AllFreeNovel
Share Us
My bottom lip pokes out. “He did.”
He also took care of me, with the skill of a sex god come to earth, but I don’t tell Nancy that part.
It’s weird to share sex stories about a person’s brother-in-law, and if I think too much about never getting to bang Bran again, I’ll feel worse than I do already.
But even if he wanted to keep seeing each other, I can’t. It’s going to take time for me to mourn the loss of the mountain and the dream it represented. And I can’t do that while having sex with the man who took it away from me.
He didn’t take it away. He won it fair and square. And now you’re cutting off your nose to spite your face.
Or your clit to spite your vagina, maybe?
Whatever turn of phrase works best here?
“I just wish you two had gotten the chance to get to know each other without all the property stuff getting in the way,” Nancy says in a gentler voice. “Because I think, under normal circumstances, Bran would have fallen head over heels for you. The more I think about it, the more you two seem like a pretty perfect match.”
Tears sting at the backs of my eyes and for a moment, my throat is too tight to form words. But after a breath, I manage, “He hasn’t texted. It’s been an hour since I got the news. He has to know by now and…” I pull my phone from the pocket of the velour jacket I threw on when I left mine and Bran’s love nest this morning and hold it up to Nancy. “Nothing. Not a call or a text or even a violin emoji.”
Nancy frowns. “Why would he send a violin emoji?”
“To express his sadness for my loss. Violins are the universal emoji of classy sadness.”
She hums beneath her breath. “I think I should put the kettle on. You need coffee and a cupcake. I have a chocolate mocha one I’ve been hiding until I felt good enough to eat sugar again, but you can have it. Consider it my contribution to the Kayley Can Figure This Out fund. You’ll find another way to expand. I know it. This is just a temporary setback on your road to resort domination.”
I don’t see how that’s possible—the other mountains near mine are all already covered with residential properties or too steep to make good ski runs—but a chocolate mocha cupcake does sound good.
And so does Downton Abbey, anything to keep my mind off my own drama.
“I’ll make the coffee,” I say, rising from my blanket nest. “You get the posh British people on the telly.”
“Sounds good,” she says, reaching out to grab my hand as I pass by her place on the couch. “And don’t give up on Bran yet. Sometimes the Ratcliffe boys need extra time to process things. Hazard of having an impulsive father, I think. It made them all a little…cautious.”
I arch a wry brow. “Like how Elliot took all of ten minutes to decide he wanted to knock you up?”
“It wasn’t ten minutes. I’d mentioned it to him days before we got to the hotel that night, and he absolutely took his sweet time thinking it over.” She shrugs and a secret, lovey-dovey smile curves her lips. “And it’s different with Elliot. We were friends forever before it became anything more. Friendship makes leaps of faith easier.”
“I thought Bran and I were becoming friends,” I say softly. “But maybe I was wrong.”
“Why do you think that?”
I pull my cell out of my pocket again. “The silence is deafening at this point.”
“But you haven’t called or texted him, either. Have you? And how did you leave things this morning?”
I shrug, guilt clutching at my stomach again. “We didn’t, really. I had to leave the suite to handle a work thing and then I got the bad news from my lawyer and I…bolted. The next thing I knew I was here.”
Nancy widens her eyes. “So, you just ghosted him? Without a word?”
“I didn’t ghost, I sought comfort. And besides,I’mthe loser here. I’m the one who gets to sulk and be sad and wait for him to text me to say he’s sorry for crushing my dream under his big, billionaire boot.”
She shakes her head, her lips tightening into a thin line of disapproval. “Call him. Now. Or text him. It’s the right thing to do. The mature thing.”
I glance down at the phone, my stomach churning. “I know, but…”
“But what?” Nancy presses.
“But what if he doesn’t reply?” I ask, suddenly discovering a whole new layer of sadness beneath the mountain loss sadness. “What if he was just killing time with me until he got what he wanted and now he’s fine with never seeing me again?”
“He’s going to be building his rec park right next door to your resort,” Nancy says practically. “Like it or not, he’ll be seeing you again. And I honestly can’t see Bran doing something like that. He’s a pretty straightforward, honest guy. He’ll reply. It might not be the reply you want, but…”
