Chapter 19
***Kyrin***
I walked in silence with Aggie. She didn’t look like she was ready to talk and that was fine with me.
I wasn’t sure I wanted to talk, either. I just knew that she was either going to murder my brother or cry and I didn’t want either to happen.
I studied her on the long trail back to the barn and frowned when I couldn’t make sense of her.
Normally, it was Knight who couldn’t leave a puzzle unsolved, but there was something about Aggie that made my brain feel itchy. I wanted to scratch that itch and figure out what went on behind her expressive eyes. The red flags that waved all around her didn’t stop me. I needed to understand.
She was wearing another T-shirt, a worn-out tie-dye one with a faded picture of a peace sign on the front.
With her honey brown hair trailing down her back and her brown strappy sandals, she looked more like a child of the sixties than modern times.
All she was missing was a big pair of glasses and a flower in her hair.
Normally the women I went for were more.
..typical. I couldn’t remember a woman who hadn’t shown up in a sundress and boots on any of the dates I’d been on.
“You’re staring.” Aggie turned to face me and sighed. “I’m fine, Kyrin. You really don’t have to worry about me.”
Standing in the middle of a cluster of woods between the house and barn, the smell of honeysuckle filled the air around us. In the shade, her green eyes looked less like vibrant moss and more like the thick foliage around us.
“I beg to differ. You and Zander were going at each other in front of Gracie. He was wrong for trying to fire you and I understand you being pissed, but there was something more. I haven’t known you for long, but I got the impression that something was wrong. More than Zander’s attitude, I mean.”
She looked up at the trees and tucked her hair behind her ears before looking back at me.
“I took Gracie to this amazing doll store downtown. She loved it, by the way. She was so excited, but even so, she didn’t demand a million dolls.
There was a kid in there, screaming to get one more doll added to their growing stack and I was terrified I’d miscalculated in taking Gracie there.
She’s great, though. Your sister and her husband must’ve been really amazing to raise to be the girl she is. ”
A hard lump formed in my throat and I had to look away. It was always hard to talk about Zella, but being surprised by the mention of her was always like a punch in the chest those days.
“I’m sorry.” Aggie started walking again.
“When we walked out of the store, we ran into Monroe. You know what they say about the best revenge being showing your ex how amazing you’re doing without them?
Or whatever the saying is. I don’t know.
.. What I do know is that no one says run into your ex while you’re at your lowest to give them more than enough ammunition to rip your ego to shreds. ”
A chill ran down my spine at the idea of her meeting up with Blake. She’d proven to be good with Gracie, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t still working for that piece of shit. “You just ran into him?”
Her shoulders stiffened and she stopped moving.
“No, Kyrin, I made plans to meet up with him while out with your niece. I thought it would be amazing to be shouted at in front of her and the rest of Dallas. You want proof of the nature of my relationship with Monroe Blake? Go ask anyone in downtown Dallas today. I’m sure his laughter could be heard from blocks away. ”
“What was he laughing about?”
“Maybe the fact that I was one of the top players at his company and now I’m a nanny. He’s funny that way.” She stomped towards the barn, but I had a feeling she didn’t have a clue where she was going, nor did she care.
“Being a nanny isn’t an embarrassing job. You know that, right?”
“Do you understand what I did just a few weeks ago, Kyrin? I worked as the top digital strategist in one of the top companies in Texas. I spent my days solving problems that could’ve cost the company millions of dollars.
I was appreciated for my brain, for my skills, and for being a goddamn shark.
In no time at all, less than a handful of men have taken me down to a place where my brain doesn’t matter at all.
So, no, being a nanny isn’t an embarrassing job, but it’s not the job I want.
It’s not the job I signed up for, worked my ass off for, or deserve. ”
I winced and shoved my hands in my pockets. “I’m sorry, Aggie.”
She took a deep breath. “I’m over having men shout at me and treat me like shit today, Kyrin. If whatever is waiting at the end of this trail is anything like the day I’ve already had, I’m going to go back to the house and spend some time alone in a hot bath.”
“I’m not going to yell or treat you like shit.
You’re safe.” Anger bubbled to life inside me as I thought about what all she’d said, about being shouted at.
I was going to hand Zander his ass for being another screaming asshole.
“Zander was wrong in his approach, but he was right in idea. If there are going to be assholes shouting at you on the street, you should have someone with you who could kick their teeth in.”
She snorted. “If I still have a job, I will not be leaving this house again. I had so much energy to take Monroe down. I wanted to destroy him and his repugnant company. Even in just the few days since being here as a nanny, I’ve already grown tired, though.
Nothing is going to happen for me. I will be leaving this job with more money, but less opportunities to do what I want in life and in revenge.
Now Monroe has taken me down another peg and I’m just..
.over it. There are only so many seats at this table in Dallas and no matter how hard I push, I can’t make room for myself. ”
“You want to know the shitty part? If there is just one, I mean. You three are so worried about me being some secret spy, but the truth is so much more humiliating. I didn’t get sent here.
I didn’t even choose to leave my job at his company.
He implied that my time at his company, at the top spot, was basically an egg warming spot.
He wanted me close until it was time to knock me up.
He didn’t appreciate my skill, either. He clearly isn’t missing my work.
I was just a hole with the means to make a kid to him.
And when he realized that I was serious when I told him I wasn’t ready to start a family with him, much less leave the job I loved, he dumped me. I wasn’t even enough to wait for.”
I stopped moving and caught her arm. “Aggie...”
She blinked rapidly until it was like her eyes had never watered. “So, really, the idea you guys have of me being some important person to him is just preposterous. I’m no one. And now that he’s seen me being so pathetic, his words, I’m even less.”
“You know that you’re-”
“Save it, Kyrin. If this is your time to make some declaration that I’m worth something or that I mean something, just..
.don’t. I know that you three think even less of me than Monroe does.
Honestly, I don’t care. I know that I’m smarter than all four of you and if given the chance, I’d run both companies in less than two years.
Even when all of you see me as nothing more than warm holes and a babysitter, I know better.
It’ll be all your downfalls in the end.” She sighed. “If I ever find my energy again.”
I found myself smiling for some ungodly reason.
She was threatening us and showing the real strength of her backbone, but I liked it.
I was glad she hadn’t let any of us break her.
There was even something in the set of her jaw that made me believe her.
I just didn’t care. If she took over the companies or if she babysat Gracie, her strength was impressive.
It was incredibly sexy, too, but I felt too guilty to go down that road after what she’d just said.