Page 98 of Enticing Her Love

Silently laughing, she closed the journal and clutched it to her chest, unable to believe he was the same man she’d wanted to strangle a month ago. She put the note and the journal back in the envelope, put it in her tote bag, and went to shut down her computer. As it was shutting down, her phone chimed. She fished it out of her bag and was surprised to see a notification from her personal email account from Global News Now. She’d mentally written off the opportunity with them. She opened and read the message.

Dear Ms. Steele,

We have reviewed your résumé and would like to set up a time to meet with you next Thursday when our management team will be in New York City…

She scanned the rest of the email with her heart in her throat. GNN was interested in her? This was big. Huge. It could be the stepping stone she needed to becoming the journalist she one day hoped to be. But now that she and Flynn were getting along and he’d just given her the chance to do a story about something that was important to her, did she really want to leave Discovery Hour—and Flynn—and move across the country?

Her chest constricted.

They couldn’t even spend one night apart without losing their minds. She needed to think this through, and she was going to miss her ferry if she didn’t hurry. She’d have time on the ferry to go over the pros and cons of accepting the interview and make a decision. Normally, she and Leni would take the ferry home together, and she could have run it by her. But Indi was Leni’s best friend, and Leni had taken the day off to spend it with her.

Sutton put her phone in her bag and headed for Flynn’s office to thank him for the gorgeous journal and get one last kiss goodbye.

Andi came around the corner just as she reached Flynn’s empty office.

“Hey,” Andi said. “If you’re looking for Flynn, he just went into a production meeting.”

“Oh, okay. I’ll just leave him a note. Have fun this weekend.” Andi and Dawn were going to visit their brother Dash and his wife, Amber, in Oak Falls, Virginia.

“I’m sure we will. Dawn’s excited about hanging out with those hot Jericho brothers. Have fun at the wedding.”

“Thanks.” As Andi headed down the hall, Sutton hurried into Flynn’s office and scrounged his desk for a piece of paper. She snagged a notepad from under a stack of documents, and her blood went cold at what she saw written on it. There in black-and-white, in Flynn’s blocky, right-leaning handwriting, were all the reasons she wasn’t qualified to be a higher-level journalist. It became harder to breath as she scanned the list. She’s excellent on the fly but needs more life experiences to warrant the respect of a professional journalist. Interviewing skills aren’t sharp/direct enough to push people into revealing hard truths. She scanned the next few things he’d written, each one cutting like a knife. When she reached the last two lines, she had to read it twice to believe Flynn had really written them. Walters and Brokaw were trusted to give accurate, honest information. Sutton needs to report 100% honestly. Not half-ass it (tp in rainforest).

Her hand shook, her mind spun, and she tried to drag air into her lungs. She’d trusted him, and this was what it had gotten her? It didn’t make sense. Why was he letting her research the effects of a fragmented world on children if he didn’t believe she could do a good job of researching or reporting about it? His voice blared through her mind like a foghorn. You have a goal. Let’s see if you’ve got what it takes to get there.

He expected her to fail.

She felt sick.

Was everything he said, all his support, fake?

Tears threatened, and her heart felt like it was being torn in half. She had to get out of there before she lost it. She dropped the notepad on his desk, and her bracelet slid down her wrist. She hadn’t taken it off since he’d given it to her, but now it felt like a lie burning through her skin. Struggling against tears, she took it off with trembling fingers, and dropped it on top of the notepad. She grabbed the envelope with the journal he’d given her in it and left it on the chair, willing her tears not to fall as she straightened her spine and held her head up high.

Faking it like the expert she’d become, she hurried out of his office, leaving too big a part of herself behind.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

SUTTON HAD HOPED being on the water would help bring her down from the jagged emotional cliff she’d been perched on since reading Flynn’s godforsaken list, but she hadn’t gotten that lucky. Her nerves were fried. She’d spent the first twenty minutes of the ferry ride in the ladies’ room. First trying to stop her tears and then fixing her makeup again and putting on a brave face. She didn’t even have to make that pros and cons list about the interview with GNN. She’d replied and accepted it right after she’d found a seat.

Now, as the ferry docked on Silver Island, she gazed out at the colorful cottages and cedar-sided homes dotting the lush landscape. Her parents’ winery flags waved on the hill in the distance, just south of Silver Monument, and Flynn’s voice trampled through her mind—Maybe one day you’ll want to bang your boss on the island—bringing a stabbing pain to her chest.

Refusing to give in to the hurt, she shouldered her tote bag and picked up her small suitcase, following a stream of people to disembark. Thankfully, it was the middle of June, the thick of tourist season, and she hadn’t recognized a single person on the crowded ferry.

As she made her way down the ramp, she spotted Jules waving from the dock, looking cute in a red dress with white polka dots. “Sutton! Sissy!” Jules hollered. “Over here!”

If Sutton let on that she was unhappy, Jules would spend the rest of the weekend trying to make her feel better, and that was the last thing she needed. She waved, forcing a smile that she hoped would satisfy her overzealous sister.

“Welcome home!” Jules ran over as she came off the ramp and threw her arms around her, hugging her too tight. “I’ve missed you!”

“I’ve missed you, too.”

“You look funny. Are you okay?”

“Yeah. Just a little tired.”

“The ferry always makes me tired. It’s such a relaxing ride. You’ll wake up once you see everyone. All the girls are at Mom and Dad’s. Leni and Indi are half a bottle of wine into the night already. They spent the day at that fancy spa in Chaffee.” Chaffee was an artsy town on the island. “I swear it’s like they think this is their last chance to be silly or something. As if getting married changes anything other than adding a pretty ring to your finger, taking your favorite person’s last name, and knowing you’ll spend the rest of your life with your best friend. Come on. I’m parked over there.”

As they headed for Jules’s Jeep, Sutton wished her love life were as easy as Jules made her own out to be. As she climbed into the passenger seat, she said, “Who’s spending the night tonight?”