking him to their restaurant? Technically, it wasn’t their restaurant, and he hadn’t wanted to go back, but she didn’t know that.
“Are you kidding? I eat so many burgers the brothers call me the burger king,” Nickel bragged.
“Since when?”
Nickel glared at Reaper at the snide question.
Ginny ignored the exchange between them, going through the doorway as if he didn’t exist. “Then you’re going to love the restaurant I’m going to take you to.”
How in the fuck did she consider that dive a restaurant?
“Ready?”
“Ready is my middle name,” Nickel joked back at her.
“Your middle name is Dwight,” Reaper mockingly revealed the truth.
Nickel gave Ginny a pained look, taking her arm. “I can see why you wanted to get out. I’m buying.”
Reaper shut the door on her muffled laughter, cursing when he realized Nickel had the only set of keys to the rental car.
Before he could barrel out of the apartment after them, he got a text. Looking at his phone, he saw it was Nickel telling him that he left the keys on the counter in the other apartment. He wanted to follow to make sure she wasn’t being tailed, but he also needed to establish a routine of them being apart to give her stalker an opportunity to find a pattern of behavior.
Pacing around the room, he felt caged in with her being out without him. He didn’t give a fuck if was with Nickel; it didn’t lessen the antsy feeling that had him wanting to climb the walls. He had planned for her to be in rehearsal or somewhere else where there were multiple people around, not out alone with Nickel, going to the same place she had taken him.
Fuck it. He was going.
His hand was on the doorknob when the phone vibrated in his pocket. Ginny sent him a text this time. His mind started going to a horror-ridden scenario where Nickel had been blindsided and she was running for her life, and she was begging him to save her. Pressing down on the message, the dark path his mind was going down took a second to comprehend what he was staring at. A fucking happy face emoji. Below was a picture of the diner. Ginny was letting him know she was safe and where they were.
Shakily sitting back down at the computer, he forced himself to open his emails again, trying to get his breathing back to normal. He was tempted to take his pulse, then decided he didn’t want to know if he was about to have a heart attack.
Let it be a fucking surprise.
Resuming work on his emails, an hour later, she sent another happy emoji, showing which grocery store they were at with the address below. Searching on Google maps, he saw it was just four miles away from her apartment.
Without Ginny’s presence, he was able to finish his work, only to be left wandering around the rooms, waiting for her to come back. Glancing at his watch, he timed how long it should take them to shop then drive back. Giving them an extra fifteen minutes, he went to the window, looking down at the parking lot anxiously waiting for Ginny’s car to appear.
How many fucking groceries does she need?