Finding Mr. Write (Business of Love #5) - Ali Parker Page 0,74

to my feet and padded barefoot past the kitchen to the front door. I could have looked through the peephole, but I assumed it was a neighbor asking to borrow sugar or a hammer or something. That kind of thing happened a lot in this apartment complex.

It was not one of our neighbors.

I found myself staring at Wes.

He stood on the threshold with his hands in his pockets and an unsure smile playing on his lips. My heart skipped a beat at the sight of him and I tried to speak but no words came.

“Hey,” he said softly. “Do you have a minute?”

Yes.

I still couldn’t speak, so I simply nodded.

Riley and Madison rallied around me.

“Is this the guy?” Madison asked sharply, giving Wes a sweeping up-down look.

“What are you doing here?” Riley asked sharply

Wes’s gaze flicked briefly to my friends. “I have to speak with Briar. Privately.”

Riley puffed out her chest like a mating bird. “Whatever you have to say to Briar, you can say in front of us.”

My cheeks burned with horror.

Wes arched an eyebrow. “Fine.” He straightened and turned his full and undivided attention on me. His gaze was intense and sharp, and I found myself wishing I could lean into him. I wished that we were alone. “Briar, I regret how I handled things when you told me about your co-worker and the journalist. I reacted out of impulse. I was angry and confused, and I felt betrayed. I took it personally and I blamed you for a lot of things other people have done to me in the past. And that wasn’t fair of me.”

My heart raced and my chest swelled. Was this really happening? Had he flown all the way out here to tell me this?

“I went to your apartment this morning to apologize but Sonia told me you came home. I never wanted to chase you away, Briar. I want you as close to me as possible. I’ve changed for the better since I met you. I like who I am with you. And I don’t want to hide anymore. I want to plant my feet and tell the world who I am and make it clear what I want.”

My voice trembled, but I finally managed to speak. “And what is it that you want, Wes?”

“Isn’t that obvious?” he whispered.

I shook my head.

He stepped toward me. “You, Briar. I want you.”

Chapter 32

Wes

Briar’s friends hovered over both her shoulders like two little devils. Not one angel and one devil. Two devils. They looked at me like they wanted to take a bite out of me—or push me down the stairs. Meanwhile, Briar stood with her arms hanging slack at her sides staring at me like she’d seen a ghost.

Albeit, a ghost she was happy to see.

I hoped.

Briar inched closer to the silver strip separating the hallway carpet from the hardwood floors of the apartment. “You came all this way to tell me that?”

I nodded. I was still out of breath from the mad dash up the stairs to her unit, and I had no intention of telling her how many neighbors’ doors I’d knocked on trying to track her down. When I’d knocked on this door, I hadn’t even known if she was going to answer it or if I had more floors to climb and more doors to bang upon.

Lucky for me, the search was over.

“I didn’t want to do this over the phone,” I said.

Her friends leaned backward so they could whisper between themselves. Briar either didn’t hear them or she deliberately ignored them.

“I thought you’d never want to see me again,” she said.

“I hate to think about what a life without you would be like,” I said.

Her friends continued muttering, and had I not been trying to win over the woman in front of me, I might have had half a mind to tell them to mind their own damn business.

Briar smiled at me. “Are you hungry?”

“Pardon?”

“Are you hungry?” she asked again.

One of her friends, a dark-haired tall girl who was quite beautiful, tugged on Briar’s sleeve. “You can’t just invite him in after what he did. You have to make him earn it.”

“Yeah,” the blonde added. “Don’t make it too easy for him.”

“Hush,” Briar said, that smile still lingering on her lips. “We don’t have to stay here. Let’s go someplace and sit down. Just me and you,” she added like this was necessary information I needed to hear.

I was surprised but not going to let the opportunity pass me by.