Page 106 of Tangled Kisses
I drop the phone face-down and zip my bag shut like I’m sealing off every voice I don’t want to hear.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Griffin
Iscrub a hand over the back of my neck as I head down the hall toward Reese’s office, sweat drying sticky on my skin. Between mucking stalls this morning and running fence line repairs, I smell like a barnyard, but hell if that’s going to stop me. I’ve been replaying last night on a loop, and I just need to see her face.
Her office door stands cracked, light spilling into the hall, so I knock once and push it open.
She looks up from her desk, eyes flat, guarded. “What can I do for you, Griffin?”
Her tone slices me clean in half. It’s formal. Distant. Like I’m a stranger.
I shift my hat in my hands, nerves chewing through me, and try for a smile. “I was hoping I could get a hug, but I reek of horses. Figured I’d spare you.”
Her pen stills, but she doesn’t look up again. “Not in the mood for a hug right now.”
Okay, something is wrong. Time to find out who hurt her and kick their ass.
I step inside her office and shut the door. “Since when? You love hugs.”
Her mouth twitches as she clicks her tongue against her teeth. “Guess you don’t know me as well as you think.”
What the hell is happening? My fingers tighten on the brim of my hat, the leather warm under my palms.
Her phone lights up, and I motion to it. “Do you need to answer that?”
Reese silences it with a sharp flick. “My mother is relentless.”
“You don’t get along?”
A brittle laugh shoots out of her as she glares at the phone. “When I’m toeing the line, sure. But let’s be real. I’m adopted. Nothing I do is ever as good as Piper. She’s the golden child, and I’m just the spare.”
I shift closer, trying to read her expression. “I don’t buy that. I’m sure their proud of you, of everything you’ve done, everything you’ve become.”
She shoots me a searing glance, tossing her pen onto the desk. “What are you, a therapist now too?”
I raise my palms, my hat dangling from one hand. “Didn’t mean it like that. Are you mad at me?”
“No.” Her voice drops, shame lining the single syllable. “I’m mad at myself.”
“Help me understand.”
She swallows, then lets out a humorless laugh that slices straight through me. “Did you know tonight was supposed to be my bachelorette party? My wedding was in two weeks. Long Island society, all of them ready to watch. I had the dress, the shoes, the total production. And here I am instead, in the middle of nowhere, Oregon, crying alone in an office.”
The words land like a fist in my gut. Her wedding. A life she almost tied herself to forever. The reminder that she oncepromised herself to another man—when every cell in my body screams, she’s supposed to be mine.Mywife.Myforever.
“You told me you were glad you left,” I manage, willing down the unease building in my bones.
She flicks a hand toward me in a dismissive manner. “I am.”
“And you told me you didn’t love him.”
Reese sucks in a breath, her dark eyes fixed on the desk. “You’re right. I didn’t.”
She doesn’t want to talk about it, but I need answers.
“Then isn’t that a blessing? To be free of a man who never deserved you?”
