Anyone But Nick (Anyone But... #3) - Penelope Bloom Page 0,28

was better. All I had to do was force the words out, even if I wanted far more than friendship from her.

“I could live with that,” she said. “Especially if you keep saying nice things about my color-coded folders.”

“Oh, absolutely.” I held up the folder. “If you keep color-coding, I’ll keep you around forever.” My stomach sank when I heard my own words. There wasn’t any scenario where this lasted forever. Either I’d make her my replacement and we’d go our separate ways at the end of all this, or I’d be forced to do the unthinkable and let her go if she wasn’t right for the position. I couldn’t do anything else if I cared about her. Putting her in charge of a company she wasn’t ready for would screw over every employee under her, and it would cheat the dream she had for herself. But I couldn’t help wondering if I’d really have it in me to fire her. Thankfully, she seemed to be more than capable, and I didn’t believe it would come to that.

Miranda tapped her fingers on the desk thoughtfully. “Forever . . . as nice as that sounds, I’ve always been the type to keep my eye on the chair above me.”

“If there’s a chair above you, I’d suggest doing more than just keeping an eye on it. I’d consider moving out of the way before it falls on your head.”

She rolled her eyes. “Sometimes I forget you and Cade are related.”

I winced. “Please. Next time, just tell me it was the dumbest joke you’ve ever heard and spare my feelings.”

It was good to see Miranda looking more loose for a change. She was giving me a devious half smile that said she was enjoying the conversation. “So,” she said. “Do you still want to go get lunch?”

Chapter 7

MIRANDA

Nick and I grabbed some greasy gyros from a little collection of street vendors and sat down on a bench. We had a quaint view of the distant hills and the river that wound its way through town.

“You know,” I said. I blew on my gyro and waited for it to cool a little more. “All these vendors would’ve never survived here before you guys brought Sion to town. Can you imagine trying to convince a bunch of homebody locals to eat Greek food?”

Nick nodded, then did his best impression of the slight country drawl some of the older residents of West Valley tended to have. “If it doesn’t have bacon, barbecue, or homestyle in the name, we’re not interested.”

I laughed. “I almost forget you’re from here too. It’s weird. But that impression is spot-on.”

“You’re not alone. Being back is weird too. Everybody treats us like we’re outsiders now. I guess I can’t blame them. When I think about how we must seem to you all—to y’all,” he added with a grin, “I understand why you wanted nothing to do with me.”

I lowered my eyes. I wanted to say the polite thing—that he was wrong. Except he wasn’t. The problem was that he was right for the wrong reasons. I didn’t want anything to do with him, but it wasn’t because I saw him as an outsider.

Then I thought about the girl I’d walked in on him kissing at the party. Rich and Cade had a bit of a reputation as playboys before they’d settled down with Kira and Iris, respectively, but Nick never seemed like that kind of guy. Recently, he’d been seen around town with a new woman every week, so I shouldn’t have even been surprised when I walked in on him kissing that girl at the party. Maybe some stupidly innocent part of me was hurt because he’d told me he was single—almost like he was hinting that he wanted to try to make something happen between us.

Whether I wanted that something to happen or not, I didn’t know how to feel about being misled. For all I knew, he’d met the girl after he told me he was single, but even that felt strange. Was it that easy for him? And if it was, why had I been putting the idea of dating him on some forbidden pedestal for so long? I guessed kissing one woman didn’t make him a playboy, either, but it made it harder to believe the rumors that he wasn’t actually sleeping with any of the women he dated.

“Well, not everybody wants to avoid you.” I hoped I didn’t sound too bitter. I wanted to kick myself