Anyone But Nick (Anyone But... #3) - Penelope Bloom Page 0,67

drink, partly to cover my face a little. “Life didn’t go exactly as I planned, so I guess I had to change and adapt.”

“What part weren’t you planning for?”

Letting you slip through my fingers. “You know . . . You said there’s nothing I can’t have at the snap of my fingers, but that’s not entirely true. There is something I never managed to get, even though I wanted it more than anything. Are you implying I should try snapping my fingers and seeing if she comes?”

She drew her eyebrows together in confusion, then her cheeks went red. “Unless she’s a dog, I don’t know if that would work. It might take more work to get her to come than that.”

“Somehow, I don’t think making her come would feel like work at all.”

Miranda nearly choked on the sip of her drink she was taking.

I watched her, barely containing the urge to reach across the table for her hand.

“You never answered my question,” she said a little awkwardly. She was clearly trying to change the subject. “What gets you out of the bed in the morning? Is it really just trying to make more money?”

“No. At this point, my brothers and I donate almost everything we earn. I couldn’t spend a billion dollars in a lifetime, let alone several billion. I also have no interest in hoarding a giant pile of money to create a legacy of entitled children. I enjoy the work, and if I can take the money and do something good with it, then I see no reason to slow down.”

“So you do want children?” she asked.

I nodded. “Eventually, but only if I find the right person to have them with. Then again, I wonder if anyone ever really knows.”

“I’ve always thought it’s like those kid toys. A circle fits in a circle-shaped hole and so on. And when you find the right hole, it just fits.”

“Hmm,” I said. “Why does that sound vaguely sexual?”

She flashed a wicked smirk. “Maybe because you’re wondering if I could fit in your hole?” Miranda clapped a hand to her forehead. “Oh God. I’m terrible at flirting. I meant—”

I almost spit out the beer I’d just sipped. I coughed, then shook my head, smiling. “I feel like there’s no way to answer that question without compromising my . . . manhood. But I’ll say this: I have no way of knowing if we’re right for each other. Maybe it’s just feeling like I’ve wanted a chance with you for over seven years. I know what it feels like to regret missing an opportunity to be with you, and I don’t want to have to live with that again. I don’t know much more than that, except that I feel good when I’m around you. I feel like work isn’t everything. I don’t feel as lonely.”

She was biting her lip. “You mean all that?”

“Yes. Every word.”

“Oh God,” Miranda said. Her eyes were focused on something behind me.

I rolled my eyes in preparation for seeing Cade strolling toward us, but it wasn’t him. It was Max Frost, and he was wearing a smug expression I didn’t like one bit.

“Hey, kids,” he said. He grabbed a nearby chair and plopped it beside our table, then sat. “Yes, I survived the rabid bears, and I came back because my friend didn’t hear back from Miranda about his offer. He asked me to come clarify some things for you two.”

“I was holding Miranda last time I wanted to punch you,” I said. Then I showed him my very empty hands. “You sure you want to keep talking?” I was starting to develop a working theory on this situation with Max Frost and the person named Robbie he’d been on the phone with, and it wasn’t a theory I liked at all.

“You’ll want to hear this,” Max said. “So, that story I was working on was a little different than I led Miranda to believe. It was actually a piece about a spoiled playboy billionaire who forcefully took over a local company just so he could make a move on his old high school crush.”

I stared at him in disbelief. My heart was pounding, and my blood felt cold.

Shit.

I rapidly played through what he’d just said again and again, searching it for any holes. There didn’t seem to be any. He could very easily spin what had happened that way, and it would look horrible not just for me, but for Sion. Considering we were a company that