Page 71 of Bossy Trouble

“Fifteen minutes?” I asked.

“Ten if there’s no traffic.”

I nodded. “Good.” Then I hit him again.

27

GEORGIA

The tears didn’t come.

Sorrow filled up every fiber of my being. I wanted to cry, but the tears got stuck somewhere between my chest and my throat, burning there with emotions I couldn’t express. I’d been lying on the couch for the past ten minutes after Donovan left, trying to pick up the pieces of everything he’d shattered inside me. I was trying to make sense of it all—the intense heartbreaking sex on the wall and the realization of what I think I always suspected.

I’d fallen in love with Donovan. Again. I didn’t think I fell out of love with him in the first place. Perhaps I simply buried that feeling under years of self-preservation.

But the minute I saw him again, touched him again, they roared back to life.

And I was foolish to ever think I could handle a casual relationship with him in any sense.

My feelings for Donovan could never be casual. I knew that now.

God, I felt like crap.

I finally sat up in my seat, refusing to allow myself to wallow anymore. I wasn’t a teenage girl with her first crush. I was a grown woman who had responsibilities and people to take care of. I didn’t have time to mope around about heartbreak. It was nearly time for Macy to drop Avery off, and I needed to get myself together before my little girl arrived and saw me like this.

Still, as I walked around, cleaning up the apartment, I couldn’t drag myself away from the melancholy that filled me.

I didn’t know what I would do next. Donovan was pissed, and I didn’t know whether I still had a job with him. There was the contract, sure, but who knew what he would pull at the end? And Lupin…he still held that anvil over my head. I needed to provide him with something incriminating about Donovan soon, or he would drop it.

But could I do it? Despite everything, could I really betray Donovan?

All of a sudden, my phone vibrated on top of the side table, distracting me from my musings. I walked over to pick it up, thankful for the reprieve it offered.

“Hello?” I said into the phone.

“Georgie?” It was Garrett. “What’s wrong? Why do you sound like someone kicked your puppy?”

“It’s nothing. I’m just tired.”

“Georgia.” Garret’s voice was scolding. “Don’t lie to me. I know you too well. What happened?”

I released a breath. The ache was still there in my chest, and the story was practically bubbling to get out. Maybe I would feel better if I talked about it.

“Donovan and I fought,” I started with a huff.

“Again? What was it about this time? Work stuff?”

“No, it was….” I sighed, knowing Garrett was certainly not going to like the next part of what I had to say. “We started…we were messing around a little. Like a ‘situationship.’”

“Georgia.” The disappointment was heavy in his tone.

“I know, Gar, I know, and I know I was stupid for even doing it. I honestly don’t know what’s wrong with me. It’s like I know everything about how he’s completely wrong for me, and he’s the devil incarnate, but then, whenever we’re around each other, I can’t seem to think straight. And I hate it, and I hate him for making me like this.” My voice choked on the last sentence, and there was silence at the other end of the line for a few seconds. Garrett was always awkward around crying women. The last time I bawled in front of him, he’d been quiet, just waiting it out and tapping me on the back repeatedly until the waterworks were over.

I sniffed, suppressing the urge to break down. Not right now.

“Does he know about Avery?”

“They’ve met,” I said. “But he doesn’t know she’s his child. He never even suspected.” A bitter laugh escaped him at my words. “It’s like he can’t fathom the idea that he has a child with me.”

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