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“Hush.” Champ moved one big hand to cup my cheek. “Hush. I don’t understand what you’re talking about, but nothing’s ruined, Quinn. I promise. Whatever it is, we can fix it.”
I squeezed my eyes shut. The whole situation was awful and mortifying, and if I couldn’t be calm and rational about it, I at least wanted to be angry. But when Champ talked to me in that deep, tender voice, when he said my name like he actually cared about me, even though I knew better, I felt my emotions slipping from rage into desperate sadness like a landslide I couldn’t control.
“It sure as fuck is ruined if I’m not planning a Nashville wedding. I’ll be stuck out here in the sticks forever.”
Champ was silent for a moment, his thumb stroking over my cheek, and then he shook his head. “Nope. I’m still not getting why the location matters. I think you’re getting stressed over nothing. Farm weddings are an actual thing,” he explained like I might not have ever heard of them or thrown a dozen of them in my time. “You can decorate the whole barn with, like, lights? And… I don’t know. Paper flowers? Or… sparkles. Whatever Marissa wants.”
Despite myself, I snickered. Paper flowers? Really?
“It matters because I used to have a business here in Nashville,” I found myself saying. “With my boyfriend, Scott.” My eyes flew to Champ’s. “I mean ex-boyfriend. Very ex. In fact, he’s one of the many reasons I have no interest in a relationship ever again, you get me?”
Champ nodded. “More than you know.”
“Right. Well.” I swallowed hard. “Scott decided we were done because he met someone younger and hotter, which… whatever. I’m over that. It’s just how relationships go—”
“It is,” Champ agreed with a nod. “There’s always a hotter guy or a better job.”
I found myself momentarily distracted by this. Was there a hotter guy than Champ? What weirdos had he been dating? This explained so much.
“Anyway.” I sniffled a little, because it felt nice to be understood. “The thing that bothered me most was that Scott not only screwed another guy, he also screwed me out of my share of the business we ran together, and that is something I cannot forgive or get over. He hired his new boyfriend to work for the company. Onyx,” I said bitterly.
“Scott’s new guy is named Onyx?” Champ winced.
“Yeah.” I huffed out a half laugh. “I don’t blame Onyx for anything. Onyx’s only crimes are being twenty-two and utterly brainless. But I also was not about to work with him every damn day, and I was very open about that. Scott said if that was my choice, fine, but he’d keep the company. He said he’d buy me out as soon as he had the cash on hand. And I… I agreed. Enthusiastically,” I admitted shamefacedly. “I told him I was going to create a bigger, better company of my own. I may have said something about…” I cleared my throat. “Him ruing the day?”
“Ah, jeez.”
“Exactly. Looking back, it was so clear that I played right into his tiny hands.” I’d believed that, whatever happened in our relationship, Scott wouldn’t fuck with my business.
In other words, I’d been a fool… and apparently, I hadn’t learned my lesson.
I cleared my throat and deliberately turned away from Champ, setting both hands on the steering wheel.
“Let me guess, Scott hasn’t ponied up any money?” Champ’s eyes went cold and a little scary—which was more than a little thrilling. “Remind me, what did you say Scott’s last name was? And where does he live?”
I shook my head. “I don’t want revenge. Not the kind that comes with you beating him to a pulp, anyway. I want the kind that comes from me getting back what was mine. Showing him that I didn’t need him in order to create a successful business. And I’m getting there. I moved to the Thicket because my aunt Cherry retired and left me her dress shop—”
“Which is now Taffet Events.”
I nodded. “I saved a shit ton of money by moving, and I’m really fortunate that I had this option. I know that. But having a business in the Thicket… that’s not the goal. The goal is to get back to where I was. This event—Marissa Drakes’s wedding—was going to be my triumphant return to the Nashville scene. And now… it’s going to be a country bumpkin hoedown on a barren farm in winter. The gossips will have a field day, Marissa will be crushed, and I’ll be a laughingstock.”
My hands flexed and released on the wheel as I envisioned a scene where I lost my company and ended up on the street while Scott and Onyx laughed—
Champ nodded once. “Right. Okay, then. So, we’re not gonna let that happen.”
“You just made it happen,” I reminded him.
