“Certainly not. That’s not what this is about. I just want him to know how I feel.” He gives me a sad smile. “It was nice seeing you again, Hattie.”
“…you too,” I say, but he’s already leaving.
The bell over the door jingles on his way out.
The envelope lingers in my hands, and when I look down, I realize I’m pinching it so hard it’s wrinkling.
10
ALL THE PLANS (ETHAN)
That sneaky, two-timing cobra fuck.
I slam the letter down on my desk and Hattie flinches.
Yes, I regret my temper, but didn’t Itell herto stay the fuck away from Cooper Daley?
“He had no right barging into your bookstore. What part of ‘closed’ doesn’t he get?” I growl, trying to moderate my tone and failing.
My blood roars in my ears.
Cooper Daley has a sixth sense for pushing all of my reddest buttons.
It doesn’t matter if this engagement is a farce designed to appease my dead grandfather and satisfy his bizarre will.
Hattie’s mine for the duration.
As long as she’s with me, wearing my ring, he needs to keep his greasy paws off her or there will be severed fingers to deal with.
She watches me cautiously behind those green eyes.
“See? I had a feeling you’d blow up like this. I knew I shouldn’t have given you that letter.”
“Fucking yes you should.”
“Definitely not before we meet with the wedding planner.” She sighs.
Right.
The damn planner.
That’s why she’s over at my house for the first time since I stormed her lips. We have a wedding to plan with a professional.
Notwith Margot’s half-baked input, thank God.
She was pissed as hell we excluded her today, but this is a big deal.
A seminal event.
I can’t afford to make a single mistake. Not when our reputations are on the line andeverythingleaks to the press, one way or another.
I’d like to be the one controlling that drip, showing the world that everything is solid, and my grandfather wasn’t the last living Blackthorn with any sense.
It’s just hard to do that when I’m focused on what Cooper Daley has up his sleeve now.
I close my eyes, trying to clear my anger so I can shift back into the present. Ineedto be fucking grounded.
“Whatever. Let’s table this for now.” I take the note and shove it in my desk. I’ll read the cursed thing later, after my blood pressure returns to baseline. “For the record, Daley isn’t getting in the way of anything I can handle now.”
