Both guys look at me like they have no clue how to handle a woman and have been winging it up until this point. Jace clears his throat, pulls his phone out, and steps from the room while Alec pats my back. He keeps saying he'll advance my paycheck, offer more hours, but I'm shaking my head because all the money from my paychecks needs to go into rent, utilities, food, normal grown-up things, and I suddenly feel so not ready for it at all.
"Beth Ann," Jace says, tapping my shoulder and holding his phone out to me. I take it and try to steady my breathing.
"Hello?" I say into the receiver.
"Once upon a time, there was a boy with no fingers."
"Landon-"
"And he desperately wanted just one … only one finger."
"Your finger story will not change the fact that we-"
"On certain days, he desired a thumb. Days when his buddies would give him thumbs-up or when his friends played Thumbs Up, Seven Up, or had thumb wars. And he would make a wish to the skies for a thumb. But it never happened.
"Then, when he became a teenager, he wanted a middle finger to effectively describe how he felt toward certain things. All the other kids were doing it, and he'd love to stick it to someone like that. But of course, that wish went ignored, too."
"He wished to give people the bird?" I say, and I feel myself wanting to laugh, but maybe I've forgotten how.
Landon ignores me. "He became a man, and fell in love with an out-of-his-league woman, and he desperately wanted a finger. And not to do what I know you're thinking, dirty woman, but to wipe her tears away, to prod her chin, to link just one finger with hers. He begged the stars for one finger. Even just a pinky. But they didn't answer.
"Then their wedding day came. The bride helped him button his shirt, tie his tie, and then kissed him on the lips. He cupped her face in his palms, all fingers gone, wishing out loud that he had just the one finger on his left hand so the world would know his heart had been stolen. And his bride brought her own finger to his lips and said, 'The world will know because I will always be with you.' She sealed it not with a ring, but with a promise in front of all their friends and family. And the man never felt the need to wish for another finger in his lifetime."
"Landon … "
"I don't need a ring. I just need you."
Now I'm crying. "I just need you."
"Then please, don't worry about this."
I pause, battling my nature to worry.
"All right."
"All right." He lets out one of those sighs, but it doesn't make me nervous this time. "I'll be home soon. Meet me there?"
"You want me to head out now?" I look to Alec, and he pushes off his knees and grabs his coat.
"Yeah. I … I miss you."
"I miss you, too." And I say it the same way he did … as if we haven't seen each other in weeks. I tap the end button on Jace's cell and hand it back, then snort a little when my knees crack as I stand.
Alec sings to me on the way home, and I join in a few times but keep my voice low because he's so much better than I am. He starts "I Get a Kick Out of You," but I stop him, requesting "You Are My Dream" instead.
"I'll walk up with you," he says, parking in Theresa's extra stall. "I gotta get something from Theresa."
We hop into the elevator and I tease him by threatening to push all the buttons. He stands in front of them till we get to my floor.
The guy waiting for the elevator pushes inside before we can get out. Geez, buddy … and I almost say something out loud, but he's huge and got a bag full of laundry or something, a guitar case, and a laptop, and I don't want to get whacked. Alec puts his hand on the small of my back and moves me around elevator guy and onto the floor. I pull out my keys, but something catches my eye halfway down the hall and I stop dead. Alec takes a few steps ahead of me before stopping too.
"You okay?"
"Theresa's door is open." I point to the cracked door, darkness inside, and my heart kicks up in an offbeat pattern.
Alec grabs my elbow when I start marching over.
"No," he says, and then moves in front of me to go first.
"I'm still coming with you," I hiss back. I've got a pocketbook full of change I'm willing to swing in anyone's face if I have to.
He takes cautious yet determined steps forward, nudging the door open wide and finding the light. I draw in a sharp breath, heart now beating through my ears. Theresa's apartment is trashed; drawers open in the kitchen, balcony door open, and the storage unit spilling contents. I don't even get out any words before Alec is charging down the hall toward the back bedroom. He trips over discarded belongings and shoes and what-have-you, bouncing off the walls, so I flip on the lights as we make our way to Theresa's bedroom.
