Page 108 of Until It Was Real

Is Eli right? Should I grovel for forgiveness? Did I jump to conclusions?

My heart spasms in my chest. Dakota isn’t a drug addict. She could be mine if I apologize.

Is that what I want?

Chapter 33

“Now I understand why so many jokes are made about work. Work sucks.” ~ Dakota

Dakota

Ipark my car in front of the distillery and blow out a breath. I can do this. There are more difficult things than working with Rhett the Asshole all day. Lord knows I’ve been through worse.

My heart spasms. It doesn’t agree. For reasons I don’t care to think about for too long, Rhett dumping me hurts worse than finding out my husband was a lying, cheating scumbag wanker.

I check my eyes in the rearview mirror. My eyes aren’t too puffy, are they? I hope not.

The last thing I need is my boss, Eli, to try and comfort me in the restroom when I’ve been crying. The man is not good at pep talks. Although when he growled about killing his brother, I nearly cheered.

I notice the time on the clock. Shit. I’m going to be late. I don’t need to give Eli any more excuses to fire me. I need this job. Health insurance is worth it, I remind myself as I climb out of my car.

“Hey, Dakota!” Miles waves at me as he hurries across the parking lot toward me.

I nearly cringe at his use of my real name. None of Rhett’s brothers have called me anything other than ‘little sis’ since Rhett and I started dating.

“What are you doing here this early? Did you break your surfboard?” I tease instead of breaking down into tears about how the Raiders were never really my family.

“Hit the waves at dawn this morning. Dawn patrol is the best.”

“Huh. Maybe you could surf early every morning and come to work on time?”

He scowls at me. “Sounds boring.”

“Welcome to adulting.”

“Nah.” He smirks. “I don’t adult.”

“Must be nice,” I mutter.

Resentment rears its ugly head. It would be nice to have a billionaire brother who founded a company just so you could have a job. A job you can ignore as much as you want because your brother is never going to fire you.

“Hey.” Miles squeezes my shoulder. “I was joking.”

I force a smile. I’m not going to be a bitch to him. He’s not the brother I have a problem with. It’s not his fault I fell in love with his asshole brother.

“I know. It’s all good.”

He frowns. “I don’t know much about women.”

I snort. “Really?” Look up charming in the dictionary and you’ll find a picture of Miles.

“Let me rephrase. I don’t understand much about women. But I figureIt’s all goodis similar toIt’s finewhich every man worth his weight in sea salt means nothing is fine.”

I don’t want to discuss how nothing in my life is fine. How I have no choice but to continue to work in the same office mere feet from the man who broke my heart.

I hold up a hand. “Watch it, charming surfer dude. You’re awful close to adulting right now.”

He feigns retching. “Thanks for the warning, Dakota.” He unlocks the door before sauntering away to his office.

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