Page 42 of Talk About… Rivalry

“Ihatedher,” he clarified. “And that I thought Maverick was an asshole. But if she means this much to you, then I can at least make the effort to give her a chance, right?”

His words had a spark of hope filling me.

“She always comes to The Landing for lunch. I work the lunch shift just because I know she’ll be there. You should come sit outside on the patio.”

I narrowed my eyes on him because I knew damn well how stubborn this beta could be.

“If you want this to work, you have to give her a real chance. Get to know who Sidney actually is. Maybe think about the fact that her mom left her daughter behind as a child. As far as I know, she has never contacted her since. It would have come up. That’d do a number on anyone.”

Leo looked at me, his frown deepening as he thought it over.

“Fine, I’ll come with you. I’ll give her a shot, but I’m making no promises.”

“Neither, am I,” I clarified, making it known that I wasn’t going to back down from this.

Sidney was end game for me and there was nothing that was going to change that.

“Fine but you have to promise to help me here and buy me lunch. Especially since we don’t have breakfast.”

“You have me for…” I glanced down at my watch. “One more hour before I need to go.”

“Fine,” he said, reaching into the toolbox and handing me a hammer. “We have a wall to tear down, grab a hard hat.”

Honestly, physical labor was exactly what I needed. Destroying a wall was the perfect form of therapy.

By the time my alarm went off to let me know that I had to leave, we had torn down the whole wall and loaded the debris into the dumpster out back. I was covered in a sheen of sweat and I could honestly use a shower, but I felt a lot lighter.

“Let’s go, Leo,! I yelled out as I tossed down the hammer and wiped the sweat from my brow. “It’s time for me to introduce you to my omega.”

He rolled his eyes but dropped his own tools in the box. I waited while he locked up and followed me out. I climbed into his SUV and didn’t bother to hide my own grin.

“I just have a quick stop,” he warned me, stopping a few doors down from Whitaker Brews. My eyebrows raised but I didn’t question it, watching as he had a conversation with the man walking out of the bar.

Then Maverick joined. I would back up Leo, but I knew he had this… not to mention I didn’t want to see Maverick right now.

A few minutes later he was climbing back in, muttering about obnoxious alphas. I really hoped this didn’t affect his opinion of Sidney.

As we drove through town towards The Landing all I could think about was this was it. This was the turning point and I couldn’t fuck up my chances.

Scent or no scent… she was mine.

Maverick

All I could think while I was waiting for the alpha from Sinclair Vineyards to come in was that I wanted to punch him in the face for daring to touch my omega.

Mine… yet I agreed to a date.

Guilt had been bogging me down since last night. I don’t know what came over me or why I agreed to go on the date with that omega.

Kelly, her name was Kelly.

I’d looked right at Sidney, too. When she looked down, refusing to meet my eyes… it just broke something in me.

The truth was that I couldn’t sit around and pine for her day after day like some lovesick puppy.

Then why did it feel so fucking bad?

The creek of the old wooden door pulled me out of my thoughts and I looked up to see the alpha in question walking through. He had some kind of leather bound portfolio in his hand dressed in another one of his tailored suits.

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