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I breathed deep and tried to dissolve the tension in my muscles. It didn’t go that well. “He’s a great kid. We get along great, and—”
“Everything’s great?” Ash grinned at me. “Scarlett, do you really want to be this guy’s ready-made Mom-Wife?”
Her question silenced me. She made it sound like I’d be stupid to take the deal. Like it was some kind of trap. But it didn’t feel that way. I loved spending time with Leo, and Luca never once made me feel like—
“Who is this guy, anyway?” she asked.
My body tensed up, and the blood that was warm and rushing before chilled over almost instantly. Not until she’d uttered the question did I realize how heavily the secret had been weighing on me. It felt like a constant lump in my throat. I considered my options for a moment…
Ash was a good person, and I felt like I could trust her. We hit it off because she was one of the few people at Chord who never bothered with office gossip. And besides, I knew how much lighter I would feel if I finally got to share the weight of my secret.
“Luca Moretti.”
His name was barely out of my mouth when Ash collapsed to her mat in a tangle of limbs, a piercing squeal ripping through Indigo’s fragile peace in the studio.
“Shut the fuck up!” Ash exclaimed, eyes wide, mouth hanging open.
“That’s it!” Indigo came to stand in front of us, hands on his hips and probably the first frown he’d ever frowned, cutting a deep line between his brows. “Both of you… out. Now.”
Ash and I scrambled to our feet in a flurry of apologies as we rolled up our mats. I couldn’t look at her because I could feel her holding back her laughter and knew that we’d both break if our eyes were to meet.
Once we were back on the street, though—
“You and Luca fucking Moretti?” Ash grabbed me by the shoulders. “The richest man in the world? Are you fucking kidding me right now?”
I rolled my eyes, suddenly uncomfortable under her scrutiny. “He’s only in the top seven.”
She threw up her hands, looking around at passersby. “Ah, well, fuck, top seven richest people in the world. That’s no good at all.”
“We should probably get to the office.” I tucked my mat under my arm and started down the sidewalk.
Ash hurried to catch up with me, hooking her arm into my free one. “This isn’t over,” she said and dragged me into the smoothie bar next to the yoga studio.
Between waiting for our order and finding a secluded booth, Ash managed to settle her initial excitement. Thankfully.
“So, you’ve been fucking your much older boss,” she said with the tone of a news anchor instead of an unhinged high schooler who just found out I’d made out with the quarterback under the bleachers.
I swirled my straw in the thick berry goop in front of me, careful to not meet her eyes. The relief I’d expected hadn’t reached me yet. I was mostly just freaked out that she knew the truth.
“I don’t even know how it happened,” I said, taking a sip. I picked up the discarded straw wrapper and started twisting it between my fingers. “He’s my brother’s best friend, and—”
“I can tell you how it happened!” Ash interjected. “I know a steaming hunk of beef when I see one.”
My eyes shot up to find her nodding at me, a huge smile on her face. “Ash…”
“What?” She shrugged. “Moretti is hot with a capital ‘H.’ Slick daddy vibes, if you know what I mean.”
I scrunched up my face. “Ew, don’t say it like that. It’s not like that.”
“Bullshit.” She cocked her head to the side, eyeing me closely. “I know all about the allure of an older lover.”
I dropped my gaze again. The straw wrapper was pretty much in pieces in front of me, and so I started rolling them into tiny spit balls. Ash wasn’t wrong. That’s how it started, anyway. But the more I got to know about Luca, the less it became about just pure physical attraction. That was the problem.
“Ah, I get it now.” She leaned back in her seat. “You guys started off fucking, but now it’s more than that. That’s the complication. Because of your brother.”
I shook my head slowly. “It’s like you’re in my head.”
“No.” She laughed softly. “It’s just that you’re not the first person to go through this, Scarlett. And if you want to make it out the other side, you have to quit while you’re ahead.”
