Page 12 of Golden Rule

“Ididsee it, unfortunately, and you’re right,” joss sighs. “He’ll definitely be there. It’s whatI’ddo if I was new on the scene, trying to stand out and make a name for myself. But don’t focus on him. He’s small-time and doesn’t have much reach beyond the city. Pretty sure he’s just riding the wave of negativity Pandora stirred up.”

“Fucking perfect.”

Joss ignores West’s grumbling and makes him a promise. “I’m gonna do my best to smoke Pandora out, but I don’t imagine it’ll be that easy. She knows we had the means to shut her down last time, so I’m guessing she went out of her way to cover her tracksthistime.”

“Yeah, but what I don’t get is why now? It’s been five damn years.”

Joss lets out another breath, and she sounds even more stressed than she’s been with the wedding planning. Which is saying a lot.

“Honestly, it could be as simple as what she mentioned in her first post. That seeing usgetting back toourroots has made her decide it’s time she did the same.”

I take West’s silence to mean he isn’t a fan of that response, but Joss is probably right, and it’s all we have to go on for now.

“You’ll know more as soon asIknow more,” she promises.

“Thanks. Talk later.”

“Good night.”

The call ends, and the silence in the room is so loud. I’m at a loss for words, not quite sure what to say. West is raw, angrier than I’ve seen him in a long time, and I don’t want to say anything to add fuel to the fire, but I’m filled to the brim, too.

With emotions.

With thoughts of how screwed up this has all been.

But instead, I hold it in, focusing on working the knots in West’s neck and shoulders.

“It feels like we’re living in an alternate universe,” he says, letting his head fall back.

I lean forward and kiss his forehead, lifting my hands to massage his temples. “Well, wherever this is, or whatever obscure timeline we’ve been shifted to, at least the universe did us a solid and brought us here together.”

He smirks at that. “That’s one way of looking at it, I guess.”

“We’ve weathered this storm before, and we can do it again.”

“Yeah, but we shouldn’t have to,” he shoots back. “I fucking hate this. The hold she always seems to have on us. The feeling of being just one post away from her ruining everything, taking away everything we’ve worked so hard for, everything we’vefoughtfor.”

“At the end of the day, the only real power Pandora wields over us is the power to annoy us to death,” I say with a laugh. “It’s not like back in the day, when we were trying to keep our secrets close because it was literally a matter of life and death. Now, we’re all living out in the open—nothing to hide, nothing to run from, which means there’s nothing she can scandalize. Not anymore. So, yeah, it sucks that she’s trying to start shit with you and the team, or between Sterling and Lexi, but these are all things that can be resolved with mature conversations.Thatkind of damage can be repaired. So, if you think about it, what’s the worst that can honestly happen?”

“Famous last words,” West grumbles, then he's quiet again.

I suspect he’s either pondering what I’ve said, or my simple take on the situation has gotten under his skin a little. However, it’s all true. Pandora has absolutely zero leverage.

“I need to text Sterling,” he says under his breath, immediately unlocking his phone. After tapping his thumbs overthe screen a few seconds, he lowers it again, but now that he’s mentioned Sterling, my thoughts have shifted to Lexi.

“I can’t believe that bitch outed the engagement like that. Dropping that on Lexi was…”

“It was fucking ruthless,” West cuts in, stealing the words right out of my mouth.

“Yeah.”

We’re both quiet again, and all I can think about is that look on Lexi’s face. Yes, she was pissed about how it all went down, but more than that, she was heartbroken.

West blows out a breath, then reaches for my wrist, kissing the back of my hand as he pulls me from behind him. I stand between his parted knees, and when his head falls to my chest, I feel the weight of all he’s carrying.

“I need to hear something good,” he sighs. “Did you like any of the houses Rebecca emailed over?”

I push my fingers through his hair. “No, but I did like one of the potential locations for the center. There’s some work to be done, but it has everything I need—office space, a large rec area, rooms that can easily be converted into classrooms. It’s actually kind of perfect.”

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