He bowed.
“You’re right. Closure is exactly what I need to move on.”But how do I go about getting it? It’s not like I can just call him up and invite him to dinner so I can lay into him, tell him how callous and cruel he’d been with my feelings.
We finished cleaning our side, and I left.
Before starting the car, I texted Lana I was on the way home, knowing she’d be waiting up for me. As soon as she’d graduated, she’d moved in with me and started college, needing to be as far from Mom as possible.
Her career goal was to become a makeup artist with an emphasis on special effects. That zombie obsession she’d had as a kid grew into a full-blown horror movie fixation, and she planned on snagging a place in LA once she received her degree.
Mom and Dad had been outraged.
I steered onto the main road that would lead to our apartment.
I received my business degree and Lana will be a horror makeup artist.We turned out nothing like our parents, and every day I breathed a sigh of thanks.
Chapter twenty-seven
Paxton Ross
“Comeon,mate.”ViktorFarrow pulled open the door to the tiny radio studio and ushered me inside.
Neverstorm was on a two-week break, and Viktor’s PA contacted Katrina and said he wanted to bring me in for an interview segment exclusive to this station. Apparently he was engaged to the local DJ.
His interest in my music had perked me up and pulled me out of the melancholy I’d been drowning in lately.
I stepped into the waiting area, needing a few moments for my eyes to adjust to the inside light.
“Hello, Love.” Viktor strode to the counter.
Shock froze my feet to the carpet as I stared in horror and fascination at the woman sitting before me.
Her eyes were wide and her lips parted.
Viktor leaned an elbow on the counter and turned to me. “Oh, shit. She’s got that I’m-going-to-crush-you-in-the-bollocks look about her.”
From my periphery, I spied a mounted tv playing the local news. Large windows ran the length of the walls, showing the desert outside the station, but I couldn’t tear my focus from Cotton Candy.
Is this some kind of screwed up joke, karma for my past actions?
Turning his head from me to Terri, then back to me, Viktor scratched his bearded chin. “You two know one another?”
I nodded, still mute.
At the same time, Terri spoke. “Unfortunately.” With a curl of her lip, she turned to Viktor, completely ignoring my presence. “isthatyour guest?” She pointed a finger in my direction.
“Yes,” he drawled. “But I’m thinking—”
“CC.” I couldn’tnotsay anything. Maybe this was my chance to make things right, or at least apologize for ruining the precious time we’d had together.
Her brown eyes lasered me. “Don’t youevercall me that again, you asshole.”
I tightened my jaw, a flare of anger lighting in the marrow of my bones. “If you’ll give me a second to explain—”
“You’ve had years,” she hissed. “Get the fuck out of my sight before I decide to leave this chair.”
This woman is not the Terri from twelve years ago.CC had been soft and afraid to confront anyone. This CC was a force to be reckoned with, I could see it in her challenging gaze, how she held her head high, how she straightened her shoulders as if reading for a fight.
No, this wasn’t the girl who’d been bullied and humiliated in front of the cheerleading squad and students in the stands. This Terri would’ve kicked their asses and smashed that mascot head onto Katrina.
