Chapter 41
My foot tapped against the floor inside the Ashbourne Investments office building as I pinched the bridge of my nose while holding my phone to my ear.
“Mor—”
I held out my finger to Brian, and he went silent.
“Garrett, I swear if you’re not here tomorrow—yeah, and you’ve been saying that.
You were supposed to start this three days ago, but you keep bullshitting me around with excuses.
If you can’t do the job you were hired to do, I’ll find someone else who can.
We are all on a timeline. Other people sticking to their timelines requires you to stick to yours.
If you’re not here tomorrow, you can consider yourself fired.
And then you can explain to your boss why you lost his company such a big contract.
” I didn’t wait for him to speak before I ended the call.
“So, you’re firing my subs now?”
I turned to look at Brian, seeing the glint of amusement in his eyes and the small smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth.
As the general contractor, all of the subcontractors went through him.
I had no authority to fire anyone, and we both knew it.
“Well, maybe hire some competent subs, and I wouldn’t have to,” I retorted.
Brian held his hands up defensively with a chuckle. “Whoa.”
“Sorry, but you know I saved you that phone call.”
I turned for the front door, hearing him laugh behind me. “See you tomorrow, Sunshine.” My hand flew up in a wave before I pushed my way out the doors.
I made it through my first month in Miami, but I’d been on edge the past week, not because of the project—that hadn’t been going bad save for a few minor bumps, like Garrett, the current pain in my ass. I couldn’t explain why I was so frustrated and testy, but I was.
I got in my car and rested my head against the seat, letting out a slow breath as I closed my eyes.
I needed to take up meditation yoga or something.
When my phone chimed with an incoming message, my eyes flew open, and I quickly reached for my bag, pulling it out—I deflated slightly when I saw the message from Naomi, my new friend here in Miami, letting me know she was on her way to meet me.
I started the car and put in the address to an outdoor shopping area where I was meeting her; I only had half a working day at the site today because I was waiting for people like Garrett to get their shit together, so we’d made plans for lunch.
I pulled up beside her car ten minutes later and got out to see her standing on the sidewalk, waiting for me. “You look stressed,” she said with a chuckle.
“Nothing an afternoon margarita won’t fix.”
She laughed, linking her arm through mine. “That’s the spirit.”
Naomi was Marcelo’s girlfriend. I met her the first night he’d invited me out for drinks, and we hit it off. She showed me around Miami, and she and Marcelo had been making sure I got out of the hotel, always inviting me out with them and their friends.
After lunch and a much-needed margarita, I walked with Naomi outside the shops that lined the sidewalk. I saw her check her phone when it pinged with a message, and based on the smile on her face, I knew who it was from. “Marcelo sending you middle-of-the-day love messages?” I quipped.
“He always does,” she said with a chuckle as she typed back a response.
I felt a pang of jealousy and unfamiliar longing in my chest but quickly pushed it away. “I know I haven’t known you all but a month, but you two seem really good together.”
She smiled as she slipped her phone back into her purse. “Thanks. He can be a pain in my ass, but I love him.” She cast me a curious look. “I know you said you didn’t have a boyfriend, but is there a someone?”
I scoffed with a chuckle. “No. No, there’s no someone.”
“No? Not even a recurring fling?”
I let out a breath. “I mean…not unless you count an arrangement of sorts as a recurring fling.”
Naomi smirked. “An arrangement, huh?”
“Yeah, just…a mutually beneficial thing to get a release when we need one.” Which had been a lot, apparently.
“Hm,” she hummed with a smirk. “Interesting. And how long has that been going on?”
I sighed. “Much longer than it was ever supposed to, that’s for damn sure.”
Naomi grinned. “Even more interesting.”
I looked at her, my brow furrowing. “Why? Why is that more interesting?”
She chuckled. “You have something like that going on for what you claim is ‘much longer than it was ever supposed to,’ and you don’t think there’s a reason for that?”
“I mean, yeah, there’s a reason. It’s called dating in Bayport is absolute shit, but we both have needs the other is willing to meet.”
Naomi smirked as she looked straight ahead. “Is that the real reason? Or is that just what you’re telling yourself?”
“No, no, no,” I said with an awkward chuckle as I shook my head.
“No, definitely not. You’ve got it all wrong.
Trust me. Me and this guy…we couldn’t even stand each other.
Like, actually hated one another. And the only reason we even grew to tolerate each other is because of the arrangement and how long it’s been going on.
