Page 34 of I Am Salvation

I look at Diana.

At this woman who was born into riches but who has turned out to be one of the most generous and kindhearted people I’ve ever met.

I have no doubt she did what was best.

I wish…

Fuck.

I wish I were even close to good enough for her.

Chapter Ten

Diana

Opening up to Dragon about my work troubles felt good.

It felt…right.

Maybe I shouldn’t have hijacked this trip with him.

He doesn’t want to talk about whatever this is about. I’m sure it has something to do with whatever Alayna is investigating. Perhaps she found something here in Taos.

I take another sip of my margarita. It’s good, but for the life of me I don’t know why Donny drinks these. It just tastes like pure sugar with a little bit of tequila and lime thrown in.

For some reason, when I saw the server bring margaritas to the table next to us, I got a craving. Maybe I was thinking of my big brother. Who knows? Donny is currently on his honeymoon with his new wife, Callie Pike. My little sister Brianna is on her honeymoon with Callie’s brother, Jesse. Their other two sisters, Rory and Maddie, are also on honeymoons with my cousins Brock and Dave, respectively.

The big quadruple wedding—where Dragon was Jesse’s best man.

A pang of envy hits me.

I’m not sure where it came from. When I stood up as Brianna’s maid of honor at the recent wedding, all I felt was happiness for my sister and the rest of the wedding party.

I’ve never been one to think about marrying and settling down. I know it will happen eventually. I want to be a mother. But I was more interested in my architecture career. I figured I’d be well into my thirties before I considered moving on to family life.

Now my architecture career is… Well, I don’t suppose it’s exactly over. But it certainly has been blockaded.

I don’t doubt that Rod will blacklist me among architecture firms in Denver. Maybe even throughout the state of Colorado.

I could open my own firm—use my trust fund money to finance it—but if I’m blacklisted, will anyone hire me? The Steel name is a very important name in Colorado, but it’s not insurmountable. And a lot of people don’t trust us, based on rumors about us that are completely unfounded.

Chanel comes back to take our dinner order and deliver a basket of freshly made tortilla chips and homemade salsa.

“You go ahead,” I say to Dragon. “I’ve hardly looked at the menu.”

“I can give you two a few more minutes,” Chanel says.

“No, that’s okay,” I tell her. “Just take his order first.”

Dragon clears his throat. “I’ll have the carne asada.”

“Rice and beans with that?”

“Yeah, please.”

“And have you decided, ma’am?” she asks me.

I mull it over. “Enchiladas. Chicken enchiladas.”

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