Waiting For It - Allyson Lindt Page 0,41

looked more like barely controlled anger.

“When Chase realized what was going on, he went out of his way to make sure you ate,” Luke said in understanding. “Hard to compete with that.”

“I thought you both agreed this wasn’t a competition. Besides, I lo... ike you for different reasons.” That was almost bad. I didn’t want to linger in the dark anymore. “Anyway, if Disney ever writes a gamer geek princess, they totally stole the idea from my life story.”

Chase relaxed a little, but he still sat stiffly. “Can you imagine Pixar basing something on our lives?”

“Pretty sure I’ve seen that on Smut Central.” Luke’s cheer sounded forced.

The conversation drifted toward light and playful, but the long week caught up to me earlier than I expected. I stayed awake as long as I could, but the next thing I knew, I was waking up fully clothed and tangled with Chase and Luke.

There was a text message waiting for me, from Sadie. Please talk to me. I’m sorry.

Chase rested his chin on my shoulder. “Don’t be mad at her because of me. She’s your sister.”

Anne’s part of our family, his words from last night rang in my thoughts.

“Go call her,” Luke chimed in. “We’ve got time.”

I didn’t want company for this conversation. Luke and Chase would give me privacy, but I needed a little extra space. I grabbed my key, made sure I was presentable for the public, and headed into the hallway. I walked as I dialed and waited for Sadie to answer.

“I’m sorry,” she said when she picked up. “For diminishing your feelings, for telling you that you were wrong, and for giving you a bad haircut.”

“Way to take the oomf out of any speech I had planned.” Not that I’d had any idea what to say. “And you haven’t cut my hair since eighth grade.”

“It was a really bad haircut. I’m really sorry.”

I stepped into the lobby when the doors slid open. “It hurt. A lot. What you said, not the haircut.” I planned to forgive her, but she wasn’t walking away without me saying my bit. “I’ve always looked up to you. Even now. And to have you dismiss me like that...”

“Why?” Sadie asked. “I’m touched, but I’m a shitty role model.”

“You never hesitate or doubt yourself.”

Sadie laughed dryly. “I doubt myself all the time, and I make my share of mistakes.”

“But it doesn’t stop you from doing. You always act.” I leaned against a nearby pillar, tucked away from view.

“And you’re smart about the decisions you make. You think things through. You weigh the consequences. Don’t be me. I love you for you.”

Same thing I’d told Chase and Luke last night. “It sounds pretty smart when you put it that way.”

“Because I’m brilliant,” Sadie said. “Forgive me, please?”

“I do.”

“Good.” Cheer slipped into her voice. “As soon as you have days off again, movie marathon. Your choice. I’m buying... whatever we need.”

“It’s a date. Talk to you soon.” I felt better as I disconnected. It sucked, not talking to my friends.

My concerns from the flight were back. If this was how badly friendships could deteriorate after one argument with Chase, what would happen if we hooked up again and our relationship went even further south? I couldn’t handle that.

I headed back upstairs, and the guys and I rotated through the shower, getting ready for our days. The one thing I wouldn’t miss about this trip was sharing a bathroom.

My goal for the day was to find out how much additional damage Mike had done. I had a strong suspicion he was behind a few of the delays we had with programming, but if I could prove it, it would also give us a direction to go toward fixing things more quickly

I settled in to work next to Luke, in the conference room. It was bittersweet, swapping conversation and jokes with him like we’d always done, but knowing that more was possible if I was willing to risk it. I didn’t know if I was.

Based on what we found yesterday, I asked Zane to have his team compare all the timestamps from when files were modified from this building, versus when people were in it. He had a list to me by midmorning, and I started working my way through it.

New problem—for every file change on the list, the history that came before it had been deleted. There was no way to roll back or recover anything that was changed.

Fuck. I sank back in my chair, pulling my attention