Bull merely chuckled. “See you guys tomorrow.”
The others left not too much later, and Eagle closed the safe room and headed up the stairs. There were a few drivers hanging around the garage, and he spoke to each of them before heading out to his Wrangler.
He felt the same way right now as he did before leaving on a mission. Excited and a little jittery. He couldn’t wait to see Taylor again. He wasn’t sure how she would react to learning about Silverstone, but he had a good feeling. She was down to earth and practical. If anyone could see that Silverstone was doing the world a favor, it was her.
Chapter Three
Taylor was nervous.
Which was stupid, because she felt as if she knew Eagle pretty well. You couldn’t talk to someone for two weeks straight and not know them.
But he was supposed to be at her apartment any moment now, and suddenly she wasn’t sure if she should even be trying to move their friendship forward from a talk-on-the-phone kind of thing to an in-person thing.
She wasn’t good at in-person friendships. She had twenty-eight years of history to prove it.
But here she was, pacing her apartment after having taken great pains to look nice. She’d showered that morning, blow-dried her hair, applied a bit of makeup, and put on a pair of jeans that hugged her ass and one of her favorite shirts . . . a scoop neck that showed off her assets. She’d never be a model, but she still didn’t want to look like a slob when she saw Eagle again. Or when she met his friends.
It was obvious the men who owned Silverstone Towing were close. Eagle had mentioned his friends, of course. Bull, Smoke, Gramps, and Eagle had all been in the Army together and, when they’d gotten out, had decided to start up their company, but that was all she knew about the men.
“This is a bad idea,” Taylor whispered nervously to her empty apartment.
Then she jumped when a knock sounded at her door.
Her heart rate accelerated. This was it. She figured it was Eagle who was waiting for her to open the door, but it could also be a neighbor, a maintenance man, or anyone else. She literally wouldn’t know the difference between them.
Telling herself that it wouldn’t be the end of the world if she and Eagle didn’t click, if the connection they’d formed was only strong over the phone, Taylor walked over to her front door.
She looked through the peephole and saw a stranger standing there. Although, to be fair, everyone was a stranger to her. The man was tall, like Eagle, and had dirty-blond hair. He wore a dark-blue polo shirt, and she could just see some chest hair where it opened at his neck. He was cleanly shaven and had blue eyes.
“Who is it?” she asked through the closed door.
“Hey, Flower, it’s me, Eagle.”
The man didn’t have an identifying accent, and there was literally nothing about him that she could recognize from looking at him through the small security hole in the door. But then she remembered his vow to call her Flower when he saw her. There hadn’t been a need when they’d been talking on the phone.
Smiling at the memory of how confused Eagle had been when he’d tried to buy flour for his business, Taylor opened the door.
“Hi,” she said a little shyly.
“Hi, Flower,” Eagle replied, repeating their secret word. “I know this is outside your comfort zone, so thank you for agreeing to come to dinner with me at Silverstone.”
“Do you want to come in?” she asked, holding her door open wider.
“No. I’ll wait here. Unless you’ve changed your mind?” he asked, tilting his head in concern.
Taylor rushed to reassure him. “No, but . . . I admit that I’m really nervous about this.”
“It’s going to be fine. I hope it’s okay, but I told my friends about your condition. So you don’t have to get into any awkward explanations about it if you don’t want to. I’ll warn you, though, they’re pretty curious.” Eagle looked a little sheepish. “Much like I was when I first met you. But they’re harmless. If you’re uncomfortable, just say so. They’ll back off and won’t have any hard feelings. Promise.”
Taylor wasn’t sure about that. A lot of people got offended when she didn’t want to talk about her condition. They asked downright rude questions, and when she tried to change the subject, they got irritated. She didn’t admit that to Eagle.
But as she’d found over the last two weeks, he seemed to be on the same wavelength as she was anyway.
“You’ll see,” he told her. “Go on. I’ll wait here while you get whatever you need.”
Nodding, Taylor shut the door and went to get her purse. She trusted Eagle, but never leaving her door open was second nature to her now. It wasn’t until she’d gotten her purse and had reopened her door to see Eagle leaning against the wall across from her apartment—she was aware it was him because of the navy-blue shirt he was wearing—that she realized she’d probably been rude.
“Sorry,” she said with a small shrug. “Habit.”
“I approve,” he said, pushing off the wall and stepping toward her. “Ready?”
“Seriously, it was rude,” she insisted. “I shouldn’t have shut the door. It’s not that I don’t trust you, I just—”
“Taylor, it’s fine,” Eagle said firmly. “I wholeheartedly approve. I’m not offended, and I’m actually impressed. You should never leave your door open, even for someone like a delivery person or something. All it takes is a split second for someone to get inside and lock your door, then you’re stuck in your apartment with someone who might want to harm you. Our society is too concerned about being polite and not offending someone instead of concentrating on their own safety.”
That was exactly how Taylor felt. The connection she had with his man was almost scary. She gave him a small smile. She still felt a little off-kilter, which was normal for her. It always took her a bit of time to feel comfortable around someone she was already acquainted with, because while they looked like a stranger, inside, she was aware that they weren’t.
Of course, Eagle seemed to sense it, and he didn’t launch into awkward conversation or otherwise do anything to try to prove that she knew him. He simply gestured toward the hallway and walked next to her as they headed for the stairwell.
He kept quiet as they walked across the parking lot toward his Wrangler. He held open her door and waited until she was situated before closing it and walking back around to the driver’s side.
It wasn’t until they were pulling out onto the road by her apartment that she spoke. “So, what did you want to tell me?” All last night and most of today, Taylor had been wondering about what he might want to say to her. She was extremely curious.
“Nope.”
“Nope what?” Taylor asked in confusion.
“I’m going to show you my business first. Introduce you to my friends. Then we’ll eat. Then we’ll shoot the shit with any drivers hanging around. I think Skylar—that’s Bull’s girlfriend—will be there at some point too. Then, once you’re relaxed and comfortable, we’ll talk.”
Taylor supposed she should be irritated at Eagle for orchestrating their entire night without asking what she wanted to do, but nothing he’d planned was out of line, so she simply nodded. “Okay.”