against my forehead as my head started to spin. I should’ve hightailed it right then and there, but I couldn’t tear my eyes from the scene unfolding before me. What was that saying about car crashes and rubbernecking?
“I want to make a go of things, Dean,” Monica said, looking at him with hope in her eyes. “You and me.”
I squashed down the urge to stride over there and punch her perfect face, and my gaze darted to Dean’s. He had to say no, right? After everything we’d promised one another, he had to tell her he was with someone else.
But he didn’t. He hesitated, and it felt like he’d driven a knife straight through my heart.
He hesitated.
“Monica…” he began, but I couldn’t bear to listen to another word.
Spinning on my heel, I fled back the way I’d come and hurtled around the corner, almost colliding with someone walking the other way.
Muttering an apology, I strode toward the beach, fighting back tears even as the wind blew in my face trying to rip them from me.
When I hit the beach, I kicked off my heels and held them in my trembling fingers as I walked across the sand. My entire body felt numb as I watched the waves break on the shore. After a while, my gaze drew away from the rhythm and followed a man in a black wetsuit running into the water with a surfboard under his arm. I looked at everything and studied it in minute detail…anything to keep me from absorbing the truth.
Dean Hayes was still in love with Monica Miller.
By the time I went back to the gym, it was late.
The sun was low in the sky, the alley wreathed in shadow and darkness as I approached the gym. Nothing had soothed my broken heart, not even the calmness of the ocean lapping on the beach.
No matter what angle I looked at us from, I couldn’t escape the truth.
“I was wondering when I’d see you.”
My gaze snapped up and fixed on Monica as an unbelievable burst of rage threatened to take control.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” I hissed, fully prepared to fight if I needed to.
Her lips curved into a devilish smile, and she glanced up at the gym. “You know why I’m here.”
“Hands off,” I snapped. “You think you can just waltz in here and flash your tits, and he’ll fall at your feet?” Even as I said it, I knew he already had, and my words just bounced off her without doing any damage.
“You’re fucking kidding me,” she said, looking me over in surprise. “You and Dean? Do you really think you were more to him than just something to pass the time? Poor little Josie. I’m here now.”
“You’re such a liar, Monica,” I said, squaring my shoulders. “You say you’ve changed, but I can see right through you. You’re rotten to the core.”
She sneered and flipped her hair over her shoulder. “Here’s the thing… I won. He doesn’t want you. He wants me. You’ll never be anything more than a glorified sex doll—cheap and made of plastic, an empty whore for men to stick their cocks into.”
Bitch. If I hit her now, she’d slap an assault charge on me. I was powerless, and she knew it. All I could do was stand there and take her barbs. I was already numb, so they stuck in my heart without causing much of anything, but once the anesthesia wore off, it’d hurt like a bitch.
“You better go upstairs and pack up your desk,” she purred in triumph when she realized she had me in a corner. “Your services aren’t needed here anymore.”
Turning on her heel, Monica melted into the shadows, her work done for the evening. She’d gone back to her dark corner to wait for Dean and to reap the rewards of her awful scheming.
Shaking my head, I opened the door to the gym, everything spinning out of control.
Lincoln was walking out the upstairs door when I appeared, and he stopped me before I could go in.
“Hey,” he said, hesitating when he saw the look on my face. “Everything okay? Did the meeting not go to plan?”
“No,” I said, still reeling from my encounter with Monica outside. “It was fine. Just long.”
He frowned and shook his head in exasperation. “What’s he done this time?”
Snorting, I replied, “So every foul look on my face has to be the result of your brother’s latest fuck up?”
“Josie, I know.”
My expression dropped, and I tightened my