Worth the Risk(57)

“Yeah, right,” I say through a nervous laugh.

“You better not be; besides, I think the town would turn against me if I went after him. They love the idea of you two together. Hometown hero who was wronged by his ex and the popular prom queen who returns to reunite with her long-lost crush.”

“Oh Jesus.”

“That’s what’s being said on the streets.”

“You mean on Main Street.” I glance back out of the window and shake my head before looking back at her. “And I’m sure you have absolutely no part in the spreading of these new rumors.”

“Who me? Never.” I can’t tell if she’s being serious or not. “All I did was get the ball rolling. You’re the one who pushed it downhill with that kiss. But I will tell you that the gossip hens in this town are already secretly planning your wedding.”

“Yeah, well, that is not going to happen,” I say as that unsettled feeling hits me again. The same one that hit me when he left my house. The same one that got stronger each time my phone rang and it wasn’t him. I know that isn’t what she means. I know Rissa is playing in her pretend world, so I go along with it.

“Oh my God! Could you imagine the story we could do if that happened? Modern Family’s hot dad contest nets him a wife.” She holds her hands up like she’s reading the words off a billboard.

“You need help.”

“Nope. It’s you who’s going to need help if he ever acts on the look he gets in his eye when he watches you. Pure lusty sexiness.” She wiggles her shoulders for emphasis, and I roll my eyes at her.

“I’m going back to work now.” I turn to my social media account to check my ad statistics where click-through rates and impressions and organic reach figures litter the page.

“And I want to know why you aren’t acting on it.”

I sigh in exasperation and lean back in my chair, turning my head her way. “Didn’t we just talk about why? My father. His rules. Bias?”

“So, you do want a little something from Malone.”

I just walked right into that one.

“It’s complicated.” Great answer, Sidney. Way to shoot her down.

“Everything good is.”

Don’t I know it? Grayson’s groan fills my ears. The way he bit into his bottom lip as he came owns my mind. “Leave it be, Rissa.”

“You’ve seen him, right? Six feet plus. Nice ass. Great smile. Sexy as sin. Hell, you’re the one who wrote his bio. You know all about that fine package.” Package. I gulp down the laugh that bubbles up and will the flush on my cheeks to go away. “So, why don’t you want to act on it when he’s there for the taking?”

“Uh-huh.”

Leave.

It.

Be.

I’ve been on cloud nine since he left my house. Cloud fricking nine. Regardless of how many times I’ve told myself it’s just because the sex was incredible, I still don’t buy it. I’m obsessing. Over him. Over wanting him again. Over telling myself it was just sex.

One time.

Well, technically two times . . . but that was all it was.

Sex.

Not love.

“Sometimes rules need to be broken. Sometimes that’s the answer you’re looking for,” she says after a few moments and has me freezing mid-motion as a myriad of consequences flicker through my mind, one more than all others. “What is it you’re afraid to lose if you act on it and sleep with him? Dreaming about that big job at Haute, were you?”

I do a double take. Did I accidentally say that aloud? “How did you know about that?”

“I figured it out.” She shrugs. “There’s no reason you’d accept a job here at a parenting magazine unless there was a serious upside to it for you. A week before you showed up, I heard rumors about the editor-in-chief position at Haute possibly coming up for grabs next year and figured that was what you were aiming for.”

“How did you hear that?”

“I keep tabs on positions within the company . . . I never know when I might want to live the high-journalism life again,” she says and winks.

“Keeping your options open is always a good idea.”

She looks outside at the kids who are getting off the bus and falls silent for a moment, her voice quiet when she speaks again. “Do you miss it?”

“Miss what?”

“Your old life. Your high heels that are meant for fancy nightclubs instead of the Main Street sidewalks of Sunnyville. The city life. The smells and the sounds of it.” She laughs, but it’s small and almost wistful. “That’s what I miss the most about working for The Post. How the city would come to life. The galas and the functions and the hobnobbing, even though none of them trusted me not to put their words on the record.”

“My life isn’t as glamorous as everyone thinks it is.” I say the words but, sometimes, it actually was. They all acted as if that part of my life was something I couldn’t be without. Yes, I loved the galas and the functions and the social parts of my job, but I could take them or leave them most nights.

“Oh, shush, and let this divorced mother pretend that it’s everything I think it is.”

“Okay.” I smile when I look at her. Her hair might be pulled back in a clip, and her lipstick may have faded with the hours of the day, but I can see how she once fit into that life. “In the meantime, I’ll be over here, trying to figure out how to make the next round of voting that much more spectacular.”