Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 68576 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68576 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
“What?” I asked. “How do you know she’s going to do that? Maybe all she wanted you to do was quit and move out, just like you just did.”
Thinking the best of people was an ingrained habit of mine.
From a really young age I’d started lying to myself about people’s intentions. If I hadn’t, I’d have gotten my feelings hurt.
I was a weird kid.
I’d always had this feeling that people were judging me.
And, from an adult’s perspective, they probably were.
But making myself always go with the best case scenario was a habit that I couldn’t break.
Not even when it came to Sage, who had started showing her true colors.
“Listen, Carter.” Pepper dropped her fork. “When I tell you that I have experience with this, I need you to listen to me. She’s done this before. She almost got me kicked out of college, and nearly had three years of my schooling wiped, because of almost this very same scenario. Trust me when I say, this is very real.”
“I can have Boss run over the stuff in your car. It should be fairly easy since you’ve already got it all with you,” Garrett offered.
I rubbed my hands down my face.
“I was hoping that was the case.” She sighed. “I didn’t touch anything, though. Like, everything that I grabbed, I put in the boxes. I didn’t go through anything, if that makes sense. So if she did hide it in my stuff, it won’t have my fingerprints on it.”
“I think I get what you’re trying to say,” Garrett said. “But if she was smart, she would’ve wiped it clean if she planted it.”
“Do you want to do it now?” Garrett asked, finishing off the rest of his plate.
“More!” Forest ordered.
“I’m done if you want to give him mine,” Pepper offered.
I glanced from my son’s messy face—it was even in his hair somehow—to Pepper’s barely touched plate. “You didn’t eat much.”
“It’s hard to eat when you have a psychopath dogging your every step,” she grumbled. “Maybe I should just move home.”
Panic hit me, and before I could stop myself, I was standing up and catching her hand. “You’re not going anywhere.”
She laughed, her voice shaky. “It’s funny. I stayed here because of my mom. Her words kept replaying in my brain. I tried. God, did I try. But the more I think about it, the more I realize that maybe I should save myself the heartache and head back. Hell, maybe it would be better to just keep on moving. Alaska’s her least favorite place because it’s too cold. She’d never follow me there.”
The thought of her two hours away, let alone days away, sent another round of panic through me.
“Stay here,” I suggested. “You can sleep in the guest bedroom.”
The way I said guest bedroom made me sound like I didn’t want her in mine, even to my own ears.
She snorted. “I’m not staying here, Atlas. I have a place at my brother’s house that I could easily move into. But until I can help Maven replace me and not leave her in the lurch, I’ll stay at the apartment above Pie Hard.”
Desperation tinged my words when I said, “I’m on the SWAT team.”
If I could just keep her close, I could convince her to stay. I knew it.
“Yeah…” Pepper drawled. “I know that.”
“I get called out a lot,” I continued. “My family is here, but Forest likes you a lot. Actually, out of all of us, I think you might be his favorite. Stay here. If I get called out, you’ll be here. You can be my live-in babysitter. I’ll pay you. Hell, we can even write out a list of expectations, or an employee handbook. I can be a respectable boss who will also provide a buffer between you and Sage.”
Pepper opened her mouth, then closed it.
“So we won’t…” she started, but then stopped. “What about…”
Us.
What about us.
She hadn’t said it, but I knew what she was asking.
“No,” I said what I thought she wanted to hear.
The moment I did, though, her face fell. Her eyes went completely blank, and I knew I’d fucked up.
“Okay. Purely professional relationship.” She nodded and swallowed hard, her face serene.
And, because I was who I was, I had to fuck it up some more.
“My son is a priority right now,” I said. “I have to put him first.”
She nodded, her shoulders drooping even more.
And I inwardly winced because I could practically hear her thoughts whirling: Your son is the priority, not me. Noted.
“Sage won’t just leave me alone,” she warned. “If she sees that I’m living here, working for you, it won’t matter that we have a platonic relationship, she’ll overreact, like she always does.”
Again with that inward wince.
“I’ll do what I have to do,” I said carefully.
“I’ll help you for a little while,” she said softly, pushing her plate toward me. “I’m not sure if you want to give this to him since I ate off of it. But I’m gonna run to the bathroom before I head outside with Garrett. I don’t want to bring anything unclean in here.”