Page 95 of The One Who Saw Her: Boone

"You don't need to apologize," she said, and meant it.

"The hell he doesn't." Boone growled, stepping closer—not in front of her but beside her, his shoulder pressing warm and solid against hers. An unmoveable wall she hadn't asked for and couldn't quite bring herself to resent.

Vivi felt him everywhere. The heat of him, the coiled stillness, the absolute certainty radiating off every inch of him that this—she—was not something he was willing to negotiate on.

Ethan muttered something, retreated, and found somewhere else to be entirely.

Vivi exhaled slowly and wrapped both hands around her glass. She should tell him he was too much, too intense—and yet a small, undeniable thrill coursed through her. She should turn around and say exactly that, calmly and clearly, like the self-possessed woman she was trying to remember herself as.

Boone's gaze finally came back to her—dark and unhurried and completely unrepentant.

Too much? Or exactly enough?

CHAPTER 38

Vivi was buzzing on top of the world, heart hammering like a jackhammer, stomach a riot of nerves, fully aware she’d just made a decision that could absolutely, spectacularly ruin her life—and she didn’t give a damn.

This was hers. Every messy, reckless, gloriously stupid bit of it. A choice that made her feel like she was sprinting barefoot across a cliff edge with no net and a grin plastered on her face with the kind of insanity that set her pulse racing and her thoughts spinning. The kind that was both terrifyingly exposed and impossibly alive, like the world had just thrown her the keys and dared her to drive straight off the map.

"I didn't get the promotion," Vivi said, flopping dramatically across her bed like she was auditioning for a tragic indie film, her phone held high like a makeshift spotlight aimed at her face.

Her mom, calm but with that tight-lipped worry only moms could pull off, said through the phone, "Oh, honey, I'm so sorry."

"I'm not. He's a total dick. Once a dick, always a dick. And I've had enough dick to last me three lifetimes."

Well, with the exception of Boone's dick. That one? Morning, noon, and night and she'd happily take dessert afterward and ask for seconds.

Her mom blinked, but her eyes twinkled despite the concern. "You sound like you need a plan, honey."

"I have a plan!" Vivi jabbed at her phone. "My self-help app says if I want to break out of my rut, I need to do something spontaneous. Not spreadsheets, not prick bosses who steal my work, not boyfriends who sell my apartment out from under me—spontaneous. Big, reckless, can't-believe-I-did-that spontaneous."

Her mom's lips pressed into a thin line that read, motherly caution mode engaged. "I wanted you to find yourself. Start a new life. Not burn it to the ground."

"You were the one who called this my 'phoenix rising era,'" Vivi shot back, one hand pumping up toward the ceiling. "Can we get back to the spontaneous part?"

Gloria shook her head with mock exasperation, a tiny smile breaking through. "Spontaneous, huh? Tell me more."

Vivi sat up and leaned forward like she was about to deliver a TED Talk on courage and throwing caution to the wind. "Okay, Glow—my app—gave me a list. Base jumping, salsa lessons, living a little dangerously. But the first thing I could think of? Calling Peter."

"To yell?"

"Better. To quit."

Her mom gasped like the air had turned to concrete. "You what?"

"I quit," Vivi said, her grin all kinds of triumphant. "Told him exactly what I thought about being overlooked, reminded him how brilliant I am, and hung up like a boss. Turns out, Peter's just another in a long line of controlling assholes I kept editing myself for so he wouldn't be disappointed. I'm done being that girl."

"What are you going to do for work?"

"I opened my own company. Because why wait?"

"Your own company?"

"Yep. Me, myself and I. My dreams. My life. My decisions." She flopped back onto the mattress and grinned at the ceiling. "That's the new plan. Total reign of fabulousness. And honestly? I've never felt more alive."

"Have you thought this through?" her mom asked quietly.

"I have and I haven't. It's not like I just came up with the idea. I've been experimenting with it all along. I just didn't realize what it was until I was talking with Boone."