Anyone But Nick (Anyone But... #3) - Penelope Bloom Page 0,9

me to be so damn perfect all the time. I could barely remember how it had all started anymore. All I knew was that somewhere along the way, it had stopped feeling like me. It was more like getting caught up in a current and realizing I’d been carried so far from where I’d started that the only thing to do was continue floating along. And now I could hardly order a hamburger without imagining the sarcastic jokes they’d make. They’d assume I was having a mental breakdown if I skipped a workout or had a stain on my clothes. I’d been so damn predictable and seemingly perfect for so long that the town of West Valley would’ve ground to a halt if I slipped up.

Get ahold of yourself, Miranda. I took a few more deep breaths—minus the pretzel bag, this time—and tried to shake the nerves out. I knew I was putting too much thought into it. I always did. It wasn’t that everybody else had me in a cage. I’d put myself there, but it had been so long ago that I had no hope of finding the key anymore.

By the time I made it out of the lobby and passed the elevators, I was composed and focused again. If there was one thing I was good at, it was compartmentalization. Like a kid shoving her toys into the closet until the doors barely shut, I scooped up all my insecurities and stuffed them in a dark corner of my brain. I even used the mental equivalent of the old jump-rope-around-the-doorknobs trick, just to be safe.

I was me again. Calm, focused, and ready to kick ass. Except I nearly collided with Cade King as I turned the corner toward the restrooms.

“Whoa,” Cade said. “I guess I lose the bet.”

“What are you talking about? No—” I closed my eyes and tried to gather myself. “Better question. What are you doing here?”

Cade squinted. “Like in an existential sense? I guess I’m just trying to leave the world a little less uptight than I found it. You know, fighting the good fight—pulling sticks out of asses. Speaking of which, do you want any help with that?” He actually had the nerve to lean to the side, as if he were trying to look for a stick jutting out of my ass. “It’s in there pretty deep. Might even be a two-man job, but if you push and I pull, I think we could—”

I jabbed my finger in his chest. “I’m about to have a very important interview, and I don’t need you messing with me right now.”

“Interesting,” he said. He leaned forward and sniffed slightly. “You smell aroused. Why is that? Why do you reek of . . . passion?” He made a show of thinking deeply, scratching his chin and furrowing his eyebrows. “I know it’s not because of me. And I saw Nick sneak into that room with you a few minutes ago, presumably alone. Miranda!” he said suddenly in exaggerated shock. “Your buttons aren’t even done up properly, you harlot.”

I glanced down and remembered I wasn’t wearing anything with buttons. “Could you please move? I really have to pee.”

“Somebody with a guilt-free conscience wouldn’t have had to check their buttons, you know. Just a thought.” He wandered past me, whistling obnoxiously.

I used the bathroom and then saw Cade was sitting in the lobby once I came back out. He was watching something loud on his phone with a disinterested look on his face. He glanced up at the sound of my footsteps, shot me a thumbs-up and a wink, then went back to focusing on his phone.

Unbelievable.

I stopped outside Dan’s door again. I wished I could say I was more calm and collected, but now my thoughts were buzzing with questions. I’d been so confused by Nick barging into the conference room that I hadn’t thought to wonder what he was doing at Bark Bites. Seeing Cade made me even more curious. Were the King brothers planning to acquire Bark Bites, even though it was a fraction of the size of the companies they typically looked for?

I raised my hand to knock, but the door opened before I could. Dan Snyder, the president of Bark Bites, shot me a sheepish look and then walked straight past me. I watched after him, openmouthed and searching for the right words.

“Come in,” a man’s voice called from inside Dan’s office.

I slowly stepped inside. My blood turned cold when I saw who