Take Three (The Jilted Bride #2)(66)

“You’re serious about me giving you a two million dollar check?”

“Did you seriously spend five million dollars of my money to build a beach?”

I sat in the board room for hours. I tried to think of ways to make things right with Selena’s mom and Sweet Seasons, how I could right some of the wrongs my company had committed against other bakeries across the country.

I went down to the records office, noticing that it was once again empty.

I didn’t wait to hear any signs of life. I walked back to the space behind the shelves and saw the same female employee from weeks ago eating another jelly donut and watching another TV show.

“Good afternoon,” I said and she immediately spun around.

“I swear I get my work done, Mr. Lockwood! You just always catch me at the wrong time! I only use my breaks to catch up on the drama!”

“Relax,” I laughed. “I’m sure you do. I’m going to be spending the next few days down here with you, okay? I’m working on a personal project and I really need your help.”

She blushed and dropped the donut to the floor.

“I need all the files on every expansion site we’ve ever done—all the ones where we ‘borrowed’ recipes from local businesses. I need all the shop owners’ names and numbers and we need to get in contact with all their former employees. Also, call the intern accounting team down here and tell them they’ll need to work side by side with us as well. We’ll need the information regarding each business’ profit and loss margin before and after we moved into town…Oh, and I’ll pay triple for any hours spent on this particular project.”

Chapter 27

Selena

Ryan Gosling ran onto my porch, startling me. He walked over to where I was, where I was painting over our last picture.

“You never signed the divorce papers, Melanie. I went down to the courthouse and they said you didn’t sign them. Are you trying to tell me something?” he asked.

I didn’t answer him. I kept painting.

“Melanie!” he stepped in front of my picture and took the brush from me. “I’m getting married in two hours and you haven’t signed our divorce papers… Since you haven’t signed the papers does that mean you—”

“Go away Jake!” I walked off the porch and ran into the rain, towards my Jeep.

I unlocked the door to my truck and felt his arm snake around my waist.

He spun me around and looked into my eyes. “Melanie, why didn’t you sign the divorce papers?”

“Because even though you lied to me and I want you to be miserable for as long as possible, I’m still in love with you,” I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him.

“Cut!” the director jumped out of his seat and ran over to me. “Selena, what the hell was that? You’re supposed to say ‘Because I’m still in love with you.’ That’s it. Where is that other stuff coming from?”

“I’m so sorry, Mr. Hines. I didn’t realize I was—”

“His character never lied to you,” he backed away. “Let’s do the rain kiss again! Quiet on the set! Sweet Tennessee, Scene twenty five, take three!”

“Selena,” my mom handed me a box of Kleenex. “How long do you think you’re going to be upset?”

“Forever.”

“I hope not. That’s not healthy…Your boyfriend called me today to apologize for everything, you know.”

He’s not my boyfriend!

“Did you tell him to go to hell?”

“Not exactly. He and I actually talked for a pretty long time…I told him—”

“Mom, I don’t want to hear anything about Ethan Lockwood. Ever. I’ll get over him eventually, okay? I just want to spend time with you,” I wiped my face and sniffled. “I still haven’t taken you shopping so I’ll call my driver now.”

“Selena, listen to me. You need to know that Ethan—”

“I really don’t want to hear about him, Mom. Please don’t tell me anything about him or his Autumn Wonder life. I don’t want to cry anymore today…”

“I understand,” she sighed. “What store are we going to first?”

Joan walked into my trailer and sighed. “I canceled your entire weekend.”

“What! Why?” I wiped my face with a Kleenex. “Go take it back! I’m alright! I can do this!”

She crossed her arms and gave me her ‘you’re so full of it’ look.

“I’m a train-wreck, right?” I bent over and cried. “I don’t think I’ve ever hurt this much!”

Even when Phillip dumped me, I was more embarrassed than hurt. And none of the other guys from my past halfway compared to Ethan.

I could usually use my anger to get over them, to remind myself why it was best that we didn’t work out. But with Ethan, no matter how many times I reminded myself that he was an ass for not telling me that he was the CEO of Autumn Wonder, my heart wouldn’t let him go.

“How about a ‘Girls Night In’? You could do movies and manicures—to kind of get your mind off him, unless you want to finally let him through to your line. He called a record two hundred times today.”

I shook my head. “No, I still don’t want to talk to him. And I don’t have any girl friends to invite for a movie night. I—”