Collateral Damage - Giulia Lagomarsino Page 0,14

but I didn’t recognize the number.

“Hello?”

“Anna? It’s Carter.”

Speak of the devil. I bit my lip to hold back the grin threatening to break free. “How did you get my number?”

“Well, I wouldn’t be a very good police officer if I couldn’t manage something as simple as a phone number.”

I spun a little in my chair and stared out the window with a smile on my face. “Then I’m glad that you’re here to serve and protect.”

I heard his low chuckle over the phone and it sent tingles through me. “So, Anna, I was wondering if I could take you out to dinner sometime.”

Before I could answer, the office door opened and Eric walked through. Shit, I wasn’t supposed to take personal calls at the office, not unless it was something important. I was pretty sure that making a date with the town deputy was not considered important.

“Uh, can I get back to you on that? I’m at work right now.”

“Oh, sure. I’ll swing by when you get off work tonight. Say, five-thirty?”

“You’d better make it six.”

“I’ll see you then.”

I hung up with a grin on my face and started up my computer.

“I take it that wasn’t a client,” Eric chastised.

“No, it wasn’t. But I don’t technically start for another twenty-seven seconds, so you can suck it.”

He rolled his eyes as he looked through the mail in his inbox. “I need you to come to Thanksgiving dinner at my house.”

I stopped what I was doing and looked up at him. “What?”

“Thanksgiving. Dinner is at three.”

I shook my head slightly, not sure what the hell was going on. “Uh, no thanks.”

“I wasn’t asking,” he said, still not looking at me.

“And when has that ever worked with me?”

He looked up at me and sighed. “Look, Robert pulled some shit Friday night at the house and-“

I rolled my eyes and went back to work. “I’m not interested. Robert can go jump off a bridge.”

“Exactly.”

“What?” I asked, my head jerking up in surprise.

“He posted to the town that Kat and I were thinking about a Christmas wedding and we needed help planning it. You should see the offers we’re receiving. Someone wants to serve chili at our wedding. Chili!”

I snorted. “So, what does this have to do with me?”

“Well, I sort of told him that you were coming to Thanksgiving as payback.”

“And how is that payback?” I asked curiously.

“Oh, come on. I know something happened between you two, and I know Robert blames himself for it. If he wants to fuck with me, and I can be just as nasty.”

I put my elbows on the desk and leaned toward him. “Did you ever think that I don’t want to be part of your games? Did you ever think that I would be perfectly happy to never see Robert again?”

He frowned. “I guess I just thought that you would want payback.”

“You don’t even know what I would be getting payback for.”

“You could always tell me.”

“I could, but I won’t. What happened between Robert and me is private.”

He sighed and ran a frustrated hand through his hair. “Look, I already told him you were coming. Besides, it’s not like you have any family around.”

And just like that, my good mood for the day vanished. “Wow, way to point out that I am truly alone in this world. Thank you so much for that.”

“That’s not what-“

“Oh, I know exactly what you meant. You think I’m so pathetic that I wouldn’t dare turn down an invitation to Thanksgiving dinner, even if my ex-boyfriend was there?”

His eyes widened and he shook his head. “That wasn’t…Shit, I didn’t mean it like that.”

“You know, it would be different if you asked me to come simply because of the fact that you wanted me there, but to ask me to come out of revenge is just…Get out.”

“What?”

“Get out!” I yelled, picking up my mug, ready to haul it across the room at him. He held up his hands and backed up toward the door.

“Did I have any important messages?” I glared at him. “What? You are my secretary.”

I narrowed my eyes right before I pulled my arm back. He saw it was coming and he scrambled for the door. I threw the mug as hard as I could toward him, but he shut the door before the mug could connect.

I sank down in my chair and stared at the desk. What started off to be a wonderful day had turned crappy really fast. Sometimes it felt like I could never outrun my past

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