Officially Over It - Lani Lynn Vale Page 0,4

event specifically, the entire thing was paid for and very well staffed.

When I’d given them half their budget back yesterday, Dracon had grinned his fool head off.

Apparently in the past that hadn’t happened, and the event had sucked.

I hoped that this event was great for them considering I talked up a good game.

Oh, God.

I was going to have to see Nathan tonight.

I could feel it.

Sadly, I was correct.

***

“Are you sure that I look okay?” I asked Sierra.

“You look great,” my hair stylist/good friend/emergency dress shopper said.

I looked at my hair that was freshly dyed a beautiful shade of auburn. She’d styled my hair in loose waves that came up to around my ears with a wand, and she’d only burned me once.

My hair looked so beautiful against the blush-colored dress and the porcelain white of my skin.

I looked over at Sierra with her much more deeply tanned skin and frowned. “Why does this color look good on me? I would’ve thought it’d look terrible. I’m so ghostly white.”

Sierra snorted. “You’re not that white. Your skin is milky and smooth. I wish that mine looked this good when I didn’t have a tan.”

I snorted and looked at myself one more time in the mirror before walking to my jewelry box on my hutch next to the door.

“Thank you for doing my hair and finding this dress for me on such short notice,” I said. “I don’t know what I would’ve done without you today.”

Sierra came up beside me and pointed at a pair of earrings in the box.

“That set,” she said. “Just studs. I think it’ll look perfect.”

I swallowed hard at the diamond studs that she’d pointed out, remembering a day years ago when I’d gotten them.

They look good in your ears, honey. It makes me want to nibble on your throat, run my tongue along the shell of your ear.

“Umm, I don’t usually wear those,” I admitted.

And I didn’t.

They were too freakin’ expensive to wear out of the house.

At least, in my honest opinion.

After finding the receipt in my bag—along with a marriage license—I’d nearly shit myself.

They’d been eight thousand dollars.

Honestly, thinking back, I was surprised that my new husband’s card had gone through for that much money. Didn’t they have a daily limit? I was fairly sure mine was fifteen hundred or something to that nature.

“Nonsense,” Sierra said. “These. They’re perfect.”

I reluctantly allowed myself to pick them up and put them in my ears for the first time since I’d put them there the day after I’d been given them.

I swallowed hard at the memories it evoked, then shoved them down deep into the box labeled ‘Nathan - STAY FAR AWAY.’

“Wow, what a beautiful ring,” Sierra said on a gasp. “Where’d you get that monster?”

That ‘monster’ was my wedding ring. The piece of jewelry that I would never, ever wear again.

“Umm,” I started to say, but the alarm on my phone went off, indicating it was time for me to leave or I’d be well past fashionably late and into rude territory.

“Shoot, you need to go,” Sierra said, backing away.

I gave my wedding ring one last long look before carefully shutting the box, and the idea that things could be different, with it.

I walked right up to Sierra and gave her a hug.

“Thank you so much,” I whispered. “I really, really appreciate it.”

Sierra patted my hand and walked with me outside, her face a mask of disgust when a few wolf whistles rent the air.

“I can’t believe you live here,” she said in disgust.

I wished I didn’t have to.

But when you were a dumbass when you were a teenager and racked up your student loan debt, beggars couldn’t be choosers.

“Hopefully I only have to do it for a few more years,” I admitted.

My gaze lit on the man that was lingering close to my car, likely smoking a joint like he always was.

“Who’s that?” she murmured.

I felt more than saw the man she was talking about.

He really, really gave me the creeps.

He also fancied himself a big time badass when in reality he was just a creepy drug dealer that nearly always got his way.

“Can you hold on for just one more second?” I asked. “I forgot something inside.”

I wasn’t sure what made me do it, but I had this irrational fear all of a sudden that I should go inside and move a few of my more expensive things to my car.

I wasn’t sure why, but I usually tried to follow my gut.

And my gut was screaming at