Anyone But Nick (Anyone But... #3) - Penelope Bloom Page 0,4

back to West Valley, he’d practically gone straight from the plane to Kira’s school and tried to apologize for what had happened seven years ago. Cade hadn’t been in as much of a hurry, but he’d still found his way back to Iris. Nick, on the other hand, had avoided me like the plague.

That didn’t normally bother me, but I guessed I was feeling a little sorry for myself, considering the events of the last twenty-four hours. I’d broken up with the boyfriend everybody thought was perfect for me and lost the job everyone thought I was amazing at.

I might not have been certain of a whole lot at the moment, but I knew one thing: all I wanted was for things to go back to normal, even if I was starting to have more and more trouble figuring out what normal was.

“Hmm,” Rich said. He was watching me with an annoyingly perceptive expression, like he knew exactly how not fine I was. He pointed to my hands. “It looks like you’re thinking about taking that poor water bottle into the bathroom and interrogating it.”

I relaxed my grip on the bottle. “I’ve been better,” I said. “But, no offense, it’s not something I really want to talk about.”

“Just remember that it’s not good to bottle it up forever. You’ve got me, Kira, Iris, and even Cade—if you feel like venting to a brick wall that spits out bad puns and laughs at its own jokes, that is.”

I smirked. As if on cue, Cade grew considerably louder. Both Rich and I stopped talking to look toward him.

Cade’s palms were pressed together, and he was doing some kind of swimming motion, maybe still imitating a snake. Kira was pressing her hand to her forehead, and Iris was watching with a confused expression.

“Do you mind apologizing to everyone for me?” I asked Rich. “I’ve got a big day tomorrow. I think it’d be best if I head home and get some sleep.”

He watched me with a funny expression. “You sure everything is okay? Aside from the obvious issues, I mean.”

“Fine,” I said, and then I laughed after a short pause. “And that’s not code. Really, I’m fine.”

But I couldn’t help thinking how far from fine I was as I headed out of the bowling alley. I didn’t let myself dwell on any of that. All I had to do was what I’d always done. Look forward. Focus on working my ass off and chasing my goal, even when the thought made me want to curl up and aggressively breathe into a paper bag.

I can do this.

The only slight hitch in my plan was my friends would all laugh their asses off when they found out where I was planning to interview tomorrow.

Chapter 2

NICK

Everybody lived for something. Some spent their whole lives searching for that something; others found it but never quite reached it. I’d found mine a long time ago, and I woke up every day hoping for another taste. I lived for a challenge. It was my drug. When I was younger, it had been enough to find something hard and overcome it.

I’d always been clever, and that let me overpower almost every obstacle I’d come across. Then I realized it wasn’t enough to just overcome the obstacles. There were countless ways to get through a locked door, but only one perfect way: the key. My addiction evolved until it wasn’t enough to succeed. I had to succeed in a clean, precise way. A perfect way.

Take my man-child of a brother, Cade. Keeping him alive was a challenge that probably should’ve required a full-time staff of handlers and experts. It probably should’ve also required specialized tools like cattle prods and traps to keep him under control during his more adventurous moments. But it was technically a task that could be accomplished in any number of ways.

I believed there was a perfect solution to every challenge. Finding it was what gave me a rush. I loved the process of searching for the secret, whether it was subtly convincing my brother it was actually a bad idea to ride a shark—yes, even if he was wearing full-body chain mail—or finding the one faulty cog in the complicated machinery of a failing company.

I craved the perfect solution. Precision. There was a kind of poetry in the efficiency of doing something just right—without an ounce more or less effort than was required.

My brothers and I owned a company called Sion, and our work was all about