Open Your Heart (Kings Grove #4) - Delancey Stewart Page 0,13

York, and had tried to convince me to stay, though losing one’s job and apartment made it difficult to remain in a place like New York City for long. She’d accepted it eventually and had connected me with her cousin, who was setting up the event company in Austin.

“It’s so freaking quiet, Chelle. I can hear myself breathing here. I wake myself up.”

“You’re exaggerating.”

“Not at all. I’m renting this place—”

“A cabin, right? You told me you were renting a cabin, so I’ve been picturing you in this tiny little shack out in the woods, maybe a wood-burning stove . . . I totally can’t picture you roughing it like that.”

“You don’t need to.” I looked around me at the state-of-the-art house in which I sat. Appliances gleamed from the kitchen, the flatscreen glowed against the wall before me, and the plush carpet I pressed my feet into wasn’t exactly roughing it. “This place is nicer than Annabelle’s apartment.” Annabelle was a mutual friend—a trader who had amassed a fortune in the late nineties and who lived in a penthouse loft in Tribeca. She was older than we were, but she liked to nurture what she called ‘her flock’ of young professional women with upscale parties and well-timed advice. Her advice to me after everything went down had been ‘get out of here and start over where no one knows you.’ I was taking it.

“Really?” Chelle sounded disappointed.

“Don’t sound so happy for me.”

“Well, you don’t sound very happy. What’s going on? See your dad yet?”

“Not yet. Planning to today.”

“Making up?” She knew the whole story.

“Kinda doubt it.”

She made a disappointed noise, then her voice softened. “You doing okay? You’ve been through a lot . . . and a lot of quick changes. How’s your head?”

I sighed. “Not great. I catch myself slipping into crazy self-pity sometimes. It’s just . . . it’s hard to believe this is how it all ended up, you know?” I hadn’t let myself think about everything that had happened in New York since I’d gotten on a plane and left the city. “Like, why did I have to leave, when I was the one who tried to do the right thing? Why is it my life that got fucked?”

“I’d say Andrew’s life is pretty fucked too.”

“Maybe.”

“He might be going to prison, Harper.” She almost sounded sorry for him, but Chelle had always liked my ex. Hell, I’d liked him too.

“For committing a crime. That’s called justice.” I paused, thinking about the trial, about the way Andrew’s eyes had turned steely and hard when he looked at me. “But he won’t serve. He’ll get some stupid community service or something.”

“Probably.”

“Let’s talk about something else.”

“My cousin is really excited about working with you.”

“I need to give him a call, reassure him that I’ll be down there in six months.” I was worried that Theo, Chelle’s cousin in Austin, might find another partner, one who didn’t have to spend six months on a mountain making up with her dad for the investment capital she needed to join his business.

“Good plan.”

Her simple statement made me worry. “Why? Did he say something to you? Oh God, I need to call him.”

“No, silly. Everything is fine as far as I know. But yeah, you should keep in touch so he knows you’re still in.”

“I’m definitely in,” I said. “I can’t wait to get out of here and get my real life started again.”

She didn’t say anything to that right away, but I could imagine her face as she thought, and I knew there was something she was afraid to say. I waited her out, and finally she said, “But you can use this time, Strings. Just let yourself heal a little. A lot happened these last few months.”

She was right. “I’m not good at going slow, taking a breath.”

“I know that. We were in yoga together, remember?”

I laughed. I missed my friend. “What else is going on?”

“I met someone,” she breathed, and I could hear the smile in my friend’s voice.

“That’s great! What is she like?”

“Gorgeous. So smart. She’s a teacher.”

“Really? That doesn’t sound like you. I thought you liked the fierce executive type.”

“I’ve never done too well with those, though. The corporate sharks always tear me up in the end.” Chelle was an actress, and she had a very sensitive heart. I’d hoped for a long time she’d meet someone who appreciated that soft side of her, and she was right—the girlfriends I’d met before had been brusque and serious. Too

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