Finding Mr. Write (Business of Love #5) - Ali Parker Page 0,72

one of the black leather chairs outside my gate.

What would I say to her when I caught up to her? Was there an apology good enough to earn her trust back? At this point, I felt like I was the one who had apologizing to do, and she had forgiven me. Sure, she’d slipped up with my name to a co-worker and there were going to be repercussions for that, but I’d way rather face those and have her by my side than keep my anonymity and live without her.

I loved her.

Plain and simple.

And I wasn’t going to let her go this easily. With any luck, she wouldn’t want to let me go either.

Chapter 31

Briar

On the other side of the closed door of my old bedroom and down the hall, I could hear Riley and Madison talking quietly in the kitchen. I knew they were talking about me and my sudden return, most likely theorizing about all the gritty details of what went wrong and how I hadn’t been able to hack it in New York City, just like they always thought I never would.

It turned out they were right.

New York City broke my heart in half like it was snapping a dry, weak, thin, frail twig.

Snap.

Part of me knew I was blaming an entire city for the hurt that a single man had caused, but I wasn’t quite willing to admit that the only man I’d ever fallen in love with had kicked me to the curb, almost literally.

The fact that I’d hurt him first didn’t make this any easier. The guilt was crippling. I thought when I got back to Waynesville that some of the guilt might have begun to ebb away. I was sorely mistaken. The distance and change of scenery did nothing to make me feel less shitty for spilling the beans to Callie and potentially jeopardizing Wes’s hard-earned privacy.

A knock on the door made me wipe fresh tears away. “Come in.”

Riley opened the door wide enough to poke her head in my room. She smiled at me. “It’s up to you if you want some more time to yourself, but Madison and I are going to sit on the sofa and eat spring rolls and cheese and crackers. We have some of that jelly you like so much. Want to join us?”

I nodded.

Sitting around by myself wasn’t making me feel any better.

I got up from the edge of the bed and followed Riley down the hall to the living room, where Madison was setting up a smorgasbord of food on the ottoman/coffee table. It smelled like Thai dipping sauce and Chinese food, which I knew was just the spring rolls which were fresh out of the oven and perfectly crispy on the outsides. I took a seat on the sofa before sliding off of it to sit on the floor with my legs out in front of me and the sofa at my back.

The girls sat around the ottoman and began picking at the food.

I hadn’t eaten all day and my hunger pangs had finally caught up with me. I knew I needed to eat something and it would probably make me feel better. My heart might be empty, but my belly didn’t have to be.

“How are you feeling?” Madison asked.

“Embarrassed.”

Madison and Riley shared a look.

Riley leaned over and put her hand on my shin. “Why do you feel embarrassed, babe?

I shrugged and crammed half a spring roll in my mouth. “Because,” I said weakly, “I failed. New York was supposed to be my future. I never imagined a scenario where I’d come back here unless it was to visit you guys or my family. Like for the holidays or something. But I hardly made it two weeks. I’m a big fat failure.”

“Don’t say that,” Madison said.

“You’re not a failure,” Riley said. “Some dreams are just really big, babe. Too big. There’s nothing wrong with admitting you aimed a little too high. But look at it this way. Now you get to pick a new dream and we can all stay together here in Waynesville. That’s not so bad, right?”

My chest tightened. “I guess not.”

Riley laughed dryly. “Way to make us feel special.”

“I’m sorry.”

Madison waved it off. “You need to grieve in order to move on. Don’t be sorry. Maybe when you’re ready, Riley and I can finally talk to our boss at Strut and see if there’s room to bring you onto the team. I know you’d really like it. Everyone’s really nice and