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Me: Not yet. But hopefully soon.
Zara: Any word yet on when you’re visiting Maple Ridge?
My phone rings, saving me from answering Zara’s question. I miss my childhood best friend. But she knows why I’m not ready to go back to the small town I once called home.
Or rather, she knows going back to Maple Ridge is painful for me because my brother lost his battle with PTSD there.
She doesn’t know the other reason.
Lucas. My brother’s best friend.
The man I was secretly in love with in college. The man I had sex with a year after graduation, while he was on leave from the Marines. The father of the baby I lost. The baby he doesn’t know about.
My gaze slides to the row of office doors, to the place where I imagine myself one day soon. Because as much as I love working with my teammates in what we’ve affectionately dubbed the “living room,” I aspire to have my own office.
“Irene would like to see you in the conference room,” Jenny, her assistant, says through the phone.
“Thanks,” I tell her. “I’m on my way.”
I walk down the hall and step into the conference room. Everyone who is vying for the position of junior account manager is here. A number of them I don’t consider competition. They applied for the job just because they could.
It’s Craig Philmore who has me the most concerned.
He’s more competitive than an Instagram influencer hoping to land a TV reality show.
There’s nothing he wouldn’t do to gain what he believes he deserves.
I sit in the seat next to him, and he flashes me the grin that leaves me feeling as though I’ve been dropped into a pit of vipers, and they’re slithering over me. I fight back a shudder.
“Good, you’re all here.” Irene glances around the room, taking inventory of us, and smiles. Unlike Craig’s smile, hers is polite, friendly, warm. “First, I’d like to thank you all for applying for the position of junior account manager. It wasn’t an easy decision to make.”
Her apologetic gray eyes land on me for a rapid heartbeat, and a venomous fang yanks the breath from my lungs. “But in the end, it was the perfect decision for the agency. I would like everyone to congratulate…Craig Philmore.”
I force a delighted smile on my face, the vipers now writhing in my stomach. Hopefully, the smile appears more heartfelt than it feels.
“Congratulations,” I tell him.
The smile he directs at me is enough to make me want to scour my skin for an hour with steel wool. Because not only did he get the job—he’s now the person I report to.
Avery walks into the conference room, chewing her lower lip. I’ve known her long enough to recognize her different tells.
There’s the I’m-confused nibble. The Crap-what-am-I-supposed-to-do-now? nibble. And the I’m-screwed nibble.
This lip-chewing is none of those.
“Sorry to disturb you.” Everyone turns to her. “Simone, the Maple Ridge police department is on the line. It’s about your grandmother.”
And just like that, my disappointment over Craig getting the promotion switches to ice-cold panic.
Oh, God. Not Grams. Please tell me nothing has happened to the most amazing and sweet woman alive. The woman who raised Aiden and me after our parents died.
The woman who I would do anything for.
3
Lucas
The events after Roy tells me I’m under arrest…they’re all a blur. The handcuffs. The Miranda rights. I’m rushed to the station. Prints are taken. Interviews conducted. I’m given one call, which I make to Troy.
