Chapter 30
“They can go to hell!” Kristen said as she yanked her legs free from the large bastard that betrayed her for the last time.
“Kristen-”
“You can go to hell, too!” Kristen snapped as she gave up trying to grab hold of the passenger side door and make her escape and settled for making it impossible for the man, whom she was no longer speaking to, to get his hands on her.
With that in mind, she mentally prepared herself for what she was about to do, nodded to herself for some reason, wiggled the rest of the way to the edge of the leather bench seat and-
“Oh, come on!”
-somehow found herself dragged out of the truck and thrown over Garrett’s shoulder before she could roll onto the floor and shove herself beneath the bench and out of his reach forever.
“It won’t be that bad,” Garrett said, lying his incredibly handsome ass off to her.
“Look,” Kristen said against his back, only to pause, take a steadying breath and remind herself that threatening to beat the shit out of him with her backpack wouldn’t help before she continued, “if you pretend that you never saw that text message and turn around and bring me home, I will do that thing that you seem to really like with my hand.”
When he didn’t say anything, she added, “And my mouth?”
“This is just sad,” Garrett said with a heartfelt sigh that had her grumbling as she glared at his back.
“You know that I’ll never forgive you for this, right?” Kristen mumbled sadly, really wishing that she’d put that minute headstart to better use.
She got cocky.
That’s all there was to it.
As soon as she stumbled into her house, she should have thrown the deadbolt and found a place to wait this out until tomorrow morning, but instead, she’d released a satisfied sigh, dropped her bag by the door, put Ghostbusters II on, and made her way into the kitchen where she took her time making an extra-chocolatey cup of milk, deciding that she’d deserved it.
If she’d known that the traitorous bastard had given Amber his phone number so that he could betray her, she would have made a run for it as soon as she heard the front door open.
Instead, she’d added another squirt of chocolate syrup to her glass, debated letting him lick it off her body, and realized her mistake too late.
Which brought up an interesting question...
“Why does Amber have your phone number?” Kristen demanded against his back as he carried her across the large parking lot.
“Besides to make you paranoid?” Garrett asked.
“Besides that,” Kristen said, waving it off with a heavy sigh.
“Because you’re a pain in the ass,” he said, shrugging it off and forcing her to grab hold of the back of his pants with a muttered, “I’m going to die!” when the move shifted her in a way that her soul didn’t appreciate.
“That doesn’t explain why she betrayed me,” Kristen bit out, tightening her hold around his pants and refused to let go.
“I gave her my number after we got back from the camping trip,” Garrett drawled, jolting her slightly as he stepped onto the sidewalk.
“You mean the camping trip from hell that you swore that you would never speak of again? Do you mean that camping trip?” she asked, blinking at his back.
“That would be the one,” Garrett said, sighing heavily as he came to a stop and-
“You bastard!”
-forced her to grab onto his arm when he suddenly leaned over and dropped her on her feet, the move causing blood to rush back down.
“She wanted to ensure that she had a way to periodically remind me of what she would do to me if I ever hurt you again,” Garrett said, taking her by surprise.
“She gave you the talk?” Kristen asked, touched that Amber was looking out for her.
She didn’t have a lot of close friends, definitely no one that cared enough to give a guy the “talk.” Once upon a time, Garrett was the one who looked out for her, protected her, and gave a damn if something happened to her, and now...
She honestly had no idea what he was anymore.
After he broke her heart, something that she was struggling to forgive him for, she kept to herself, focused on writing, and talked to readers.
She’d met some wonderful readers over the years.
They were incredibly kind, always checked in on her, and treated her like she was just another book addict, which she absolutely adored, but then there were the others. ..
When her books started to take off, she went to signings, where she met what she’d thought were wonderful people who actually cared about her.
It didn’t take long before she realized that they only cared about those things that they wanted from her.
Some of them wanted to be famous by association and some were aspiring writers hoping to use her to get readers to buy their books, while others simply wanted everything that she had.
Her success suddenly became their success.
When they went out, they never reached for their wallets, suggested signings that she should go to, the same ones that would take her to all those places on their bucket lists.
Of course, they offered to go with her out of the goodness of their hearts so that she wouldn’t have to go alone.
She actually took a few of them up on their offers, terrified of going by herself only to have them sit on their asses, demand upgrades that they had no intentions of paying for, snap at everyone they deemed beneath them, and ditched her every chance they got only to magically appear when they needed something.
She quickly got sick of the ones that always had their hands out, the ones that only remembered that she was alive when she released a new book and acted like they were long lost best friends, the ones that never bothered to ask her how she was but made damn sure to ask her for money and free stuff only to disappear again when the hype for her latest book began to die down.
It only made her feel more alone.
She stopped responding once the hints started dropping, ignored the invites from the people who only saw her as an ATM, and moved on. She just...
She was sick of people hurting her.
So, when Amber was assigned to help her at a signing a little over a year ago, she did what she always did, she brought a thank you gift, kept her requests to the bare minimum and offered to take Amber out to dinner after the signing as a thank you, even as she mentally prepared herself for what she knew was coming.
