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But our last meeting with Knox was last week. We signed him this morning. There was no reason for him to be Internet-stalking the girlfriend today, I thought just as I remembered something.
The mystery letter he’d written. For someone living in Asheville, North Carolina.
No…
With a single click, I confirmed that was where Lyla lived with Knox. That she had stayed there while he went to West Palm Beach for Spring Training.
You have got to be kidding me, Adam, I thought, my temples pulsing as I made all the connections.
“All set, sweetheart?” Josh grinned when I emerged from Adam’s office.
“All set,” I said, giving him a natural smile that hid my true emotions and every dark thought seeping into my brain, telling me that Adam Maxwell was a liar.
That there was far more to his pursuit of Knox that he had ever let on.
29
AJ
I smoothed my hands down the sides of my dress as I got into the restaurant.
I was twenty minutes early, because I was afraid I wouldn’t show up at all if I didn’t just leave, and the last thing I wanted to do was bail on Holland.
Even if the last place I wanted to be right now was in public—with Adam.
Maybe it had been a brash move, but I had texted him before leaving. Only five words but, I knew they’d hurt.
Hold off on telling her.
I tried to reason with myself to wait. To tell him in person. But then I’d imagined him and Holland getting to the restaurant early. I’d imagined his sister immediately reading the difference in his smile and getting the good news out of him before I could get there, which would be a problem, because as excited as I’d been just a few hours ago about coming out as a couple—telling Holland that Adam and I were together—there was no way I could do that now, or even put an act on till things perhaps smoothed over.
Because this wasn’t a little spat or our usual bickering.
This was Adam harboring some secret obsession with Knox’s girlfriend. It was as big of a lie by omission that I could possibly imagine, and just thinking of all the overtime and extra hours we’d put in pursuing Knox together just so Adam could, I don’t know, be closer to his girlfriend made me feel like a dumbass. An absolute fool.
“AJ!”
The excited squeal I heard was Holland’s, so with a sharp inhale, I mustered up my best happy face and spun around.
“Hey, you!” I smiled big, laughing as she burst over, a blur of blonde hair and navy satin. “God, look at this dress, girl, you look great!” I said, hugging her as I waved over her shoulder at Iain, who looked like the picture of content as he trailed her, hands in the pockets of his sharp grey suit and watching her with an easy smile. I grinned, grateful for the reason to show some genuine joy as I noticed the navy of his tie matching Holland’s satin slip dress.
“I mean the dress code was ‘lingerie-inspired,’ so this is what I came up with,” Holland giggled before pulling back and promptly gesturing with wide-eyed excitement at me. “Ahh! AJ! Are you kidding me? You totally nailed it!” she squealed as she stepped back to take in my dress.
In any other circumstance—namely one where I wasn’t stupidly and messily involved with my boss—I would’ve ignored the lingerie-inspired dress code for this party and just come in a basic black dress. But because I’d wanted to knock Adam’s socks off, I’d gone with something way out of my ordinary: a black lace corset dress with a demi-cup bust to show more than enough cleavage, and opaque detailing to cover the parts that needed to be covered, but sheerness everywhere else.
I was wearing a blazer over it now, just to keep myself covered up while only at dinner, but since picking it up during lunch today, I’d been so eager to put this dress on. Beyond excited for him to see me in it. But now I felt oddly guilty because I was essentially going to be riling him up just so I could ignore him. And be angry at him. Because honestly, what the fuck? I hadn’t expected the words he’d said to me today and I’d tried my hardest to stay balanced. Reasonable. I didn’t want to get ahead of myself. To let myself get completely swept up.
But then I did.
And as soon as I caved and gave myself permission to feel everything I felt for Adam, I got slapped in the face with eight tabs worth of his stalkerish fixation on Lyla Townsend.
You should’ve known it was too good to be true, I told myself as the hostess led the three of us to our booth.
“So how much celebratory whiskey has Adam already consumed today?” Iain cracked as we sat down. “Congratulations on Knox, by the way.”
I smarted, hopefully not noticeably. “Thank you,” I said graciously, despite the fact that it was hitting me again—that I had essentially helped Adam stalk this girl and insert himself into her life. “No idea on the whiskey thing, but the number’s probably high,” I joked, managing a laugh with them as I suddenly remembered that Adam had a high school
girlfriend.
