Page 11 of Well Aware

I winced. “I’m sorry again.”

Merrill laughed. “I’m not. How long has it been since you got laid?”

Too long.

Way too long.

It’d been the best night of my life.

No joke.

I’d never experienced a sexual encounter like the one that Beau and I shared in a small office in the middle of a warehouse behind The Mercantile.

It was fast, hot and heavy.

I’d screamed his name, and he’d cursed me within five minutes of arriving in the small corner office. Then guilt had assaulted me because I’d started getting texts asking when I would be home, and I’d run out of there like my tail was on fire.

I was still embarrassed by how I’d acted.

Yet, I didn’t regret it.

No one could regret something like what Beau and I had shared.

“Love y’all!” I called out.

Iris didn’t wave.

She never did.

But Merrill waved her heart out.

I closed the door quietly behind me and jogged to the car with my bag thumping against my back.

My soccer ball dug into my back as I fell into the car, and I smiled at the driver. “Thank you so much for the ride, Mrs. Ellis.”

It was the same person I’d had a Zoom meeting with as we negotiated.

“Ms. Baker.” The woman smiled. “It’s nice to finally meet you in person.”

“Please, call me Maggie. Or Magnolia. But usually my friends call me Maggie. Magnolia is a mouthful,” I blurted out.

The woman, a team manager who’d been with the Cowgirls for fifteen years, smiled.

She looked extremely tired, though.

“Ellis, then,” she replied. “The drive is a little over an hour. I’m sorry for being late, but I was informed last minute that you’d be needing a ride. The team is in a bit of disarray right now. The transition from one CEO to another has been a bit…hectic.”

“A new CEO?” I asked.

“Yes.” She blew out a breath. “A good and welcome thing.”

I was an insanely curious person.

My aunt hadn’t been a supporter of my curiosity. Her favorite saying when I was growing up was “curiosity killed the cat.”

My motto was “at least the cat died knowing.”

But nothing ventured meant nothing gained.