Only, it never came.
Amber never asked her for anything. She simply helped her, engaged with the readers, and when she took her out that night, Amber pulled out her credit card before she got the chance and treated her to dinner.
So, when she saw Amber’s email a few days later, Kristen wasn’t sure what to expect only to once again be taken by surprise.
Amber came across a book on Captain Kidd that she’d thought Kristen would like and wanted to send it to her. From there, they became friends only to have Amber realize just how disorganized she was and took over and she’d been with her ever since.
“I’m pretty sure she threatened my balls if I did anything to hurt you, if that helps,” Garrett explained as her head finally stopped spinning.
Nodding solemnly, Kristen said, “It really does.”
“She also thought that it would be a good idea if I looked over an international contract for the Spanish rights for your books that looked questionable,” Garrett said, taking her by surprise.
“I usually just forward them to my agent,” Kristen said as Garrett took her hand in his and gave it a gentle tug that reminded her that she had bigger problems at the moment than a questionable contract.
“I really don’t think this is a good idea,” Kristen said, licking her suddenly dry lips as they neared the automatic sliding doors and-
“I really do hate you,” she mumbled sadly when he kept going, forcing her to walk back into hell on earth.
“Use your hate to get you through this,” Garrett said as he tightened his hold around her hand and kept going, dragging her into the mall as she wished that she could damn Amber to hell and back again only...
That really wasn’t an option.
Amber wasn’t feeling good, which meant that it was up to her to pick up the iPad that Amber ordered for the giveaway that Kristen was hosting at her table this weekend.
As they walked deeper into the mall, making sure to steer clear of the escape rooms because of the ban and all, she began forming a plan, one that would get her in and out of the store in less than five minutes flat with the iPad in hand, and back home in less than thirty.
Knowing that time was a factor here, she pulled her hand free and began searching through her bag for the receipt that Amber sent her, making sure that she didn’t let her pace drop below a speed walk and kept weaving in and out of people stopping here and there, groups of teenagers, elderly people enjoying an evening walk, moms trying to navigate strollers, toddlers racing in front of her and stayed focused.
When she spotted the store a few minutes later, she mentally prepared herself for what she was about to do and moved her ass faster, eager to get the hell out of this place.
Once they reached the store, she slowly exhaled, nodded to herself and told herself that she could do this, and headed straight to customer service, absently noting that there were five people standing in front of her and followed that up with another nod as she noted that there were two employees working the counter.
Two was good.
Two meant that they would be out of here in half the time, Kristen told herself with a firm nod as she looked over the receipt that Amber sent her and-
Where the hell did Garrett go? Kristen found herself wondering as she glanced back towards the exit only to sigh when she didn’t see him.
For a moment, she debated going back to look for him only to decide against it since he’d find her eventually, but just in case, she pulled her cellphone out of her bag and went to send him a text message only to sigh and shove it back in her bag when she realized that it was dead.
She really needed to get that thing replaced, Kristen thought as she stood there, willing the line to move faster.
Twenty minutes later, a mix-up, and a five-dollar gift card later as an apology for wasting her night after finding out that the iPad had been sent to her address instead, Kristen was heading for the door and-
“Would Kristen Haven please come to guest services to pick up your child,” came the announcement that had her frowning as she reluctantly made her way back towards guest services only to find Garrett sitting on a bench with his arms folded over his chest, glaring at her.
Not really sure what that was about, Kristen went to open her mouth only to have the middle-aged woman working behind the guest service’s counter hand her a piece of paper with what could only be described as a pitying look.
Curious, Kristen looked down at the piece of paper in her hand only to feel her lips twitch.
I’m no longer speaking with you.
When Kristen went to open her mouth again, the woman behind the counter cleared her throat and handed her another piece of paper. After sending Garrett a questioning look, Kristen looked down at the piece of paper in her hand only to end up rolling her eyes.
You left me to die!
“How is it my fault that you couldn’t keep up?” Kristen asked only to watch Garrett slowly narrow his eyes on her.
“I tried texting you, but my phone died,” she said, only to watch as he looked pointedly away and-
Keep your filthy lies to yourself, woman!
-sighed when she read the next note.
“Are you planning on pouting all night?” Kristen asked, only to frown when another note was handed to her.
Yes!
With that, Garrett stood up, pointedly looked away from her again and stormed off, leaving her to sigh as she followed after him.
God, he was high maintenance, Kristen thought, only to be forced to bite back a smile when he glanced over his shoulder and leveled a glare on her.
He was also adorable when he glared. For a moment, she debated telling him that only to decide against it when he began muttering to himself.
Instead, she settled for following him back to the truck, struggling to bite back a smile every time he shot her a glare. When they finally reached his truck, she moved to open her door only to end up sighing and dropped her hand away when he glared at the move and-
“If you stop pouting, I’ll let you drizzle chocolate sauce all over my body and lick it off when we get home,” Kristen said, watching as he swallowed hard while he ran his eyes over her and-
“I forgive you.”