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“Ali, come on. You read the article; you know she’s a good writer. She’s a great person too. Sweet and loyal and…” The words stick in my throat, and I cough to clear it. “Do this for me and I’ll owe you.” I hold my breath and wait for her to give me an answer.
“Fine,” she eventually says, and my heavy exhale makes her laugh.
“Thank you.”
I end the call and rest my forehead on the cool desk. My head throbs, partly due to the aftereffects of drinking almost an entire bottle of Scotch last night, but mostly with the knowledge that we’ve lost her. We had the perfect woman, and she loved each of us equally. With everything she had.
Now everything is broken.
And I can’t fix it.
ChapterFifty-Four
LILY
Iopen the door and scowl at the messenger who delivered the puppy to me a few weeks ago. What the hell are those assholes up to now? I really thought that they were going to leave me alone after my visit to West two days ago. Especially after his ten-minute rambling drunk-dialed voicemail.
“Lily Sloane?”
I roll my eyes at his snarky tone. “You know I am.”
“You can never tell in this game,” he says, and I’m pretty sure one corner of his mouth lifts slightly.
“Whatever.” Leaning against the doorframe, I cross my arms over my chest. “What delights do you have for me today?”
“This piece of crap.” He steps out of sight.
Trepidation causes my stomach to sink, but my heart leaps when I pop my head out and see what he’s brought me. “Betty!”
His forehead wrinkles, but there’s definitely a smirk on his face now. “You got pissed off when I brought you an adorable puppy, but you’re overjoyed by this pile of junk?”
“She isnotjunk.” I yank her handlebars from his grasp and wheel her inside, dimly registering the lack of metallic protest.
He arches one eyebrow. “She?”
I tip my chin up. “I said what I said.”
He puts his hand on the doorframe and leans in. “You wanna get a drink some time?”
I blink at the sudden change of subject. Is this some kind of test? “A drink? With you?”
“Yes. And yes.” His grin showcases a set of perfect white teeth.
I tilt my head and consider his proposal. I mean, would there be a better way to piss off the Unholy Trinity than to start dating the guy they use to deliver stuff to me? “You look way nicer when you smile.”
He licks his lips. “And you’ll look way nicer with those legs wrapped around my neck.”
“Ugh!” I slam the door in his face. Scrubbing the last thirty seconds from my mind, I turn my attention to Betty. She looks like she has two brand-new wheels, and her frame is all straightened out. A sob wells in my throat. Which one of them did this? And why? I haven’t been able to stop beating myself up for leaving her behind since I calmed down later that day, and I hoped for the best—that they would find it in their hearts to send her back to me in the same condition I left her. But by this morning, I’d given up hope and figured they hauled her to the dumpster. Why would they go to the trouble of having her fixed?
Forever imprinted on my memory, West’s voicemail plays in my head. If I weren’t intimately familiar with his voice, I wouldn’t have recognized it. I could hardly decipher most of his drunken rambling, but he kept repeating how sorry he was and how it was all his fault.
My ringing phone jolts me back to the present, and I grab it off the kitchen counter. Not recognizing the number, I debate whether to answer, but curiosity wins out. “Hello?”
“Lily Sloane?”
“This is she.”
“My name is Alison Steadman. I saw your article inGenevieve, and I was wondering if you have half an hour to come in and chat about working here atIgnition?”
