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

schoolgirl seeing her crush. I would have to go smooth things over. I had to prove my worth to Vincent. Gretchen would understand that. Once we all calmed down.

“Look, I just wished you had talked to me first. I have to get back to work. I’ll call you later,” I said.

She held up her arms. “Sure. You do what you gotta do.”

“You took the choice away from me, Gretchen, can you understand that?” I asked defeated.

She held my gaze for another moment, then sauntered away without another word. I waited until the urge to cry passed and went back to the table. Sanders was gone. No surprise. I didn’t look for him. We could talk next week. At work. Work we would be working together.

I kept my focus on helping people and packing up as the movie ended. Feeling eyes on me, I glanced up once to see Sanders with Gretch and Suzie, Ford, and his friend Jack. Quickly I averted my gaze, pushing down the hurt.

I still couldn’t believe Sanders was here. And he worked for Outside the Box. I couldn’t quite wrap my mind around all of it. As though he could hear me thinking about him, Sanders looked up at me with worry. I swore I could hear his thoughts.

Can we talk?

Not right now. I looked away. I wasn’t ready. I just had to get through the rest of the night.

“I see your wheels spinning,” Vincent said as we loaded guests back on to the shuttle at the end of the night. He looked concerned. “Whatever is going on, I promise it’s going to be okay.”

I nodded. It would be. I had cooled off some. Maybe I had overreacted in the moment. I was just so freaked out and overwhelmed. But I would talk to Gretchen and explain how important this night was for my career. I would focus on making sure I did my job and I did it well. And I definitely wouldn’t think about destiny and the chances of seeing Sanders again. After all, I knew better than that.

Chapter 9

Sanders

It was two a.m. If I were any more wound up, I’d have enough force to shoot into space and orbit the earth a few times. I paced my room at the Lodge so many times I was covered in a sheen of sweat. A jolt of energy pulsed through me every time a thought of Roxy flashed across my mind. The insane relief at being able to see her again. The absolute solace that I hadn’t lost a chance to just talk to her again. I hadn’t realized until I saw her how scared I was. Our professional connection had to be a gift from the universe. A chance to fix whatever I had messed up.

But then, she had transformed in an instant. Holding her felt like everything in the universe had finally lined up but then, a moment later, she retreated into a shell of protection. A hard shell covering the gooey insides I had seen glimpses of. She turned quiet. Changed. Wouldn’t even look at me. Wouldn’t talk to me.

Despite the change, she was still as breathtaking as I remembered. No. More so. The image in my mind was a screenshot of a screenshot, reposted too many times. It did no justice to her breathtaking beauty. Her gaze that pierced to my chest. Those lips that begged to be sucked on.

Fuck.

I groaned out loud and turned to pace in the other direction.

But tonight she was so shut down. In Denver, she gifted me with her attention and conversation. It was like having a butterfly land on me. She danced without a care in the world. She spoke without doubting herself. Tonight her jaw was locked, her shoulders set with ever-present tension.

If I could have just gotten her alone and explained … I tried to get more information from Gretchen. But after her own talk with Roxy, Gretchen was a different person from the chatty redhead that had picked me up. Her arms were crossed across her body the rest of the night, and when she spoke, it was only in clipped words. Saying quote: “It wasn’t her business,” end quote. I wondered if I had done something, but when I shot a questioning look to Suzie, she just shrugged sadly.

If only I could have talked to her a bit more. That hug had been amazing. To hold her so close only to lose her again …

“This is not going to be good,” I groaned to the ceiling. I knew what I needed to do if I ever had a hope of sleeping again.

I turned the phone over and over with my fingers.

“Fuck. No. Okay.” I stopped pacing and let out a breath I’d trapped in my chest.

I unlocked the screen and dialed my best friend. It was only after several rings that I considered the time.

“Hello?” the groggy voice answered.

“Skip. Skippo. My man.”

“What time is it?” he asked.

“I messed up.” I chewed on my thumb, bracing for his reaction.

There was a moment of silence and then, “Okay. Hold on. Waking up. Just give me a second.”

My foot tapped rapidly. Shuffling sounds and then the click of a lamp.

“You messed up? You’ve been gone barely one day,” Skip said.

“Yup.”

“Okay. Back up.” More shuffling and the sounds of his steps on the wood floor of the hallway. I imagined him going to the kitchen, flipping on the light as he rubbed his eyes awake. There was the sound of the kettle turning on, right on cue. “Start from the beginning.”

I ended up talking until my voice cracked. Opening with Gretchen picking me up from the airport to the high of seeing Roxy followed by her abrupt dismissal, I told him everything.

“I thought she’d be so happy to see me.” I took a gulp of water from the bottle next to my bed. “Now I’m remembering how she left that night in Denver. Saying it had to be like this. What was