Page 20 of (Un)Expected

“Fuck!” I hissed. “I’m so sorry. I wasn’t paying attention.”

“No shit,” a familiar voice groaned.

My eyes widened when I realized the woman I slammed into was the same one I couldn’t get out of my head. Alex was laid out on her back, glaring up at me from the ground. Looking at her in that position, with her sports bra and tight running shorts, it’s hard not to picture all the other places I wouldn’t mind seeing her on her back.

“Seriously,” she huffed, turning to get up. “First, you knock me on my ass, and then you just stand there?”

Shit.

I jumped into action, bending down to help lift her from the ground. My back twinged with a sharp pain, but I pushed it back down to focus on Alex. As she brushed off her knees, I picked a few leaves and branches out of her hair and lowered my voice. “Sorry about that.”

Alex looked up at me, and my breath caught in my throat. Her blue eyes were brighter than usual, but that was only because they were red-rimmed and puffy. The sight of her upset made the knot in my chest only grow, conflicted between tracking down the person who hurt her or pulling her into my arms, whispering promises that it would all be okay.

But as soon as she was up, she took a little step back, wincing when she put weight on her ankle. I reached out, taking her arm in my hand. Shit, her skin was smooth. That was something I shouldn’t have noticed, and I definitely shouldn’t have been moving my thumb to feel it a little longer. Taking a step back, I cleared my throat. “You okay?”

“Yeah, great,” she scoffed. “Never better.”

“Liar,” I teased.

I waited for that usual spark of hers, the one that loved to knock me on my ass, but it was nowhere to be found. “It’s fine,” she said quickly, her voice filled with defeat. “I’m having a crappy morning.”

“Guess that means you saw the article?”

Alex’s eyes snapped up to mine, her mouth forming a tight line. “Oh, you mean the one that said I’m just Adam’s latest fling? Or the one that called me “Townie Trash”?

“Shit.”

“Yeah, that was pretty much my reaction,” she scoffed, shaking her head. “Along with a ton of other swears. I thought a run would help, get me out of the house and escape my phone for a little bit.”She motioned to her scraped knees. “But the universe thought I needed to be knocked down a few more pegs today.”

“Look, Adam’s going to fix this,” I said, shifting closer to her. “And even if he can’t, it’ll brush over quickly.”

She nodded, but it was clear she didn’t believe me. Alex glanced over her shoulder. “I should get home. Running was a shit plan. I feel cookie dough calling my name.” She half-heartedly waved as she turned away from me.

“Hey Alex,” I called out, waiting until she stopped before continuing. “Remember—those articles are bullshit. You’re none of those things.”

She rolled her eyes, “You barely know me,Mr.Campbell.”

As she headed back down the path, only one thought played in my head.

That was going to have to change.

EIGHT

I stared at the employee entrance of the Isadora, the simple white painted door blending in the background. Only the black sign marking it as the employee entrance made it stand out from the rest of the walls. The seconds kept ticking by, but I stayed standing there. It was only ten feet, but it felt like a million miles.

No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t quite convince my feet to move any closer. It had been almost twenty minutes since I first stopped in this spot, and I hadn’t made it any closer to the inside.

I already knew what awaited me on the other side.

Questions.

Too many questions.

Questions I’d avoided for the past five days, thanks to my ridiculous number of sick days.

But based on the number of calls and messages from Diane, my grace period was officially over. She’d been circling for days, waiting for my head to pop out of my burrow to strike. As tempted as I was to steer clear of the rest of the world, it was time to face the music.

According to my call-outs, I’d been battling strep throat. In reality, it was much more a case ofI-avoid-awkward-things-at-all-costs. For the past five days, Javier and Calla alternated checking on me, fluctuating between sympathy and tough love. They tried to understand my situation, but neither really could. They both lived fearlessly, not worried about who was watching their every move. Me? I had to be much more selective about the information that got out into the world.

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