Page 10 of Let Me Say It Again

I pushed my hand into his arm and rolled my eyes. “How’d you know?”

He cocked a brow.All right, enough said.

“Red is an ass.” I paused and looked off to the side. “I mean, a very attractive ass, but an ass all the same, and I was enjoying my job. It paid well. I was happy.”

“Most importantly, employed.”

I snapped my fingers. “Exactly.” I sighed, and my eyes darted toward the moving traffic. “Hey, people are learning how to drive again.”

He situated himself and took his foot off the brake. “You agreed to be his fake fiancée, right?”

I nodded, and then voiced, “Yes,” since I knew he was driving and couldn’t see my face.

“So now you need to find another job.”

“It isn’t easy. You know that. Plus, I don’t have enough saved to last long without a job. I would have if I didn’t have so much credit card debt to pay off, but alas, here we are.” I waved a hand between us, so he could catch it in his peripheral vision. “Hi, I’m paycheck-to-paycheck girl.”

He laughed. “Just call your sister.”Half sister, but I wouldn’t correct him.“She offered you a job not long ago, right?” He shrugged. “See if she’s still looking for someone to be her—”

“Fashion editor,” I supplied. Shaking my head profusely, I swallowed. “I couldn’t. I’m not cut out to do anything remotely related to fashion. Certainly not an editor of my late mother’s magazine. Regina Morelli had a dream, and it was a fashion magazine, but that is not my idea of the right job for me.”

We finally made it to the coffee shop, and he put the car in park. “Call your sister.” Again, half sister, who I’d only recently came to learn about when she and the rest of my half sisters had come knocking on my door one day when they’d found out about me. Secrets, that was all I’d say on that topic.

“Maria offered me that job eons ago.”

He looked me dead in the eyes. “It wasn’t that long ago.”

“We’re finally in a good place. You know, Maria didn’t exactly like me in the beginning. Frankly, she was a tough nut to crack.” Unlike our other sisters who I’d gelled with fairly quickly.

“Sounds like someone I know. You’re not exactly the easiest person to get along with.”

“What?” I placed a hand on my chest and feigned horror. “I gave you my chocolate pudding cup in the first grade. We’ve been friends ever since.”

He narrowed his eyes. “I’m getting out of this car and going to get a cup of coffee. Lord knows I deserve it after that shit show on the road.” Then he pointed a finger at me. “And you’re going to swallow your pride, or whatever the hell is going on here, and work for that magazine. It’s yours as much as it is any of theirs.”

“Bellissima,” I told him.

“Great. You already know more than the average person.”

I cocked my head. “What’s that?”

“The name of the company you’ll be working at next.”

Chapter Five

Reddington

Could eyeballs bleed?I wasn’t too sure factually, but I felt like if they could, mine would’ve while I was looking through way too many fucking options for an engagement ring. Good news was that thanks to my jackass younger brother, Nathaniel, I knew exactly whatnotto get Jade. See, in all things, but especially ring shopping, I used him as the exemplary example of what to avoid.

Jackass that he was—sorry, it begged repeating—he’d bought her a ring, planned on proposing, and then had decided to call the whole thing off before he even got down on one knee. Real winner, I know. His feet weren’t cold. His damn brain was. It being on ice was the only explanation as to why he didn’t act as quickly as possible and slip that ring on Jade’s finger so he could forever claim her.

Instead, he made the worst decision and broke up with her. He’d never been good at making decisions, or anything for that matter, but that was one hell of an asinine move. Jade was the entire package. Even I knew that, and I hadn’t been the one waking up and rolling over to the sight of her in the morning.

The navy-blue velvet box I’d picked up on the way here was burning a hole in the pocket of my seersucker sports coat as I walked the rest of the way to a table next to the window on the far side of the dining room. See, I was at the country club where my parents were members for, oh, I wasn’t sure I could recollect the number of years, but definitely the better part of my existence. I’d asked my mother if we could meet up. You know, so that I could share the wonderful news that her best, brightest,and oldest son was getting married. She’d insisted on meeting here for lunch after her tennis match.

“Mother,” I acknowledged, placing a hand on the back of her chair and bending down to bring my lips to her cheek where I gave her a light kiss by way of greeting. “How are you doing? How was tennis?” I walked around to the other side of the table, pulling out the chair and sitting.

She lowered the glass of cucumber water from her lips and swallowed. “Reddington, I’m so glad you called. Tennis went splendidly.”

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