Page 75 of Beautiful Broken Love

“Deke, you are wrong. I do not like her.”

“What are you getting so worked up for then?” I asked, chuckling.

“I am not worked up.” He looked around the gym as if searching for the person who was worked up. “I mean, I am considering hiring her later to take care of Aleesa, but that is all it is. I need to make sure she is a good fit for my daughter. That is all. Ido notlike her.”

I stifled a laugh. “If that’s your truth, so be it.”

“It is,” Javier insisted, bringing his shirt up to wipe the sweat from his forehead.

“Oh shit! Deke, have you seen this?” EJ jogged toward me with his phone in hand. When he handed it to me, the first thing I saw was Davina on the screen. She was in the orangish dress she’d worn to brunch, and I was right beside her with my hand extremely low on her back.

“The fuck?” I scrolled down to find another picture. This one was of us in the parking deck. My forehead was pressed to hers. We looked like we were about to kiss. My heart almost dropped until I realized the image was only of our shoulders and up. “Who posted this?” I asked, frowning at EJ.

“BOBBLE dropped it.”

“You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me.” I handed EJ his phone back and ran across the court to get to my gym bag. When I dug it out, there were four missed calls from Arnold, a text from Giselle, and two missed calls from Whitney.

Arnold was most likely calling because of this news leak. I hadn’t told him about me and Davina, so he was probably checking to see if it was true.

Whitney had most likely seen the article (she loved keeping up with celebrity gossip) and was calling to cuss me the hell out, seeing as she’d warned me to leave Davina alone.

And Giselle ... well, I knew why she’d text me, but I didn’t give a damn about her feelings at the moment.

The only person I was worried about was a state away. I grabbed my bag and hustled out of the building to call Davina.

FORTY

DAVINA

Tish was my best friend for many reasons, and one of them was her thoughtfulness.

This girl bought me a foot-massage machine to go beneath my desk. She said she’d been shopping and was thinking about me when she bought it. When I saw it on my desk with a pink ribbon, I hugged her so hard I was surprised she didn’t pop.

I sat at my desk, deep in my cushioned leather chair, sipping my lavender-honey tea with one hand while scrolling through ad designs with the other.

The view outside was perfect, a clear blue sky and trees in the distance, gradually transitioning into warm fall colors. Just past them, the Charlotte skyline towered. It was a good day ... or maybe I just felt that way after my brunch with Deke.

I feltgood, and I couldn’t quite explain this bubble of heat building in my chest, but it grew day by day. One day it would pop, and I’d be full of those hot, gushy feelings he’d created, and I wouldn’t be able to stop them no matter how hard I tried.

As if I’d thought him up, my phone buzzed on the desk, and Deke’s name appeared on the screen.

I set my tea mug on the coaster and swiped to answer. “Hi, Deke.”

“Hey, D. You got a minute?” He sounded breathless and not his usual self.

I sat up taller in my chair as the knobs of the foot massager rolled toward my heels. “Uh, sure. What’s going on? Everything okay?”

“I just left the gym. EJ was showing me some ...” I lost Deke’s voice as I heard commotion outside my office and then someone yelling, “Where the hell is she?!”

What the hell?

“... and now there are pictures that have been leaked. I didn’t think anyone would bother taking any, let alone share them. I—I mean, I tried to be discreet about it with you, butfuck, D ...”

My office door swung open, and a woman I didnotwant to see appeared in the frame. Gloria stormed in, with a raging fire in her eyes, her lips pinched tight, and her nostrils flared. Her face was scarlet.

“Howcouldyou?” she shouted.

“Davina?” Deke called, but I lowered the phone from my ear and placed it on the desktop as I stared at my former mother-in-law.

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