I have a feeling that elevator guy was not carrying laundry.
Chapter 30
Alec does a sort of Superman burst-open-the-door maneuver and smacks the overhead light on. Theresa's room is just as bad, but a flood of relief warms behind my pounding heart when she sort of whines and stretches on her mattress, blocking her eyes from the sudden brightness of the room.
"What the hell?"
I rush to her side and pick her up in my arms. My hands are shaking, and I feel Theresa's relaxed posture suddenly tense.
"Where's Landon? Is he okay?"
I nod, and her eyes widen.
"Jace?"
I nod again, and her gaze drifts to Alec, eyebrows drawing inward.
"Uh … " he starts. "Your front door was open."
Theresa drops out of my hold, arm reaching at the mattress next to her. The events of the night start to dawn on me, and I'm praying that she had no emotional attachment to the guy who obviously banged, burglarized, and bailed.
"He must've left it open when he left." She lets out a laugh at the both of us. "Y'all are such worrywarts. Let me go back to sleep."
"Theresa … " I shake my head. "Your place is a mess."
"Thank you, Mom. What else is new?" She laughs again. Alec takes a step forward, and her smile starts to fade when she sees the concern laced with anger in his eyes. I actually have to do a double take because I've only see him look that way a few times and it's a little frightening.
"It's ransacked," he says. "Shit is everywhere, and I'll bet you there's missing shit, too."
"What?" Theresa tosses the comforter over my head, and I feel her scramble off the mattress. When I uncover myself, Theresa's only in a large T-shirt, digging in her nightstand, shaking her head and saying, "No-no-no-no-no."
"What are you looking for?" Alec asks, stepping up to watch helplessly as Theresa comes up short.
"My necklace. I was wearing it tonight, but I took it off before we … shit."
"What necklace?" I ask.
"Christmas present. I didn't have it for long, but … I liked it."
She and Alec share a look, Alec's eyes getting angrier and angrier, but then they break contact and she shoves her way down the hall. We follow, stopping behind her as she stares at her belongings strewn over her floor.
"That rat bastard!" she says, moving everything off her side table. "He took my laptop, too."
"Do you have your phone?" I ask, thinking it when Alec pulls out his own. Theresa shakes her head.
"Doubt it." She grapples for a pair of jeans and shoves her legs in. "I'm going to cut off his nut sack."
I set my jaw. I'll hold those nasty balls in place while she snips, but Alec steps in front of us.
"You're not going."
"Move," Theresa demands, eyes blazing like she'll injure Alec just to get to the burglar banger.
He shakes his head, leans against the door, and brings his phone to his ear. Theresa gives him a hard punch to the shoulder and he doesn't even flinch.
"Hi, I'd like to report a robbery," Alec says, and I'm glad one of us has our head, because if elevator guy is also the guy who took off with Theresa's stuff-most likely-then we'd have no chance in hell of holding him down. Unless I use my pepper spray and Theresa uses her Taser. I imagine an assault record wouldn't look good to the in-laws, though.
"Yeah, it's apartment 7G at-"
"What the living hell?"
Alec shoves off the door at the outburst, pausing in the middle of Theresa's address and letting us pass him to look down the hall. Josh Happerfeld in 7J is staring at his door, his phone pressed to his ear, and he yells, "Someone kicked my damn door in!"
That heart pounding starts up again, and I look across the hall at 7H. The door looks fine but it's ajar, just like Theresa's. I jerk my head toward my apartment, feeling queasy and panicked, and when I look at Theresa, her mouth is slightly open in apology. As if this is her fault.
"Landon's movie … " I say, and I'm not even sure it's coherent, but I take off down the hall, praying my door isn't kicked in or open. But if it is, the burglar could've cleaned the whole house out and I wouldn't care … as long as Landon's movie is still safe. It's an impossible wish, because Landon was working on it last night. Glasses on his adorable work face, and that laptop was sitting on our card table, right by the door.