“Because my mother is sick?Because we’re poor and you can’t be friends with someone whose means don’t match yours?”
“It’s never been about money.”
His calmness infuriated her.“I guess things have changed.I didn’t know you were so elitist.I was fine for you when I was flat on my back.”He picked up the card to slip it back into his wallet.“Look at me.”He didn’t.“Argue with me.Spout some superior crap so I can tell you how wrong you are.”He opened his laptop, and she bounded a step closer.“Goddamnit, Xavien Rourke, fight with me!”
“Go to work,” he said, glancing at her just long enough to bob his brows toward the door.“Go on.”
He pressed the button on his watch.The walls behind her would be transparent again.Furious heat burned behind her eyes.How dare he call her in there to judge her and then refuse to argue back?Why would he do that?Why was he messing everything up?
“Can we have sushi for dinner?”she asked.
Maybe he’d be over whatever this was in a few hours.
“Mieux has the number of the place,” he said.“I’ll ask her to share it with you.If you call, they’ll deliver to the complex.”
The employee apartment complex.A place she’d hardly been.
“You’ll want the car back too.”
No reaction.“Leave the keys in it.A guy will pick it up.”
No one would steal from the Mosaic campus.No one would get away with it.Was he taking the car back because he didn’t trust her with it or because she wouldn’t need to be anywhere near his house ever again?
Her stomach roiled.
Still, anger provoked her adrenaline.“You’re going to regret this later.”
“I regret our relationship already,” he said and sat down.
Noise rose behind her.People were coming into the office.He had his own schedule to keep.As he rose again, he smiled, but it wasn’t for her.In his mind, he’d dismissed her already.
Turning, in something of a daze, she got a couple of steps and raised her head.Roxie.Coming out of the elevator with three other people.Three other women.
When Roxie saw her, she smiled and crooked a finger.Go there?Why?What was going on?They didn’t aim for Rourke’s office and instead waited just outside the Huddle Hope conference room.Roxie gestured her over again.
What was going on?
Leaving his office, she strode over to Roxie and her friends.“What’s happening?”
“We’re in,” Roxie said, looping their arms together.“Introduce me to your team.”
Her team?Was it still her team if Rourke no longer trusted her?
But Roxie was already taking them inside.
“Oh my God,” Myles said, his mouth falling open.
“Don’t cream in your pants, please,” she said as the women fanned out behind Roxie.“As you probably already know, this is Roxanna Kyst.”
“Mr.Lomond’s fiancée,” Helena whispered.
“I prefer to think of him as Ms.Kyst’s fiancé, but…” Roxie stepped aside.“These are my friends.Astrid Ballard.Lilya Kearns.And the beautiful Jane Simmons.”
“You didn’t take his name?”Guillermo asked.“You’re married to Knox Collier, right?”
“Oh my God,” Jane said, her shoulders dropping as she looked at Roxie, who laughed.“Rox!”
“I’m sorry, honey.”Roxie gave her a quick hug, then addressed the room again.“We have a suite of offices available in the building.Some of us will continue to work up here.We’ll need an executive liaison.And—”
