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She shrugs like the words never came out of her mouth at all, then her face becomes serious. “Wait, is this the first time someone has offered to buy us out? You’re not considering selling, are you?”
This is what I feared, the moment Kitty would become engrossed in the stresses of what it takes to keep this place from falling apart. Or from being taken back by the bank.
I’ve done my best here. But I’m coming to terms with the fact that it hasn’t been enough.
“It isn’t the first time.” I lean against the edge of the desk and regard her with eyes that are solely focused on her. She fidgets under my gaze, her fingers pulling at a loose string on her shorts. “But we aren’t going anywhere, and I’m not selling our legacy.”
“I hope not. It’d be such a shame to let it go.” She glances around the room and opens her mouth before closing it again. I watch her as she attempts to find the words she wants to say.“Listen, I know this probably isn’t the best time to bring this up, but I’ve been meaning to talk to you since Soph and I got back. I just...I wanted to say I’m sorry.”
Her gaze meets her feet before looking back up at me to continue.
“For leaving. I’m not sorry for leaving this town, but I am sorry for leaving you. I hope you don’t ever wonder if I chose Sophie over you. I just couldn’t stay here, with Joey. With everything that reminded me of him. And I know you think I’m still just a kid, but I know what it meant. Leaving you here, by yourself, to run everything at the bookstore. If I could have done both, save myself and support you, I would have. I just need you to know that.”
There’d been a whole lot of hurt and resentment when we parted ways—correction, when she left me—but as soon as I saw her again, it all just kind of...melted away.
Kitty doesn’t understand what this kind of love is like. How she could leave me, hurt my feelings, make me cry, and I’d forgive her just at the sight of her smile.
There aren’t many people in this world worthy of unconditional love. But the girl Sophie and I dropped everything for, she is.
“It’s okay. I understand,” I say.
“You know, Luce, this tough exterior of yours cracks sometimes even when you don’t mean for it to.” Her voice has taken on that idiosyncratic way of hers, and I fight the urge to give her a blank stare.
Kitty rushes me and pulls me in for a hug before I can move away. I’m stuck between her and the desk as she plants a million kisses on my face and head before she lets me go.
CHAPTER SIX
I DIDN’T FUCK THAT GIRL
EZRA
Failure is notsomething I’m uncomfortable with. I’ve mastered the art of turning things around in my favor. Bending situations to my will is something I’m more than comfortable doing.
My relationship with failure is confusing to most, but I welcome it.
I either walk away with a valuable lesson or kick down the door until I get what I came for.
But walking away from Eloise has my body vibrating with curiosity. Because this is an instance in which I don’t believe I’ll be walking away with only a lesson.
In all honesty, I hadn’t known she was an owner. I figured she was just a woman employed by someone who didn’t bother showing up anymore, by the look of the place and the hole they’ve financially dug themselves into.
And when I walked in and saw her, I intended on asking her to dinner to assuage the pressure of her presence in my head that’d mounted over the last few days. Yes, I’d been dishonestin my reasoning behind my walking into the bookstore. But that was where the dishonesty began and ended.
I can still smell her—that rosewater scent reminding me of what she tasted like.
Heaven.
The woman tasted like goddamn heaven.
“That didn’t go as planned,” Ivan muses, looking over some emails on his phone as we head down the street. “Please tell me you didn’t fuck that girl.”
His leather shoes catch the sun, and I try to ignore the way its warmth suffocates me in this goddamn suit. But presentation is everything.
My navy suit speaks for me before I even open my mouth.
One of the first lessons my father had ever drilled in my head was to look like a man of importance and the rest would follow.
A man of importance doesn’t have to answer questions about women he may or may not have had the pleasure of indulging with. Even if the person asking is his business partner.
