The One That I Want (Scorned Women Society Book 3) by Piper Sheldon (e book reader android txt) 📕

heard Sanders explain how we met up later. But I couldn’t focus for the blood rushing in my ears.

“Skip?” I asked. The best friend he mentioned several times? No. That wasn’t right. None of this made sense. Maybe this was still just a misunderstanding. “I spoke with William.” My voice sounded far away.

Sanders grinned. “Oh, well, for work he usually uses his real name, William, but all his friends call him Skip.”

I nodded but needed a minute to think. To regroup.

The two men talked back and forth but it was like listening through water. I needed to get away. I needed to think. The scene I just made … My reaction to seeing him.

“I-I’ll be right back,” I said, already backing away.

“Are you okay?” Vincent asked.

“Can we talk?” Sanders asked at the same time.

Sanders. Him. He. The man who threatened to sweep me off my feet in Denver, he was the potential business partner. Oh my God, what if I had slept with him that night?

I couldn’t seem to think or focus. I knew myself enough to know that if I talked now, I’d only fuck up this insane situation more.

“Just—I need to go get something from the bus,” I said and walked away.

Keep it together, keep it together. What would the SWS do?

I pressed a hand to my stomach as I stumbled toward the bus, the suit suffocating me.

After ten steps, I spotted Gretchen. She stuck out as always in a cream leather skirt with fringe and cowboy boots. Her vintage collared shirt was white with red swirled designs and shiny opal buttons. A red cowgirl hat was propped on her barrel curls.

“Hey, girl! Glad I caught you, who’s that hottie working the table with you?” she asked. “Is it—” She stopped short when she was close enough to see my face. I shook my head once, feeling too dizzy to speak. She was at my side in an instant. “What’s wrong?”

“I think I fucked up.” My voice was shaky.

“Okay, okay. I gotcha.” She glanced around before wrapping her arms around my shoulders and leading me to the trees and out of sight. “What’s going on?”

“Sanders. From Denver.” All the words tried to come out at once. My whole body was shaking now. Anxiety was closing in on me, I couldn’t catch my breath and my hands went icy.

Her hands gripped my shoulders. “Just breathe, hon. Slow down. Try again.”

“Sanders is here. He’s a potential business partner for the Lodge.”

“Oh. Well, that’s good, right? To see him again?”

“Not here. Not while I’m working. Not to find out like this,” I explained.

“I thought you’d be happy …” she said, trailing off.

Anxiety slithered in my gut. “You knew? How?” I shook my head. “You knew he was here and you didn’t warn me?”

This wasn’t happening. I knew she wouldn’t set me up to be cruel but it all felt like too much to process. My carefully contained worlds were colliding.

“I wanted to surprise you. I thought you’d be happy.” The fringe of her shirt flared as she crossed her arms.

“You’re behind this? You brought him?” I tried to keep my voice calm.

“Well, it’s not like I brought him to Green Valley, he obviously came to see you.”

“No,” I snapped. It cracked off the trees around us and her eyes widened before narrowing. “He’s here for business. And you—you can’t just do stuff like this. I asked you not to get involved.”

“You need some fun, girl. You two obviously had a connection.”

“Gretchen, stop.”

I held up a hand and then pressed it to my forehead under my bangs. She shut her mouth immediately, her jaw jutting out.

“I didn’t want to see him again,” I said.

“I don’t understand why. Plenty of people who hook up still work together—”

But it wasn’t about hooking up. It wasn’t about a quick fling. It was so much more than that but all my thoughts were jumbled up and I wasn’t explaining myself well. I was too upset.

“You always do this,” I cut her off. My anger grew as I freaked out. Didn’t she understand why I pushed him away? Couldn’t she see that I needed to keep things the same? She knew how loose my hold was on this new life. But how could I explain all that without her feeling guilty and hurt for her role in my past?

“What? Help people who are too afraid to admit what they want?”

“Stick your nose in other people’s business!” I snapped and then lowered my voice after a few people looked toward us. “This isn’t a game.”

She chewed her lip before saying, “I really think you’re overreacting.”

If she had looked even remotely remorseful, if she had looked even slightly apologetic or ashamed, maybe I wouldn’t have lost my cool and unloaded. But she stood there like she didn’t regret a thing and I was the one acting crazy. I couldn’t keep a lid on my thoughts any longer.

“I know you think I’m being bitchy. I know in your head, I’m being irrational. But Gretchen, I’m angry. I didn’t want to see him like this.” My fingertips pressed to my hot cheeks. “I’m humiliated,” I added weakly.

She was speechless. Her hands dropped to her sides, and she backed up.

I glanced around to make sure nobody could see us fighting. “You accuse Green Valley of treating the SWS like the side characters in Jethro and Sienna’s story. It pisses you off so much and then you go and do the same thing to us. We’re real, breathing, fleshed-out people. Not little pieces on your game board,” I finished.

She blinked rapidly and shook her head, continuing to back up. “Okay.” She started nodding. “Good to know how you feel.”

She was retreating. I’d hurt her and she was retreating. Classic Gretchen. Guilt twisted at me. I didn’t want to hurt her. But this was all too much. This night. Seeing him. Being in charge of one of my first work events, trying to prove my worth to Vincent, and then to act like a