The Fastest Way to Fall(93)

    “Wes and I have known each other for years. We’re close, and when you have a history like we do, successful business partnerships are only the beginning.”



I stared at the screen. The release included a photo of Wes and Kelsey from college. She was looking at the camera, but he was smiling at her, and it was his genuine smile, the one I’d thought of as mine. My heart stilled when another, more recent photo flashed on the screen. It was a selfie of the two of them, Wes’s smile more of a wry grin, but that wasn’t what held my attention. Scruff covered his square jaw—he’d told me after the wedding he never went out unshaven until I mentioned I liked it. That photo had been taken recently.

“It has to be a publicity stunt.” Kat shoved her phone back in her pocket.

His smile. I couldn’t get over him giving his genuine smile to her. “They dated,” I said in a small voice. “They dated for years. He wanted to marry her.”

I doubted all the things I thought I knew about him and me and our story. Was he interested in Kelsey that whole time?

RJ eyed the screen again. “Really?”

I nodded, nothing to add. The things he said . . . they felt real, they felt more real than anything I’ve ever experienced. I looked at the photo again, and my heart sank. I’d left Wes because I didn’t want to hurt his company— it could help so many people—but looking at him and Kelsey . . .

“Still. I’m sure it’s a publicity stunt,” RJ added.

“It might not be,” Del said, biting into the banana.

“Del!” Kat exclaimed, while RJ shoved him away.

“What? I’m not saying it’s right, but if he’d do that, you’re better off without him.”

Groaning, I sat back on the couch and folded into myself, hugging a pillow to my chest.

RJ snatched the pillow out of my arms, throwing it at Del. “We’re trying to make her feel better.”

“Hey!” I tried to snatch it back. “I need that. I’m sad.”

“You can be sad, but you’re done hiding.”

“I’m not hiding.”

RJ fixed me with another decisive stare. “You have crumbled-up cheese puffs all over your clothes, and your hair is at least fifty percent bird’s nest. You’re sitting in your apartment glued to the TV and stewing. You’re hiding.”

I rested my head on her shoulder. “What do I do?”

Del ventured into the conversation again. “Get back up. That’s what you said when my adviser told me to start over on a new research topic.”

“And it’s what you told me when I got in that fender bender and was so scared to drive again,” Kat said, sitting on my other side.

“And it’s what you told me after I slipped on the ice last January when we were running late for that movie.”

Kat and Del gave her wary looks, but RJ shrugged.

I grinned in response. “You wore impractical shoes. It was your own fault.”

“The lesson stands. Get back up.”

I leaned against my friend, surprised at everything she’d said. “I don’t know what to do, and I don’t know if I can.”

“Well, trust the people who know you best. You can,” Kat said, joining the hug with RJ. “Now, go shower.”

She shooed me off the couch, and I spread my arms to hug her and Kat before turning to Del. “You’re good friends.”

Del stopped me with a gentle palm to my forehead. “I will hug you when you’re not disgusting.”





56





KELSEY WALKED INTO my office without knocking. “Get my email?”

I’d been staring at it for a solid five minutes. I glanced up from the monitor and closed the browser window containing Kelsey’s statement and HottrYou’s post about her announcement. “What the hell was that?”

“What?” Kelsey grabbed a water bottle from her bag and sat back in the chair, crossing her legs. She looked bored, which gave my anger a more pointed edge. Against my better judgment, Cord and I had met with Kelsey after she’d texted me, and come to terms on a plan, but her smug expression reminded me of all the misgivings I’d had about it.

Cord slammed through the door of my office, features twisted in anger. “You implied our companies are merging?”

Kelsey rolled her eyes and took another sip from her bottle. “Calm down. We talked about this.”

Her dismissive smirk set my teeth on edge, and I pounded my fist on the table. “You might as well have announced to the world it was a done deal. We never agreed to that!”

She pulled out her phone and thumbed over the screen. “You needed your asses bailed out. Did you see the positive response to my announcement? I have three major outlets ready to run positive, scandal-free stories about FitMi. You should thank me.”

Cord paced. “We talked about you coming over as COO after you shut down coaching at HottrYou. That’s what we agreed to.”

She arched one eyebrow and shrugged.

“This is not happening, Kelsey. You need to put out a retraction.” I slammed my fist on the desk.

“Okay,” she said with an easy shrug of her shoulders.

I didn’t believe she’d cave so easily. “Okay?”