Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 83986 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83986 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
“Hey—”
“My job is there…but it’s fine. We have a plan already, so we’re good.”
“You have a plan already…well.”
“Just, I need to talk to Ash.”
“Call me if you need me.”
“I will. Thanks, Rais.”
“Always,” he said, and hung up.
Pocketing my phone, I turned and found myself face-to-face with Damien Morrow. Funny how inevitable things always sneaked up on you.
TEN
Of course it had crossed my mind that Damien might want to talk to me. It would make sense that he would have questions about my appearance at a family event. And if he did, we could chat. But if he hadn’t approached me, I certainly wouldn’t have sought him out. Still, I was surprised to find him barring my path.
“Hi,” was all I could think of to say, but then I remembered he’d done something both spiteful and stupid that needed clearing up. “By the way, I would appreciate it if you didn’t talk any more staff members into slipping you Ash’s room key so you can give it to hustlers.”
“What? He didn’t think that was funny?”
Remembering Ash’s reaction, I shook my head. “No. Not at all,” I said, meeting his gaze and holding it. After a moment, he glanced away.
“Whatever, it was a joke. You two can’t take it, that’s fine. Won’t happen again.”
It couldn’t happen again, Owen had seen to that, but he didn’t need to know that. “You’re a lawyer, you knew there were privacy issues with your little stunt, safety issues too, especially for a world-famous actor. You could have put his life in jeopardy.”
“But you were there, the fixer, the bodyguard, the ex-cop,” he said snidely. “How could he have gotten hurt?”
“That’s not really the point, is it?”
After a moment, he shrugged. “Fine, I get it. Again. I wasn’t thinking, that’s all.”
“Okay, great. But really, if you think about it, you wouldn’t have wanted a man in your room either, and Sienna might have had questions.”
He recoiled. “Fuck you, Coop.”
“Nice comeback,” I muttered, ready to slip around him and return to my table.
“Wait.” He barred my path again.
“Why? Is there something else?”
He crossed his arms and stared at me. “What are you even doing here?”
“I was invited to a wedding.”
“Did you know I would be here?”
“How would I have known that? I actually knew very little about you, and even after the year we spent together, nothing about your family, friends, or anyone. Our lives were completely separate.”
He nodded.
“May I go?” I asked irritably.
“What have you said to Sienna?”
“In regard to what?”
He shot me a look. “You know what.”
The knee-jerk reaction was to say something really crass, graphic, and filthy. If I had come here and seen him, and Ash and I had not connected, I might have lashed out at him, the residual anger making me bitter and mean.
Or not. I hadn’t ever been angry about our ending. I’d been hurt and sad, but that was all. The fact that he couldn’t be himself seemed like a stupid reason not to have me in his life. I was disappointed that I wasn’t enough for him to come out for. But it was actually Benji who had given me clarity. He told me that my ex had to come out for himself, not anyone else. The choice was his alone and solely on his timeline.
“I’m sure you were important to him,” Benji told me as we sat at our desks in the office, the two of us the only ones there. “But not everyone sees the world exactly like you. We all have different support, different friends, families, and so on, and all that colors our perception. What you see as easy for you, expected, is not for him. His experiences are different.”
Which made sense. And now, knowing the most I ever had about his family, I could see that my choices, with the safety net I’d grown up with and always counted on, were not in any way his. All of it, collectively, swirled through my brain.
“It’s not my place to say anything to Sienna. Does she know you’re bisexual?”
He was studying my face, and I realized he’d expected an attack. We were in new territory now. “No.”
I nodded. “Well, hopefully, someday, you’ll be able to tell her.”
“And the movie star? What did you say to him?”
“Nothing. The same goes for him. You get to tell people about you. No one else has the right.”
His gaze held mine. “I should have handled everything better.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean with you. I should have handled things better with you and your desire for more. You just wanted to be a bigger part of my life, and I reacted poorly.”
“As I think back on it now,” I said softly, “maybe that’s all you could do.”
“So you’re saying what?” His temper flared, and his voice sharpened to a knife. “I’m just not capable of—”