Page 33 of Chasing Love: The Owens
“Unfinished business. There’s more to play out here.” Rosie waves her finger between us.
Rosie is a trickster and cannot be trusted. Noted.
“So are you in? He doesn’t get the contract without you,” Earl interrupts, thank God.
Delaney bites her lip, then nods. “I’m in.”
“Great! Let’s make another bouquet while these two handle the business stuff. It’s so boring.” Rosie pretends to yawn, hooks her arm through Delaney’s, and whisks her out of my office.
“What just happened?” I don’t realize I said it out loud until Earl answers.
“Rosie happened,” Earl says, chuckling. “She bulldozed you.”
Fuck yeah, she did.
Chapter Fifteen
Sean,
* * *
Seven years ago, I was hired by an architectural landscaping firm, and on my first day when I went to the breakroom, Bennett was there, preparing his coffee. I hadn’t seen him since I was seventeen.
I knew he’d gone to Berkeley, but I didn’t know he’d majored in landscape architecture, and I definitely didn’t know he was working at the same firm I had just been hired at. Sure, I probably should have done more research. He was likely listed on their website. But after a long stretch of sending out my résumé and hearing nothing back, I was just grateful for the interview.
When Bennett turned around and saw me, his coffee mug slipped from his hand. It shattered on the floor, black coffee splashing across the tile.
“Laney?” he asked, eyes wide.
“Please tell me you’re the coffee repairman.”
It was stupid, I know. But after we drifted apart our senior year, I thought about him so many times. I looked him up once when I was in college and saw his profile filled with pictures of him and a pretty blue-eyed girl. She was obviously important to him. I assumed the love he’d once had for me had long since died.
I figured Bennett would be the type to finish his degree and return to Willowbrook. I never would’ve guessed he would stay out here, working so far from his hometown. Family was everything to him.
“I am. I’m irreplaceable because I only fix coffee machines bought on Black Friday doorbuster sales.”
I laughed, just like I used to when I was around him, and his eyes warmed.
He grabbed some paper towels, and that was when the light hit his left hand, a silver wedding band snug across his ring finger. My stomach dropped. Of course he’d married her. He’d looked so in love in those pictures.
I pulled off more paper towels and bent down to help clean up the pieces of the mug and the spill.
“Denise is going to kill me. That was her favorite mug.”
I didn’t know Denise yet, but the way he said it, I knew he’d be out hunting for a replacement tonight before she could figure it out.
“Denise?” I asked.
“She did me a favor, so I figured I’d return it with a coffee. She hates leaving her desk. You’ll find out soon enough.”
Our eyes locked and held for a long moment as if we were both taking in the fact that we were once again in the same city. Same firm. Same space. It felt too perfectly aligned to be a coincidence. Like something bigger was pulling us back together.
But that ring reminded me he was someone else’s now. No longer mine, but hers.
I was so distracted I didn’t notice the shard of ceramic until it pierced my skin.
“Shit.” I lifted my hand, watching a stream of blood trickle down my finger.
