Provoke_ A Seaside Pictures Novella (Seaside Pictures #3.7) - Rachel Van Dyken Page 0,27
vision. How was I supposed to help Braden if I couldn’t even help myself?
After about ten minutes of sniffling against his bare skin, I pulled back and blurted, “I got fired.”
“What?” he roared. “How? Why?”
“Pictures of us kissing.” I shrugged. “I overstepped. The company can’t associate with an employee who basically sets fire to the rules about client and employee relationships.”
His face fell. “I pushed you, I pushed this. It’s my fault.”
I slugged him in the arm. “Trust me, I was very willing.”
He pulled me in for a hug. “Please tell me you’ll stay anyways.”
I sobered. “I don’t know, Braden. Technically, I’m not your life coach anymore—”
He put a finger to my lips and whispered, “You’re right. Now I’m yours.”
Stunned, I could only stare at him, but he just grinned and pulled me to my feet.
“Some really smart, sexy woman once told me to think about what happens when you lose your passion, or maybe even your way.” He led me over to the art supplies and pulled out a piece of white poster board. “I think it’s about damn time you create a new one. Just promise me I’ll be part of it.”
I kissed him so hard he fell against the glitter.
He flashed me a wicked grin and then devoured my mouth, pulling back only to say, “Maybe this will be the best thing that’s ever happened to you.”
“Being jobless and homeless?”
“We’ll figure it out. And fun fact, you’re sort of kicking back with a guy who’s worth like fifty million dollars, give or take a few million when I like to buy a new car. I think you’re gonna be just fine.”
I frowned. “I can’t mooch off you!”
“Sharing. Say it with me, we’re sharing. Plus, it looks like you owe me another fifteen days, and I owe you the same. You’re not going anywhere, Coach.” He brushed a gentle kiss across my lips and whispered, “You’re mine.”
Chapter Eleven
Braden
I felt so horrible that she got fired that I instantly went into fix-it mode, but I knew I couldn’t fix it. And I was part of the reason it’d happened to begin with, so all I could do was support her and help guide her along. In that moment, I realized that was exactly what she’d been doing for me. Guiding me, helping me figure things out. She’d been the rock I needed, the person who pushed me. She didn’t judge me, she prodded me regardless of how much I pushed back. So when I suggested she make a new vision board, I figured she’d push like I did.
Instead, she held out her hand and said, “Give me the glitter.”
“Roger.” I handed it to her and then tossed her the glue stick. “So, what’s first?” We had magazines all around us, books, newspaper clippings, crafts, letters. Basically, like a scrapbook store had shit itself on my favorite table. But it was for her, and I didn’t care.
She stared down at the board, and then I saw real fear, panic. I quickly squeezed her hand. “Hey, hey, this doesn’t mean you can’t change your board later. Maybe you just put down something you want to keep doing.”
“Helping.” She inhaled slowly. “I still want to help people.”
“Good. Maybe you write that in glitter to get started, and then we come back to it.”
“Okay.” She did exactly that, making my board look horrendous in comparison. And then she grabbed a little picture of a puppy that was in a magazine and glued it to the board.
“Um, should I be insulted that you put a puppy on there before my face?”
I was literally on the cover of Teen Beat sitting next to her.
“Rock star’s got an ego.”
“My face is next to your hand!” I pointed out.
She laughed and then eyed the magazine. “Yeah but it’s not the best picture of you. I mean, my vision board has to be pretty.”
I gasped. “Did you just call me ugly?”
She leveled me with a cool stare as she very slowly walked over to me and picked up a pink marker then straight up drew on my arm. “Sexy.”
“I may tattoo that,” I whispered. “Since it’s technically the only space I have left.”
“Ah, so people don’t walk up to you and go ‘I wonder if he’s good-looking or not. Oh thank God he wrote it down!’”
“Hilarious.”
“I thought so.” She tossed me the marker. “All right, so now what?”
I ran over to the window and looked outside in a panic.
She chased after me. “What? Is there going to be