Page 85 of Manhattan Bossholes

The air in the parking garage was steamy and still, and I had a flashback to the first time I’d been in the place.

The day that changed the trajectory of my life.

I walked toward where I’d parked and tried not to glance over at Vincent’s parking spot.

Impossible.

There sat a different little shiny red sports car than the one I’d hit.

Correction, the one he’d crashed into me.

I shook my head. I was about to get everything I’d wanted for so long. And not only that, I was proving to myself and the world, as well as to a certain asshole stepfather, that doing my own thing and believing in myself could pay off.

I kept telling myself I should be happy. This was my dream coming true. It didn’t matter that my heart was shattered into a million pieces.

That was my own fault, after all. What had I been thinking, falling in love with a playboy billionaire?

Falling in love at all.

Yeah, I was done believing in fairy tales. Never again.

When I finally got to my car, I wiped away the tears I didn’t even know were falling and tried to focus on writing my own happily ever after.

25

PIPER

Iwasn’t in the mood to be out in public, but Paul was impossible to refuse.

He’d called me the night I left Summit to get the full debrief after getting wind of it from Vincent himself, and he had pestered me into agreeing to meet him for lunch. Darcy had pushed me to go even though all I wanted to do was fuse to the couch for a few weeks.

He was already waiting for me at the restaurant when I arrived, which was a miracle in itself. The man never met a meeting time he couldn’t miss. Clearly, my tribe knew I was in a code red frame of mind and were going to extraordinary lengths to be there for me.

Thankfully, the restaurant was a casual bistro, and my leggings, puffy eyes, and ponytail didn’t make me look like I was crashing the place.

“Hey.” His face was a worried furrow as I slid into the booth. He leaned over to give me a kiss on the cheek and a side hug. “I’m glad you’re here.”

“Hi.” I mustered up a half smile for him.

“You doing okay?”

I planted my elbows on the table and stared at him. “Look at my face. You tell me.”

“I mean…you look like you could use a nap? But your hair looks great,” he added quickly.

I couldn’t help but laugh. Sweet Paul, always trying to see the bright side. My face was blotchy, and my eyes were still swollen from crying.

“Listen, I know Vincent is my friend, but my loyalty will always be to you,” he said. “You’re my family. Maybe we haven’t been the closest, but that’s got to change. Chloe insists.”

“And how is your lovely bride?” I asked.

He waved his hand at me. “We’ll get to all of that, first I want to talk about you.”

“What’s left to tell? You know everything.”

“Yeah, about that. Do you want me to kick his ass?” Paul asked, deadly serious.

It was such a left-field thing to say that I cackled at him. “Paul, what? You’re a lover, not a fighter.”