Page 44 of Tender Offer
I sigh. “I’ll hang up if you’re calling about shoestring colors or suspender patterns. It’s been a long day, and I’ve reached my limit for your games.”
The line goes quiet.
“What happened, Puff?”
“Not your concern.”
“If it concerns you, it concerns me. What happened?”
An anchored sailboat sways next to the dock. Moonlight skims across its white body and bounces over quiet ripples.
“Puff?”
Feelings aren’t a topic I discuss freely. Tammi and Kojo have to pry them out of me. To say I don’t like being vulnerable is an understatement. I’d rather endure a public mammogram than face judgment.
Tammi caught me today when I was on an emotional sprint. It was a fluke. I was too busy running for my life in my least comfortable heels in case Emma’s claws matched her mouth.
I don’t throw my problems at my friends. They have enough to deal with without my mess.
“Puff?”
“On second thought, shoelaces and suspenders sound better,” I mumble. “Don’t you have a hotel empire to run?”
“Ah, a subject change. Must be awful.”
“Preston.”
“I called you because I can’t stop thinking about you. I figured I’d try my luck and forget these damn texts.”
His declaration hangs firm. Final. Preston filters his personality through sarcasm, but he never minces words.
A smile pokes my lips as I imagine his stoic expression. He’s probably behind his desk in a crisp suit. “You telling me you picked out your own socks?”
“I have since my nanny stopped dressing me,” he says, as if personal staff is an ordinary expense. “What’s bothering you?”
I bite the inside of my cheek and stare at the geometric carpet. In what universe do I talk about my love life with my ex? Not just any ex,theex, the one I randomly bumped into, who texts all the time and hosts candlelight dinners in his closet.
The remnants in my wineglass disappear with a single gulp. I sink back into the queen bed. “You really want to know?”
“There must be an echo on the line—you’re repeating a question I’ve now asked twice,” he says with posh sarcasm.
“Smart-ass.”
He mirrors my smile in his tone. “Full of compliments, aren’t you? Don’t dodge me, Puff.”
The breath I release is long, but it soothes the tightness in my chest. “Have you ever made a mistake you regret? One you don’t want to define you for the rest of your life?”
“Yes.”
“How did you get over it?”
Leather groans as he shifts his weight in his chair. “I haven’t. I never will,” he says with the same finality as the declaration he uttered days ago.I’m not letting you go this time. “The worst regret of my life haunts me every fucking day. We’re human, Madison. We make mistakes we’d trade the world to take back. But we get the chance to do better if we’re lucky.”
“That’s actually good advice,” I say, tracing the pattern in the comforter’s stitching. Silence is a heavy mist. “Well—”
“Don’t,” he warns. “Don’t shut me out.”
Goosebumps sprinkle across my forearms as I remember all the ways he had me.
