Kira looked like she didn’t know what to do now that Iris was gone. She started walking backward so slowly I almost couldn’t tell if she was moving.
I tried to mouth “Don’t you leave me too” without letting Robbie see.
Kira hated awkward situations, and I could see from the look in her eyes that she didn’t want to be witness to this. A moment later, she had scurried off too. Great.
I turned my attention back to Robbie and forced a smile. “So . . .”
“I was trying to say that I’ve been doing a lot of thinking, since . . .” His eyebrows creased together, as if the thought of the word breakup was causing him physical pain.
If I still needed reassurance that I’d done the right thing, all I needed to do was study that look on his face. I didn’t feel any of the emotional sting of losing him. Staying in a relationship like that wouldn’t have been fair, even if it seemed like everyone else thought we were so perfect for each other. “Robbie,” I said as gently as I could, “I should’ve realized we had different goals earlier than I did. But that’s all there is to it. I have a vision for where I want to be, and I can’t let anything get in the way of that.”
“Where you want to be?” Robbie asked. Anger flashed in his eyes. “Alone and sitting on the top floor of a skyscraper in New York? Is that it? Diving in your piles of gold coins at night and sleeping on megayachts?”
I shook my head. I knew he was only being cruel because he felt embarrassed, but it still stung. “I don’t care about the money. You would know that if you’d really listened. I want to—” I stopped and pursed my lips. “You know what? No. I don’t need to explain it to you again. Maybe if you’d cared more, this wouldn’t be so confusing to you.”
“There’s nothing complicated about it. We’re good together. Everybody thought so. And I don’t want to sound crude, but what do you think will happen once the grace period is over?”
I frowned. “The grace period? Do I even want to know what that means?”
“I didn’t really want to have to spell it out. But think about it. How long do you think women are going to wait now that I’m single?”
I couldn’t help laughing out loud at that. Sure, he was right, but I was finally seeing just how much Robbie had been putting on a show while we dated. This was the real him. Nasty, ugly, and overconfident. “Well, don’t let me stop you from putting out the memo. Actually, if you want, I can have some copies laminated for you. How do you want it worded exactly?”
“I’m not kidding, Miranda. I won’t wait around for you to change your mind. So, what’s it going to be?”
“I made up my mind. I’m sorry, but that’s it.”
Robbie’s lips twitched, and for a moment I thought he might actually shout something. Instead, he released all his tension with a soft laugh. “No. It’s fine. I’ll give you a few more days to realize this is a mistake. We’ll talk soon.”
I watched him go, suspecting there was something threatening in his words.
“That seemed to go poorly,” said a familiar voice from behind me.
I was still sitting, but I nearly toppled over when I saw Nick King was right behind me.
“Okay,” I said suddenly. I turned completely around to face him and held up my palms. “What is going on with you? You’ve acted like I didn’t exist ever since you and your brothers came back to West Valley, and now I can’t seem to stop running into you?”
Nick watched me in that way I was surprised to remember so well—like a bomb could go off without shaking his focus. It was the kind of look that could undo a thousand cruel words—the kind of look that could even start chipping at seven years of built-up anger. I wondered what was going through that clever mind of his as he watched me.
“I haven’t been avoiding you,” Nick said. “I’ve been giving you space.”
“Space,” I said. “Yeah, in the sense that I might as well have been in orbit the past few months as far as you were concerned?”
He smirked. “That’s an oddly appropriate metaphor, considering you’ve always felt way out of reach.”
“If you were ever reaching for me, you weren’t putting much effort into it.”
“Or maybe you weren’t looking hard enough. Like now.”
Even though my chest was tight with nervous excitement, I didn’t have to try hard to feel the old, familiar resentment bubble up. “Last time I looked, you were dating my best friend.”
Nick’s expression hardened. His eyes flicked to something behind me. “Cade,” he said coldly.
The hairs on the back of my neck stood up. I turned and saw Iris and Cade both watching from a few feet away. Iris at least had the decency to look embarrassed to be caught eavesdropping.
“What the hell?” I asked. “Is it possible to have a conversation without somebody secretly leaning over my shoulder tonight?”
“I don’t know,” Cade said. “Maybe try not being such a source of drama, and it wouldn’t be so fun to spy on you. Besides, I thoroughly enjoyed listening to you shut Nick down.”
“For once, could you not?” Nick asked Cade.
“Sorry, my specialty is kind of doing. Not doing has never been a strong suit,” Cade said. “Anyway, I was going to ask you what your plans were if Little Miss Perfect here hadn’t turned you down? I mean, how did you expect to keep your head in the game when you were daydreaming about bumping uglies on the copier every chance you got?”
“I can’t believe I’m agreeing with Nick on something, but, yeah, could you not?” I asked.
“Hey,” Cade said, completely ignoring my question. He ran his thumb across Iris’s jaw and grinned wickedly. “That actually sounds kind of fun. Want to go buy a copier and do a little role-play? I’ll be your boss, except in our scenario, I didn’t fail at seducing you, so we’re absolutely blasting each other every chance we get.”
“Seriously?” Nick asked. “You think you can just walk into a store and buy a commercial copier?”
“The practicality of buying a copier is the part of this you have a problem with?” I asked. I shot Iris an incredulous look, but she seemed above being ashamed.
Ugh. New love was disgusting. I’d had to watch Kira and Rich and how they were hardly able to keep their hands off each other when they’d finally gotten together, and now it was Cade and Iris. Somehow, it all made me more angry with Nick.
“Hey,” Cade said. “You left the keys to the new biz in your car, right?”
“No,” Nick snapped. “You will not—”
“Sorry!” Cade called. He was already pulling Iris by the hand and leading her away. “You know my policy. Never waste a good boner!”
Nick got up with a disgusted look. “See you in the morning, Collins. Oh, and it’s nice to have you back from orbit.”
Traitorous goose bumps tingled across my arms and legs. I had to clear my throat, but my voice still sounded quiet and a little scratchy. “I’ll see you in the morning. Yep.”
Chapter 4
NICK
Today was Miranda’s first day at Bark Bites, and I guessed it was mine too.