Playing for Keeps (Heartbreaker Bay #7)(86)

Sadie headed straight to her bedroom for clothes. It was damn hard to maintain control when one’s bits were out in the breeze. She pulled on the first things she came to, a pair of black and gray camo leggings and a camisole, and then added a denim jacket because she was suddenly cold all the way to the bone.

Lollipop came running for her and at the sound of the little pitter-patter of her paws scrambling on the floor to get to her, Sadie’s eyes stung. Her precious little dog sat at her feet and stared up at her solemnly, her huge doggy eyes filled with concern.

“Don’t worry,” she said. “Just because I broke up with him doesn’t mean you did. Nothing will change for you, I promise.”

The knock at her door made her grimace. “Gee, wonder who that could be.” She peered through the peephole and sighed.

“I never opened the file,” he said through the wood.

“But you have the file. You didn’t trust me enough to believe whatever I told you about myself.” She opened the door. “You didn’t take me at face value.”

“Wait a minute,” he said. “Are you going to tell me that you’ve always taken me at face value?”

“Yes.”

He gave her a long look. “You called me Suits for the entire first year you knew me.”

And though he was right, this only made her all the more mad because she’d never been able to handle someone shoving her own shit in her face. He was the one in the wrong here, dammit.

“Sadie,” he said quietly, seriously. “You know my sisters have been running background checks on the new people in my life for a very long time. This was a matter of course, and I stopped it soon as I realized, which was when you came to me with the pics of Kayla stalking you. We’ve already argued about this. I never saw the contents of the file. I never wanted to.”

“But you have the file. You didn’t even tell me.”

“And I should have,” he said. “I’m very sorry I didn’t. I won’t make that mistake again. But I never read it, Sadie.” He looked into her eyes and a grim set came to his mouth. “I need you to believe me.”

No, that was asking way too much. “You swore to me you weren’t having me followed,” she said. “And I believed you.”

And wasn’t that the kicker. She’d been stupid enough to trust when she knew better. Shocked to find that she was suddenly feeling not good enough for him, a sensation she hadn’t experienced in a long time, she slipped into her boots, slung her purse over her shoulder, and handed Lollipop’s leash over to Caleb. “It’s your day and I won’t rob you of that,” she said. Bending low, she cuddled the dog and whispered, “See you tomorrow, baby.” Then she stood. “Goodbye, Caleb.”

“Where are you going?”

“Out.”

“But this is your place.”

“Yes, so if you’d please lock up when you leave, I’d appreciate it. Don’t be here when I get back.”





Chapter 28





#PlayingForKeeps



Caleb worked hard in his life to avoid making bad decisions and being actively stupid.

But he’d screwed up and he knew it.

He honestly hadn’t thought about how it would look to Sadie, him having the file. He hadn’t thought of it because he’d had no intention of ever reading it. Except that by not telling her, he’d hurt her.

He’d made a mistake, a bad one, and he had to fix it. Not quite sure how yet, wanting to honor Sadie’s request that he be gone when she got home, he went to his office. His plan was to cancel his day and figure out how to make things up to Sadie. He needed to somehow convince her that even though he was an idiot, he was worth taking a shot on.

He was exiting the elevator on the penthouse floor of his offices when his cell buzzed an incoming call.

Sadie.

He picked it up so fast his head spun. “Sadie,” he said in huge relief. “You okay?”

He heard a soft sigh.

“Okay,” he said. “You’re not. Where are you, I’ll come to you and—”

“No. Don’t. I’m . . . fine, but I didn’t want to do this. I didn’t want to have this discussion with you, but I realize now I have to.”

The foreboding that filled him and made his knees wobble. “Sadie—”

“I need you to know that I’m not that same person I used to be,” she said. “I’ve grown up a lot and moved on, and I don’t want to be defined by who I was.”

He was straining to hear her quiet voice while being followed by two admins and a sister from the elevator to his office, all of whom wanted a piece of him before the morning got started. He shook his head at them all, signaling he needed a moment, and then shut himself in his office. “No one should be defined by who they used to be,” he told her.

“That’s easy enough to say when you don’t know who I used to be,” she countered. “The file in your possession . . . It undoubtedly exposes things that I never wanted exposed, things that will change how people think of me. How you think of me.”

Sienne opened Caleb’s office door and tried to come inside but he pointed at her to get out. This time he locked the door. He’d pay for that later, but at the moment he didn’t care. “Sadie, to me you’ve never been, nor will you ever be, whatever that damn file says,” he told her. “The file’s been deleted from my computer. From my server, in fact.” He’d done that first thing. “No one can ever see it, including me, I promise you that.”