Page 95 of Bulletproof

When the door closed, I climbed out from under the bed, locked myself in, turned off all the lights, and got in bed. I was passed out in seconds.

I dreamed about Sam Kage.

FOURTEEN

The first thing I did when I woke up was roll over and call Dylan. Since there was a five-hour time difference, it was already after lunch, her time.

“What?” she asked me when I let her get a word in edgewise.

And I outlined what I wanted to do, how the only person besides me I could ever work for was Dane, but that I really didn’t want to do that for the rest of my life—work for my older brother since he was an architect and I was very much not.

“Use full sentences,” she pleaded with me.

“I want us to give our business another go.”

“But, honey, we already tried to have our own company.”

“We gave up too easy, D,” I told her. “I mean, I always figure that⁠—”

“You’ll fail,” she told me.

“Yeah.”

“I know you do. Somewhere along the line, you actually started believing that Jory’s so stupid crap.”

“But I’m not, and you’re not. And I think if it’s just you and me, no one else’s voice in the mix … and we hire a couple of people this time,” I said, smiling into the phone.

“Why are you screwing with me when you know I want this so bad?”

She did? “You do?”

“Of course I do.”

“But you never said anything.”

“Because what would be the point? Just to make you feel bad?”

“God, I am stupid.”

“But you’re not stupid like you don’t know what the hell you’re doing. You’re stupid like you have no confidence, and you should because you’re amazing when you try. The problem is, you so seldom actually try.”

“And you wanna go into business with a guy like that?”

“I totally do. I trust that guy with my life.”

“Why?”

“Because I know he’ll do everything in his power to make sure we succeed.”

“I love Aubrey,” I told her.

“I do too,” she agreed, “but she’s totally loving her new job at the art gallery, and she only does it three days a week now that she’s married to Rick.”

I had introduced my friend Aubrey Jenner to her husband a year ago. They had gotten married three months later.

“Would it be okay, you think?”

“I do.”