way,” he says, putting his hand on my lower back and ushering me to the bathroom at the end of the hall.
“Thank you.” Looking at him, I know I should find him hot. He is hot—blond hair, blue eyes, nice body—but it’s just like all the others. Nothing makes my heart flutter.
“I’ll wait for you here,” he says, and I just smile at him. I enter the bathroom and close the door. My head falls on the cold door as the tears escape my eyes. I close my eyes and let the tears fall down my cheeks.
“One of these days, it won’t hurt,” I whisper to myself. “One of these days.” Turning, I walk over to the sink and turn on the cold water. Wetting one of the brown paper towels that they have, I dab at my cheeks. I try to make myself presentable, but it’s obvious I was crying. Tossing the paper in the garbage, I take a deep breath and open the door, and Grady turns to face me from the middle of the room. His phone is in his hand, and he looks at me.
“Are you okay?” he asks softly, coming to stand in front of me.
“Yeah,” I say, looking down and trying to think of something that isn’t as depressing as pining after the man who broke your heart and had a family with someone else.
He puts his hand on my arm. “It’s going to be okay, Kallie.” I look up and smile at him. “I promise that nothing will happen to you.”
I’m about to thank him for being kind. “Grady, you think you can join us in a meeting?” Jacob says from the doorway, and I look over at him. He stands there, and I want him to look horrible, but he doesn’t.
“I was waiting for Kallie,” Grady says. “We’re coming now.”
We walk back into the office, and I ignore the leers coming from Jacob. I also ignore looking at anything but my feet. I don’t know what is discussed. I can’t even tell you anything. The only thing I know is that the longer I stay in this room, the more I feel my skin crawling. “Let’s get out of here.” I hear Casey, and I’m the first one to turn and walk out of the room but not before I spot one more photograph.
It looks like it was taken right when his son was born. He has tears in his eyes as he holds the little pink baby in his arms swaddled in a white cover with his father beside him. I walk out of the room, and it’s almost as if something is choking me. “I can’t breathe.” I look over at Olivia, who looks frantic. “I just can’t,” I say, trying to catch my breath, but nothing is helping.
I count to ten and not even that helps. I stop halfway to the door, and I have to bend over. “What’s happening?” Grady asks.
“She’s having a panic attack,” Olivia hisses and comes over to me. “Just take in small breaths,” she says, rubbing my back, but I’m struggling even with that. My heart just races even more, and my hands start to tingle, which only means I’m going to go down soon.
“Chair,” I say between trying to get my heart to settle. I’m suddenly lifted in the air, and I think it’s Casey, but it’s not.
“Get a cold rag!” Jacob shouts, and I want to push away from him when he leads me to a chair in a common room. He sits me down and squats down in front of me. “You need breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth.”
“I think she knows how to breathe,” Casey hisses.
Olivia joins Jacob in front of me. “The beach,” she says, and I look at her. “Remember when we went to the beach, and I got a sunburn?” I try to smile, and my heart slows down. While Monica runs over with a rag and hands it to Jacob, who moves my hair to the side and puts it on my neck. “You told me to wear sunscreen.” Olivia tells the story. “I said I don’t need sunscreen, I’m from LA.” I shake my head now as my breathing finally returns to normal.
“You burned like a lobster,” I finish for her. I close my eyes, and my heart starts to slow down.
“She’s good,” Olivia says. I open my eyes, and all I can see is Jacob with worry all over his