The Thrill of the Chase (Mystery & Adventure) (41 page)

Read The Thrill of the Chase (Mystery & Adventure) Online

Authors: Jack Parker

Okay, now the hard part (ha ha). I know you've wanted to get closer to me – closer than just friends – and I hope you've realized by now that I want the same. Unfortunately (for you), you've chosen a very immature lady to love – even though it may not seem like that to you now. This vacation to Rome is also for me to have some time to think things over between us. I just don't know if I'm quite ready yet for a serious relationship. I'm not sure I can handle the responsibility. But I want you to know that that is truly what I want.

So, to put it simply, if you're willing to wait for me, I can wait forever for you.

All that said, I hope you aren't upset with me, Chance. I just need some time to collect myself, perhaps mature a little, and then I'll be back to you as soon as I possibly can. So please don't give away my chair at the Stikup Agency – I'll be back for it! And please forgive me for being so silly.

I hope you understand.

For now, farewell, Chance Stikup. Please don't miss me.

Again, thank you for everything. Merry Christmas.

Jill Fereday

* * *

"'
Please don't miss me
'?" I read aloud. Well, it was already too late for that. The moment I had begun reading, a type of hollow ache had developed in my guts – a feeling of loss, what was almost grief. I was surprised to feel sudden warmth trailing slowly down my cheek.

So that was it. She was gone – or at least, as good as gone. For however long,
she
didn't even know. Months, perhaps? Years?

Too long.

And when she came back, would she be the same person? Would she find someone else overseas? Would she still want her job? Would she ever come back at all?

I stared hard at the note, specifically the seventh paragraph where it said, "
I'll wait forever for you.
" A strangled emotion suddenly filled my chest and, in a rush, I seized the telephone and raised it to my ear, furiously punching in the numbers without conscious thought.

Kevin Slyder answered after the third ring. "Slyder."

"It's Stikup," I said thickly, trying to sound natural.

"Yeah?" His tone was conversational, but he sounded eager – like he was hoping I was finally going to say something important. Something he wanted to hear.

I stared hard at the note, still clutched in my unsteady left hand. It took several attempts to unstick my throat enough to speak. "If I… If I take this job, can I… can I bring my secretary along?"

He chuckled easily. "I'm sure we could make room for her here, Stikup. Are you definitely in, then? I'll give Wes your résumé for Dempsey to look over as soon as you fax it to me."

I dashed a tear from my cheek, tearing my eyes away from that seventh paragraph of Jill's farewell, and cleared my throat. "Alright. I'm in."

"Good." He sounded immensely pleased. "
Good
. Anything else?"

I cleared my throat again, more fervently. "Yeah, I want an office with a window."

He hung up on me, laughing for real for the first time since I'd met him, leaving me alone in the old office. I'd been the one to build it, but it had been Jill who'd held it together. And who was to say that it would survive without her there to keep it intact?

I dropped the phone onto the base miserably, once again studying her note as though there was something important there that I'd missed, hiding in the neat cursive. I wondered if she had left already. I wondered when she would return.

And then I let the paper slide from my numb fingers, into the empty waste bin. There was no sense in wasting time holding on to someone who simply wasn't there, because the future wouldn't wait for me. And now I had a real job to do: it would only help me to pass the time by keeping busy.

I'm gonna miss you, Jilly. I can't wait till you come home to me.

With a heavy sigh, I looked slowly around the room in which I had lived for so long, figuring that it was finally time to move on. It had been a good home, but it was time to leave Union and Crescent behind. Life is composed of stages, after all: you complete one, you move to the next. You never stop moving, you never stop adapting.

Change is good, hero.

I smiled in spite of the tears still rolling steadily down my cheeks and decided to make myself a cup of coffee before I started packing my things for the big move.

Then, I decided, it would be time to go home.