Beauty and the Billionaire (Billionaire Boys Club #2)(76)

Because he’d f**ked it up. He’d had a woman—a smart, funny, beautiful woman who loved him for him and didn’t give a shit about his hideous face—and he’d somehow driven her away.

He’d been so utterly convinced that he was unlovable that he’d pushed away the only person who had given him kindness and affection. He’d been so broken that he automatically assumed the worst.

But he needed Gretchen. And he’d do anything to have her return to his side. “How do I get her back?”

“Groveling,” Logan pointed out. “Take it from me. Lots of groveling.”

Audrey’s lips quirked in a hint of a smile. “That’s a start.”

Chapter 14

Gretchen turned the page in her paperback and reached for another Kleenex, weeping.

“You okay?” To her side, Cooper was scooping out coffee beans to put into the grinder. He gave her a concerned look.

“Yeah.” She sniffed and waved the paperback. “It’s just my book.”

“Sad ending?”

“Something like that,” she mumbled, dog-earing the page and tucking the book under the counter. Actually, it was a romance. Audrey read the darn things like crazy, and her house had been full of them. Gretchen had picked one up on a whim and then been unable to stop reading them. The stories were so perfect. Even though bad things happened to the hero and her**ne, everything would turn out okay in the end. They always did. She’d teared up when the hero had admitted love for the her**ne, and then the her**ne had joyfully exclaimed that she’d loved him back as they’d galloped on horseback to the hero’s castle. The epilogue was full of sweet cuddling and hints of future babies. It was saccharine and ridiculous.

And she could not stop crying over it.

Her own relationship? Hadn’t exactly been that clean cut, that fairy-tale wonderful. She’d gotten the admission of love, but she’d chickened out. Of course, then her Prince Charming had accused her of wanting him for his money, and more or less called her a gold-digging slut.

Strange how being called a whore by the man you loved tended to hurt so much, she thought wryly.

Gretchen opened up the back of the glass pastry counter and began to add some of the fresh-baked cookies she’d made to the decorative plates in the front. Some things just didn’t work out like the stories, she supposed. Some people were too damaged.

Even as she thought it, she scowled. There was no reason for her to be thinking like that. The only thing damaged on Hunter was his damn pride.

Gretchen picked off a wedge of broken cookie and tossed it in the garbage. Hunter needed to get over that hang-up about his face and come to terms with the fact that not everyone was out to get him. He needed to learn how to trust people.

“You sure you’re okay?” Cooper said, coming to her side. He patted her shoulder awkwardly, then dropped his hand. “I hate seeing you so unhappy.”

“I’m fine, really,” she told him, but couldn’t force a cheerful smile to her mouth. Things were still awkward with Cooper. She’d come back to work because she needed money—though not badly enough to beg druggie Daphne—and because she was driving Audrey crazy after a week of lounging on her couch in her pajamas. Even Igor seemed to be giving her cranky looks.

But Cooper was still hovering in a way that made Gretchen edgy. Any minute now, she expected to turn around and see him ready to confess his love again. They were nothing but friends, but—

“Gretchen,” Cooper began, his voice soft.

She squeezed her eyes shut. “Oh, Cooper, please don’t—”

“I know,” he said quickly. “I know. It’s weird between us right now, isn’t it? I should have never said anything.”

He sounded so unhappy with himself that she winced. “It’s not that, Cooper. I just . . . wish we could go back to the way things were before, you know?”

“Before I gave you my heart and you stomped it to pieces?”

Gretchen turned, her eyes wide in shock. “I—”

“I’m kidding,” he said with a sheepish grin. “I’ll be honest, I wish things could be different between you and me. But even what we had before was better than what we have now. I know you don’t care for me the way I care for you. And that’s fine, Gretchen. But it hurts me that we can’t even be friends anymore. I’d rather we acknowledge the problem, move past it, and get back to being just Gretchen and Cooper.”

Her eyes began to water again, and she sniffed, reaching for the wads of Kleenex she had stuffed in her apron. “I’m so sorry, Coop.”

“Hey,” he said softly. “Don’t apologize.” He reached out and pulled her into a friendly, warm hug. “I’m sorry I got all weird on you when you needed a friend the most.”

She wrapped her arms around him, sniffing hard. “You’re such a good friend. I’m not normally this emotional.”

“I know,” he said dryly, rubbing a hand up and down her back.

She clung to him for a moment, enjoying the hug and the simple comfort of a friend. “I’m glad that we’re going to go back to just being Gretchen and Coop,” she mumbled against his shoulder. “And I’m sorry I didn’t fall in love with you. If I could have picked to fall in love with someone, it would have been you.”