Anyone But Nick (Anyone But... #3) - Penelope Bloom Page 0,69

to see what happened? Did I pounce on them while they were still so strong? Or did I shelve them entirely and focus on my career? Now that my options felt like they’d been stripped from me, the answer seemed so obvious it hurt.

I cared about Nick. I always had. Even when I’d been telling myself I hated him and was happy I’d sworn the oath to stay away from him, I’d still wanted him. The oath was just a defense mechanism. It had let me think the reason we weren’t together was because I’d decided we wouldn’t be. I hadn’t had to face the fact that I was too scared to put my feelings out there for him and the idea that he might not feel the same way about me.

But now I knew he did. It was all right in front of me, and the only thing that had been left to do was reach out and take it. Except I’d waited too long. Again.

There was one option in the entire mess that might work for both of us, though. It was far from ideal, and I knew Nick wouldn’t approve. I had a feeling he was going to tell me to let Max run the story and promise he’d take care of the damage.

I wasn’t going to let that happen. I could fix this. I just needed a little time.

Chapter 20

NICK

I got tired of waiting for Miranda to stop pretending she wasn’t feeling well around dinnertime. I reasoned that five hours was plenty of time for her to decompress. If she really wasn’t feeling well, she would need to be checked on, anyway.

I knocked on her door and waited. And waited.

It took me five minutes before I peeked through the windows. I felt my stomach drop when I saw the room had been cleaned out. All her stuff was gone. I staggered backward and slumped down, racking my brain for an idea.

She was almost certainly trying to go to LA. The part I didn’t know was why. I fired off a text asking what was going on, even though I suspected she was planning on doing something she knew I wouldn’t like, or else she wouldn’t have sneaked off like this.

I looked up Robbie’s business and found the address. She’d probably be headed there. All I needed was to somehow intercept her before she got there and did anything stupid. I couldn’t imagine she’d offer to get back together with him, even to stop Max from running his story. But I was worried he’d try something. God, I was worried.

I called Cade.

“I’m naked, unless nipple clamps count as clothing. Wait, didn’t we have a debate on this once? I can’t remember what we decided on.”

“We decided you didn’t need to brief me on the amount of clothes you were wearing every time you picked up the phone.”

There was a short pause. “Oh. Right. Well, what did you need?”

“Can I use your helicopter?”

“I was planning on getting burritos when Iris and I finished up here. How am I supposed to get burritos without a helicopter?”

“I don’t know, a car? Call delivery? Pretend you’re a normal person for once in your life?”

He let out a long, dramatic sigh. “Yes. You can use the helicopter. The pilot said he’d be at the bowling alley. Apparently, he was going to go pro, but then he had some kind of butt cheek injury that screwed up his ability to put spin on—”

“Cade,” I said. “Thanks.” I hung up the phone.

Unfortunately, I got the tail end of the butt cheek story from the pilot himself while I walked him up from the bowling alley to the field where he’d parked the helicopter.

Flying cross country in a helicopter was hardly practical, so I used the flight to arrange for an airplane to take me the rest of the way. I wasn’t sure how I’d find Miranda if she didn’t want to be found, but if I got to LA before her, I’d at least know where she’d turn up eventually. All I’d have to do was wait.

Chapter 21

MIRANDA

The woman beside me on my flight gave me the third death glare in five minutes. I smiled tightly and squeezed my knees, hoping to keep my legs from shaking, but it was no use. They were shaking so badly that the little tray table in front of me kept getting jostled. I was a nervous wreck. It had finally seemed like my life was starting to