Chapter Five

Come Here, Miss

I remained in the doorway longer than I should have.

The performance room still held the residual heat of the evening’s work the faint scent of polished wood, the low glow of the recessed lights, the single black chair with Cole Rankin seated in it exactly as he had been on the first night. He had not moved since I left. He simply watched me stand there on the threshold, flushed and restless, the accumulated tension of the past days coiled so tightly under my skin that even the sound of my own breathing felt too loud.

He looked at me for a long moment....