Page 39 of Winning Her

Even through all of that, I’d never given up on him, never given up hope that one day I could get my best friend back, not even as I grew older and saw how cynical he was becoming.

But now, there was no helping it. I didn’t like it, but I knew I had to face reality.

Trent was a jerk of the first order, and that probably wouldn’t change. Those sunlit days of our forgotten youth were dead and gone, and now all that was left was me being unhappy and a man with a broken heart that would never heal because he would never let anyone try.

The way he touched me, though… I thought wistfully. Our one night together. The wonder of it all when it was all so new to me. How fascinated he’d looked as he’d ran his hands all over me. How almost vulnerable he’d been with absolutely no barriers between us for the first time in forever.

I sighed as the thoughts floated away because it had only been a moment. I’d been avoiding him, yeah, but he hadn't made much effort to see me besides asking here and there about my whereabouts. He probably hadn't meant for rumors to start, and I’d had my shifts all through the week, where I stayed put in one place. It wasn’t like he hadn't found me, just hadn't put in too much effort past the first couple of days.

It was to be expected. I’d found news of him online without looking for it before. I’d seen pictures of the kind of women he usually had on his arm; expensive beauties that were so far out of my league I knew I would never stack up against them.

Yeah, I’d grown up, and I was shapely. Plenty of guys found me attractive enough to give a second look. But I didn’t think I had it in me to be some rich man’s ornament. Maybe, for Trent… if he had shown some more interest… but that night had obviously been some sort of lapse for him.

Just as it had been for me, I told myself forcefully.

It was time to leave. Time to cut him out of my heart.

15

Trent

“Sir?” I heard the question as she knocked on my door. She didn’t wait for me to reply as I sighed and looked up.

“Yes?”

The secretary walked in, a folder held in her arm, and I knew it was just one more thing for me to do. I’d migrated recently from working with hard copy documents, thanks in large part to my brothers, who were now off somewhere supposedly attending to their ‘duties.’ I was still waiting for news that Mason had thrown a party somewhere. Kevin would be more circumspect, but I’d probably hear something about him too.

Occasionally there’d be something for me to look into, which meant I had to stop whatever else I was doing to get to it because all the late arrivals were super fucking important, and I couldn’t put them off.

“I have some new documents for you to look over… but if you don’t have time, sir…?” she started slowly, and I could have pushed her away but I knew that it had to be done.

“It’s fine,” I said, cutting her off. “Please set it down. How soon do you need it back?”

“An hour. It needs at least three signatures.”

I sighed. So, it was probably a contract or something. Were Dad’s business partners changing the rules of the game now that the old man was out of commission for the time being? I needed to find the original if there was one, then read through the whole document and decide whether to sign or not, or send it back and wait for it to be returned…

I’d be happier if it were just something to do from within the hotel, but I’d taken care of all of those already. My secretary made sure.

“You’ll have it. Come back for it in exactly one hour.” I waved my hand from side-to-side trying to gauge how long it would take me to sort it out.

“Yes, sir,” she said with a nod, then turned and walked out the office.

As soon as she was gone, I dropped my head into my arms. What I wanted to do was knock my head on the desk, but the last thing I needed was to give myself a headache anyway.

“Where did my free time go, exactly?” I muttered to myself, starting to feel resentment at my lack of spare time.

Sure, I was used to working for days on end with no breaks, it wasn’t exactly a new thing to me. The problem was it had been a fucking week already, and because I was so bogged down with work, I hadn't had the time to properly track Jessi down for that talk. I was taking too damn long to find her, and I was worried how her thoughts would have changed over the course of that time.

On the other hand, I’d had a lot of time to think about her. Even when I was working, thoughts of Jessi tended to intrude on my mind to the point that I was growing used to it. Besides thinking about her, I also had a lot of time to examine my own life.

I’d managed to come to the conclusion I lacked something in my life. And what could it possibly be, besides that one thing that had settled in my head and refused to leave for the past week?

My life had been lacking Jessi. It wasn’t an easy conclusion to make, but it was one that made sense to me after the week I’d had of dreaming and daydreaming about her.

Focus, I thought to myself. The day isn’t over yet.

I got started reading the new document. As if to mock me, my phone rang. I winced when I saw it was a call from my PA back in Asheville. It had been easy before, to help out with Dad’s empire when I was still working on my own company, but now that I was fully focused on both, I was starting to feel the strain.