Killing Me Softly(A Broken Souls Series)

“For you, yes, I’ll meet him. We should go to dinner so I can size him up and decide if he’s good enough for my one and only daughter. I’d die for you, Holly. Set up the time and place and I’ll go.”

Those pills are like a miracle drug! Who is this man? He’s not my dad, an alien abducted him and gave me Mr. Normal. “Really? Okay, I’ll set something up. I work all week, but I’m off this weekend. This doesn’t mean I’m not upset with you, because I am. We’ll talk later.”

***



Chapter Twelve. TDY

HEY BEAUTIFUL! NICE NIGHT AT WORK? 7:05 pm

HEY YOU! SO FAR IT HAS BEEN BLAH. ARE YOU PINING? I TOTALLY THINK YOU ARE. 7:09 pm

YOU KNOW ME, I HAVE A HOT GIRLFRIEND WHO CAN SING HER FACE OFF! WHO WOULDN’T PINE AFTER YOU? A FOOL! 7:10 pm

Ahhhh! He makes me smile every time he calls me his hot girlfriend.

“Holland, there’s a delivery up here, they need you to sign,” Sam says through the intercom.

Up at the cashier stand is a woman with a yellow bucket filled with candy bars. Every kind of chocolate bar a girl could ever want is in the yellow bucket. Many of the candy bars are on a stick like they’re in a flower pot. She smiles at me and asks if I’m Holland. I nod my head and she hands me a card.

“Do you need me to sign something?” I ask.

The delivery lady smiles and says no, she just had to hand it to me in person.

“I’m snaggin’ one of your candy bars,” Sam says and reaches for my bucket.

“Oh hell no! Keep your filthy paws off my candy,” I slap at his and he cowers away. “I need to find out who it’s from.”

“Bull shit, you know as well as I do, it is from Mr. Wonderful.”

“Maybe I have a secret admirer.” I tear open the pink envelope and inside is a big teddy bear with his arms held out. “I can’t wait to spoon with you again,” the inside of the card says. Tate signed it, “Totally in-like with you.” I feel my cheeks stretching as a dumb grin takes over my face.

DO YOU LIKE IT? 7:18 pm

OHHHHHH YES YES YES! THANK YOU SO MUCH! 7:19 pm

My face is stuck in the stupid grin as I reread the note. Sam clears his throat and I turn around to see Tate walking into the store. I’ve never had the urge to run up and jump on a man by wrapping my legs around him, until this very moment. The moment I want nothing more than to have that Nicolas Sparks movie moment. The one where you’re running in the rain to wrap yourself around your man and fall to the floor frantically ripping each other’s clothes off. Instead, I go over and give him an amiable hug and quick peck on the cheek. We’re not allowed to show public affection while on the clock, at least not out in the storefront. As if there’s a vitamin store spy lurking around the corner, I follow the rules. That’s me, Miss Rule-follower.

Tate’s hand is splayed flat on the small of my spine and he holds me in place. “Where’re you going,” he whispers in my ear.

“I can’t grope you while I’m on the clock,” I whisper back.

“Are you telling me that you’re going to grope me when you’re off the clock?” He whispers back to me. “If that’s the case, I’m sitting here until nine-thirty.”

I’d love nothing more than to grope him, but I know I don’t have the self-control to stop us from taking it to the next level. I could always have Velcro sewn in all of my clothes. When the time comes, I can rip them off before either of us changes our minds.

“Who me, grope?” I laugh and pull away. “Was that a real delivery person or an innocent mall person?”

“Innocent mall person. She was very nice about bringing it to you. You sounded stressed earlier today, so I thought some chocolate would help.”

“Are you sticking around? I have some paperwork to do and call in my numbers.”

He tells me he’s going to the bookstore to look around and grab a cup of coffee, but he’ll help me close the store.

***

I put my phone on speaker and we talk all the way back to Del City. He’s following me, which he says I’m a terrible driver. He refused to talk to me on the phone until I agreed to put it on speaker phone.

Waffle Shack is starting to become our place. We never get a waffle, we usually go for a pastry.

“I have something to talk to you about,” Tate says after he places his coffee order.

“What’s going on?” I try to study his face to figure out if he’s being serious, or he’s playing around.

“The attorney called, and they did the addendum, so if you agree to the terms, we’re good to go. Everything is in your email. I know you don’t check yours that often, so I wanted to tell you to read your email. Second part of that is… they want us to sing at a place in Norman this Saturday night if we sign. Their band’s singer had to have emergency surgery and won’t be out of the hospital or well enough to perform. That means we need to practice two more songs together. Our contract says they want us to sing at least three songs together.” He opens a sugar packet and stirs it into his coffee. “There’s more. The Air Force is sending me TDY to a training course in Texas. I’ll be gone five days.”

“TDY, what’s that, and when will you leave?”

“TDY is temporary duty assignment. It’s all next week, I’ll leave Monday morning and will be home the following Saturday morning. Unfortunately, that means I need to reschedule dinner with your dad. I’m sure that will really tick him off about me going away on a trip. It kind of justifies his military fears. The Air Force doesn’t give you much of a choice, and they sure don’t care if you have other plans. The FAA has a new requirement, and all air traffic controllers are going to these training sessions. I’ll still Skype with you, but I can’t do dinner.”

“That’s not a problem, Tate. A part of my job requires me to go to training out of state too. Don’t worry. I will just tell my dad that you need to reschedule. We’re doing inventory next week anyway, and that’s a total bitch. Where are they sending you to?” If I tell my dad, it will open a can of worms that I’m not in the mood to deal with. “I guess we need to come up with some songs. Are we under a copyright rule if we do popular songs? I know they’re selling us as a cover band, so are we able to do current music?”

“There’s a clause in the contract that discusses the copyright rule. I was hoping to do a couple of older songs anyway. There’s some eighties songs I like. Soft Cell has one that would work for both of us as a duo. We could do another Johnny Cash song too. How about going to the coffee shop tonight and go over some songs? We can sit on the outside patio to work it out. They close at midnight, can you pencil me in on your calendar? In answer to your question, they’re sending me to Texas. Most of the time we train here at FAA, but Texas Instruments has a new program they’re training us on.”

I’d like to see you every day, every hour, every moment, but I’m not telling you that, not today at least. “Yeah, I need to stop and check in on my dad. It will still give us at least two hours to work.”

“This not having my own place is starting to get tiresome. I’d sneak you in the dorms, but my roommate is a monster and I’d rather you not meet him. I’d rather no one in modern day society to meet him. How he’s still in the military is beyond me. I think some of the guys in our dorms have a bet on when he’ll get kicked out. Don’t get me wrong, there’s some cool guys on my floor, but I hate being there more than necessary. Don asked if I wanted to move in with them, I’d pay rent for the room. I may take them up on the offer if I can’t find an apartment.” Tate’s wearing a new cologne, and it smells like heavenly-sexy-man.