” When she chuckled again, I looked at her. “Why are you still laughing?”
“Because you sound a little like you’re trying to convince yourself of that more than you are me.”
Her words caught me so off-guard that I couldn’t even respond other than to let out a disbelieving breath.
Obviously, she didn’t know what she was talking about.
Naomi and Marcelo asked if I wanted to meet up with them and some of their friends for dinner and drinks on Friday, but I politely declined.
I wasn’t in the mood to go out. I wasn’t in the mood for much of anything the last few days, not unless you counted drowning in thoughts I was sure I had no business even swimming in.
I couldn’t stop thinking about my conversation with Naomi a few days ago, her words playing on an endless loop in my head. Is that the real reason? Or is that just what you’re telling yourself?
Of course it was the real reason…I knew that.
So, why the hell was I overthinking those words so damn much? It only added to the frustration I’d been feeling for the last couple of weeks.
I tried catching up on some emails but was too distracted to concentrate.
I turned on the TV to channel surf, but there wasn’t anything on that drew my attention enough to make me stop thinking.
I ordered something to eat around six, but I only ate half of it before I lost interest.
Now, I was standing beneath the shower spray, letting the hot water run over my body as the steam swirled around me.
When I finally stepped out, I wrapped one of the plush towels around me before wiping down the fogged mirror.
It relaxed my body but didn’t help me clear my head of the incessant thoughts like I hoped.
If anything, it only made them worse. I should have known better—I always thought more in the shower.
When I stepped out of the bathroom, I went to the nightstand, checking my phone for a notification I knew wouldn’t be there. When I was met with a blank screen, I sighed, sinking onto the edge of the bed.
I ran my fingers through my damp hair. I was so damn tired of feeling this way, and I didn’t even know how to describe what it was. I just didn’t feel…right. I constantly felt restless, and there was a coldness in my chest and a longing for something that was eating away at me.
I looked at my phone again. It wasn’t a longing for something I was feeling…but for someone.
For Wes.
I missed Wes.
As soon as I let the words free in my mind, my body stilled, and a rush of air escaped me as the revelation hit me like a freight train.
I missed him.
I missed Wes.
I’d been on edge and frustrated because I missed him.
I’d been staring at my phone, waiting for one of his stupid messages because I missed him.
And I missed him because I…
“Oh…oh God,” I whispered, my eyes widening a fraction.
I stood and began to slowly pace, pressing my palm flat against my chest in an attempt to ease the sudden ache that had replaced the cold feeling that had been there. It was like now that it had a name—now that I’d acknowledged what it was—I was feeling its full effect.
You have something like that going on for what you claim is much longer than it was ever supposed to, and you don’t think there’s a reason for that?
It took the words from someone who was practically a stranger to make me see what I’d been doing, for how long, I wasn’t even sure.
This thing between me and Wes was never supposed to be anything more than random scratches of an itch.
I could have walked away at any given point…
but I didn’t. I chose not to. I kept going back for more.
In the beginning, it was strictly about release, but somewhere along the way, something shifted.
It stopped being about just sex and started being about the person who made me feel less alone.
I knew things between us had changed, but I refused to see it for what it was until I was left with no choice.
Because now that I was without him, I realized what I felt when I was with him.
It was that spark.
It was that all-consuming passion.
That intense desire.
That aching need to be with him.
I hadn’t let myself acknowledge it before. It was like I had some kind of anti-Wes wall that wouldn’t allow me to realize that he’d made me feel all those things. They just came packaged differently than how I expected them to present themselves. They didn’t strike all at once but slowly over time.
All this time I spent waiting to find that person that made me feel the way I’d only ever heard about, and he’d been standing right in front of me this whole time.
Wes Callahan—the man who spent years being an arrogant thorn in my side, who I once despised, who so effortlessly got under my skin—had somehow managed to burrow his damn way into my heart, and I…
“Oh my God…”
Wes turned out to be everything I never expected.
He was still cocky, sure…but over the course of nearly two years, I saw what was underneath the veil of arrogance.
He was funny and made me smile and laugh even when I didn’t want to.
He was thoughtful, even if he masked it under silly pretenses.
He had a much bigger heart than he let on.
And he was the only guy who had ever challenged me in his own irritatingly charming way.
My heart slammed against my chest as I swallowed thickly, still pacing the length of my suite as the epiphany became more and more clear.
Falling for Wes Callahan was a plot twist I never saw coming.
Yet here I was. I’d fallen…and hard.