Page 193 of Tormented Billionaire Romance Series

“You aren’t doing this to have leverage over me, are you?” she asked, folding her arms. “Like, to try and get me to back down on the whole Carter thing?”

“What? No!” How could she even think that?

“Then why would you do this?”

I frowned, wondering how I could possibly get through to her. “Well, because I do feel sorry for you, and because I like making clothes. It’s my hobby. I don’t have an ulterior motive.”

Suzie looked at me for a long while before she nodded, satisfied I’d told her the truth. “Can I borrow your apron, then?”

“Sure. Locker 3.”

“Thanks.” She gave me another long, intense look. “You know, we’ll never be friends. But you’re not so bad. But you’re too nice. The world of the rich would eat you alive. You should consider yourself lucky that I’m going to be the one to get Carter, not you.”

With that parting shot delivered, Suzie trotted off. She held her head high, her shoulders back, like I hadn’t just watched her almost come to tears over a lost apron.

Same old Suzie.

I did, at least, have to admire her confidence.

I went back to the front. The shop was devoid of customers, though filled with a clutter of trash. I decided to take the opportunity to clean up, tossing out used napkins and wiping crumbs off the tables. As I reached the table where Brian and Carter had been sitting, I saw the corner of something sticking out from under a half-folded menu. I picked up the menu.

It was a wallet, leather, once black but now smudged green from years of handling.

I flipped it open and peeked inside for a driver’s license.

From inside the clear plastic flap, Carter smiled, his bright green eyes gleaming.

I shut the wallet in a hurry, my heart pounding hard. I had, in my hands, Carter Bryant’s wallet. Suzie would go absolutely insane if she knew.

Which meant she couldn’t know.

Carter would be back soon in search of his wallet and I would be the one to give it to him.

I picked up some of the trash on the table and brought it to the bin, before taking a sharp detour into the back. I put the wallet in the lost-and-found and went back to work.

Five minutes later, the door to the café opened and Carter stepped in. He looked around, saw me, and came over. I looked right at him before remembering my hat, my attempt at disguising myself, but I was too slow.

“Hey,” he said. “I think I left my wallet here?”

“I put it in a safe spot for you,” I reassured him. “Let me go get it real quick.”

I hurried off and fetched the wallet. His gaze followed me the whole way, making the back of my neck feel hot.

I brought his wallet back and thrust it towards him. “Here you go.”

“Thank you,” he said warmly, and wrapped his hands around mine, while I still held the wallet. A wave of dizzying tingles washed over me, a tide pulling part of me out to sea.

“Y-you’re welcome.”

Carter stepped back with his wallet in hand. The back of his shoe knocked against a chair leg and he stumbled. I grabbed for him, gasping. He righted himself, laughing, looking at the floor and shaking his head. “That’s what I get for walking backwards.”

“Are you okay?”

“I’m…”

He stopped, still looking at the floor.

I also looked, and everything inside me went cold as I saw what it was that so captured his attention. My shoes, my blue Converse.

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