“It’s only a couple of blocks, but I could pick you up.I’mnot trying to be a monster here.”
Garrett held out a hand as though waving off her words.“Ofcourse not.I’m sure if I were in your position, I wouldn’t want to hang out withmy regretted one-night stand.It’s okay.I’m a big boy.I can make it to workbut I would like a way to get in.Unless you don’t want me there if you’renot.”
He was taking everything the wrong way.She didn’t regrether night with them.She regretted that it couldn’t stay this perfect,beautiful moment because they had to bring reality into it.
Was all she wanted moments?
“Of course not.I’ll give you the code and show you around.I can wait while you check in.Keane isn’t working until tomorrow.”She gavehim what she hoped was a bright smile.“You’ll like the crew.They’re nice.Josh has trained them well.”
“I’m sure they are, Miss Barnes-Fleetwood.”Keane stood andgrabbed his duffel, placing it over his shoulder.
Her fathers talked about how they would be given trash bagswhen they had to move foster placements.Not suitcases.Trash bags.Did Keaneremember that time?Was he grateful he didn’t have to put what little he had inblack bags someone might mistake as trash and throw out?
“You can call me Olivia,” she replied.She didn’t thinktheir acceptance would make her ache the way it was.
“I think we should keep this professional, like you said,”Keane replied.
“No one calls me by my last name.”Not going the way shewanted.Of course she wasn’t actually sure what she wanted beyond to not be inthe position.“Look, I’m sorry.I’m coming off cold when what I’m really doingis processing.I do it slowly and not always well.I don’t want to avoid you.”
They both gave her the same pointed look.
“Fine.It’s weird because we had wild sex last night and Inever thought I would see you again.Which was why I allowed myself to havewild sex in the first place.”She probably shouldn’t have said that.They weremaking her flustered, and that was a good enough reason to keep them at arm’slength.Wasn’t it?Or should she be a bit flustered?She pushed aside thethoughts.“Sorry.That was too much information.I hope we can have a goodworking relationship.That’s what I’m trying to establish.Boundaries.I’m goingto go and get the car.I’ll be back in a minute.”
She needed air.Olivia was well aware she was fleeing thescene of her… She didn’t even know what to call it.They weren’t trying tohumiliate her.
She took the steps faster than she should and she startedfor the ground.Damn it.She was the one humiliating herself.Right before shewent into a death dive, a strong arm caught her.
“Hey, you’re lucky I’m here, baby,” a familiar voice said.
Her heart threatened to stop as she looked up.The face wasfamiliar, too.Scott Whittiker.Her almost fiancé.The asshole who treated herlike gold until the moment she was no longer useful to him, and then he was outof here.
She pulled away, forcing herself to stand tall.Like shehadn’t almost faceplanted in front of a bunch of people.The day was gettingmore surreal by the moment.“What are you doing here?”
He gave her his brightest smile.The one that saidhey,I’m handsome and smart and have all the right connections so you’ll forgive mefor anything.“Well, it’s kind of fate, and I’ve stopped fighting it.I’mthe new rep for Organic Foods.”
She was meeting with the new rep on Monday with plans fornegotiations through the next week.No one sent her a name.The old rep hadbeen a woman named Anna who talked about her grandkids when they weren’tdiscussing business.She liked Anna.Anna never broke her heart.
“What happened to the VP position at Greenwood?”They were adistributer.One of the biggest in the country based in New York.It was thevery job he left her for.He’d worked his job with the collective to get theposition and then left them with piles of paperwork he hadn’t actually done.
One shoulder shrugged.He was in a suit.On a Sunday.In themiddle of a tiny Texas town as spring was rapidly becoming summer.He lookedcompletely out of place, but then that was probably his point.“I got bored.Ineeded some new challenges.”
That didn’t sound likely.He didn’t care about challenges.He cared about how easy his life was.Once he told her the reason he loved herwas because she knew how to take care of a man.Her money didn’t hurt either.“So now you’re a sales rep?”
“Babe, the compensation is insane, and you know I like toget out of the office.”
No, he didn’t.He was actually pretty lazy, but like a lotof men he tended to fail upward.People saw the work being done around him andassumed he was the reason.He was not.
And there was more.She looked around.There was no evidenceof Jessica, the woman he left her for.The woman who told Olivia she wasgetting old, and men didn’t like women who were so aggressive.Jessica had beensoft and dependent and desperate to get out of Willow Fork.She’d thoughtsending her to Dallas to work would be the end of it, but it had just giventhem cover.“Did you bring your wife with you?”
His cheeks turned slightly pink, but then the confidentsmile was back.“About that.I might have made a mistake.We didn’t actuallyget married.I tried with her.I really did, but I realized something.”
Don’t say it.Please.It had already been a day.She did not need those words to come out of his mouth.
“She wasn’t you.”
There they were.Things didn’t work out with thetwenty-year-old broke admin, so he was back to the ball buster because whenthey were together, she took care of the world for him.
He could be relentless.She should tell him to fuck off, butthe account was one of the largest they had.It was worth fourteen million ayear.So she had to handle him, and he loved the chase.
