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CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Ashlyn
I couldn’t make myself go back to my apartment after I left Liam’s place. Maybe it was the heady awareness that my client had just admitted to having feelings for me. Or the violent truth that Liam Macklen, or Manwhore Macklen, was a monster of his father’s making and that the man I had slowly been uncovering in the past three weeks may very well have been the real Liam.
Which, of course, made it all the more painful to realize that Cici had been right. Leden could not employ Grove Communications if one of their owners was involved with the CEO. It would destroy both companies, and I knew the media hounds would be all over us the minute they connected the dots. In fact, I was a little surprised they hadn’t yet. Maybe they were waiting for his big announcement.
Whatever it was, I was secretly relieved that nothing had come out yet about Leden hiring Grove Communications. I’d hate to be managing my client’s crisis at the same time that I was trying desperately to heal a very, very broken heart.
Because he hadn’t been alone in his feelings.
Liam Macklen was everything I’d been looking for. And it wasn’t the pretty, polished version I’d been selling. It was the gritty, funny, quirky, smoldering man I’d met at that first visit to Leden. Only now I knew that underneath that was a kind, compassionate human who wanted more than just a bigger pile of money and a model on his arm.
So instead of my apartment, I went back to the office. Walking in, even in the dark, felt like a balm to my heart. I ran my fingers across Luna’s empty desk, smiling at the to-do list carefully positioned on the corner of the desk. I’d bought it for her for her birthday, and clearly she had hated it, as it was empty and completely untouched.
I slid past, into the small hallway where our offices were. But I bypassed my own to go straight for Cici’s. It was the same office that Grandpa Jim had been set up in for the twenty years that Grove Communications had occupied the space.
I’d insisted Cici take the space. But I knew to some degree that she had hated it…or at least hated changing it. And thus, it was still a slice of my grandfather’s memory, complete with his worn leather sofa in one corner, a bookshelf covered with binders of past press works, photographs, and more than one trophy from my mother and Cici’s youth.
If I closed my eyes, I could almost smell the subtle, spicy scent of his cologne. Which made it all the more tempting to fall straight into a puddle of feelings and wait until inspiration struck again. I used to come to Grandpa for my solutions, so it only made sense that I wanted nothing more than to curl up on his sofa and breathe in his peace.
And that’s exactly where Cici found me in the morning, sprawled across Grandpa’s couch and covered in a faded quilt that was always in the desk’s bottom drawer.
“What the hell, Ashlyn? You scared the shit out of me,” Cici hissed, covering her heart with a hand as she stared down at me.
“I’m sorry,” I mumbled, shoving myself vertical and staring up at my aunt. I narrowed my eyes. For all that I must’ve shocked her, there was something else. Her cheeks were flushed, eyes bright, and instead of marching in here like a conquering hero, she’d snuck in too, her heels in her hands.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, plopping down her bag and leaning against the L-shaped desk to slide on her heels.
“Liam and I got into it, so I came over here to crash. I thought some of Grandpa’s wisdom might soak in.”
Cici smiled. “Did it work? If so, hop up because I need some of Daddy’s knowledge right the heck now.”
I snorted, scooting to one side.
“Do you want to talk about it?” she asked as she curled up beside me, tucking her legs under the edge of the blanket.
I shook my head. “I was right about somebody. And I’m just really disappointed.” I reached over to grab my phone, the three missed calls from Emma making me groan. I had promised her for an update and then totally ditched. If only she knew how much better everything had seemed, even a few days ago. I didn’t actually want to tell her anything.
Telling Emma meant it was permanent, this thing between Liam and me being flawed and catastrophic. There was no coming back from that.
Cici nodded slowly. “I really am sorry, Ash. I wanted it to be different for you. But if he can’t manage that, then I say he doesn’t deserve you.”
That was what he thought too. I could feel it, hear it in his words. Not a lot of good it did though. Now we were both miserable. And tied together inevitably upon his election into the role of CEO.
My heart ached just thinking of it. Of watching his success bloom around us and playing such a tiny, insignificant part in it. Ugh. My stomach rolled.
“So where were you?”
Cici’s bright eyes looked at me suspiciously. “What do you mean?”
I huffed out a breath, rearranging my feet under the blanket. “You aren’t fooling anyone, Cici. Something is going on with you.”
She tossed her honey-gold hair behind one shoulder. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Cici,” I prodded her. She was a horrible actress. Good at practically everything else, but the woman couldn’t lie to save her life.
“Ashlyn,” she prompted back, eyes narrowed. “But really, it’s nothing. Let’s just focus on getting through these next few days without another schmuck from Leden Co. screwing us over.”
