Total pages in book: 128
Estimated words: 119852 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 599(@200wpm)___ 479(@250wpm)___ 400(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 119852 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 599(@200wpm)___ 479(@250wpm)___ 400(@300wpm)
Her smile is soft and sweet, two things she is not. “A lady never tells.”
Deeply disappointed, Maddox curses, “Aww, shit. Well, tell us his name. We’ll avenge your name, Princess.” He’s entirely serious even though it might sound like he’s joking. I can tell the difference with him, but I’m not sure Kayla can… yet.
“I didn’t say I’m a lady,” she teases with a devilish smirk, “just that a lady never tells.”
Maddox and I meet eyes and then instantly scoot to her sides, wanting to get as close as we can. “Story time,” he begs. “This is gonna be good, I can feel it.”
When he full-body shimmies in excitement, she laughs, a bright and tinkling sound in contrast with the topic, and I know he’s right. “I’m not proud of this—”
“But you’re not ashamed of it either, are you?” I interject.
Her lips purse delicately as she neither confirms nor denies. “First off, in my defense, this was years ago. I’d like to say I would handle things differently now, but at the time, petty felt pretty good.” Having given her disclaimers, she grins, the gratification looking so good on her that I can’t wait to hear how she dealt with the asshole who fumbled a catch like her. “Like I said, we were weeks away from application deadlines. I encouraged him to apply at Blue Lake, and only Blue Lake. Talked up that we could enter the company together, work our way up together, really laid it on thick. Meanwhile, I planted seeds with Dad that I was breaking up with Bradley and it would be really awkward for us to work at the same place, which technically wasn’t a lie.”
“Diabolical,” I whisper. Kayla’s eyes jerk to mine sharply, but she relaxes when she sees that I mean it as a compliment.
“It wasn’t all that dramatic, I suppose.” She sighs. “I began at Blue Lake and Bradley obviously didn’t get accepted. He had to apply for internships with the next cohort, explaining over and over why he’d been sitting out for an entire year. If he answered honestly—that he’d bet heavily on a long-shot internship that hadn’t come through—it made him seem like a gambler who couldn’t accurately calculate odds for himself. If he played it off like he’d taken a break, he was perceived as unambitious and lacking the aggressiveness needed for the cutthroat business world. He was screwed either way.” She shrugs lightly, unapologetic. “He’s fine now, at the level he probably should’ve always been, and I’m…” Her eyes sparkle. “Where I belong too.”
“Yeah, you are,” I praise, gently running my palm up her thigh, and she smiles fully, hearing that I mean that more than just professionally. She is right where she belongs—here with us.
“It took me a while to realize that while he’d broken my trust—an unforgiveable character flaw—I had some blame in that situation too. Our whole relationship, I’d been trying to fix him, forcing him to live up to the potential I thought he had, whether he wanted to or not. I had this image of what we could be, what our life could look like all planned out to the nth degree, and I never stopped to wonder if he wanted that too. I certainly never asked him.”
I frown slightly, disagreeing with her on principle because the one who cheats is always wrong in my book, but she keeps talking. “I thought I was encouraging him, but in hindsight, I was definitely breaking him down slowly—telling him how he needed to improve his interview skills and his resume, buying clothes for him as though what he had wasn’t good enough, and coaching him on how to act at networking events, essentially babying him like I was his mother. If I’d been older or wiser, maybe I would’ve seen that I was being condescending, or if he’d been able to communicate how he felt, maybe he wouldn’t have decided I was nothing more than a pretty meal ticket.” She tilts her head, considering her words like they’re the first time she’s had that thought. Who knows, maybe it is.
“In the end, we broke each other in different ways. I don’t know if he learned anything, but I did. I don’t do rescue mission men anymore, only men who can stand toe-to-toe with me and can take it in stride when I don’t cradle their egos or hold my tongue for their feelings’ sake. I’m me, unapologetically. People can either handle that or leave, and usually, they don’t get the option to choose. I do it for them.”
She just slapped about a million warning labels on her forehead, put up some yellow hazard tape around her heart, and raised a whole marching band’s worth of red flags while telling us to approach with caution because she definitely bites. Each signal is more concerning than the last, like she’s been told her whole life that she’s dangerous, hard, unlovable. But I heard the thread woven through her words too—that she wants to find someone strong enough to stand at her side. She just doesn’t think he exists. The good news is… he does, times two, sitting on either side of her. We’re like the Powerball Jackpot of men for her.