Page 12 of Bossy Trouble

“No, you won’t,” I assured her, neglecting to mention that she still had five to six years of elementary school, three years of middle school, and four years of high school before she would be a grown-up.

We’ll cross that bridge when we get there.

I got her in and got out in time. Once I got out, I took a deep breath at the entrance. What a stressful morning. It didn’t seem as though my day was going to get any easier. Today was the day I needed to come up with a game plan because I decided I was going to see Donovan again on Friday. I’d spent all night tossing and mulling it over in my head, trying to see if there was any way to avoid it. But I didn’t have a choice.

I’d already gone to all the banks I could and maxed out on my loan options. The only people who would lend me money at this point were the shady underground lenders, and considering the debt I owed, maybe even they wouldn’t touch me. The only hope I had of keeping this dream going and keeping my head above water was Donovan.

The problem was that I still had no idea how to get it.

I could ask my brother, but I already knew Garrett would decline to be involved entirely, the same way he had when Donovan and I started our brief little fling. Garrett had nearly walked in on us one day, and at first, I thought he would lose it. Despite his mild-mannered ways, my brother could be pretty protective. Donovan and I were making out in my room back at boarding school, and we sprang apart right before Garrett walked through the door. It was too late, though. He already surmised what was going on.

I immediately started making up a story that would explain away our crime, but Garrett didn’t want to hear it. He simply shook his head and said, “Whatever you guys have going on, just leave me out of it.”

Later, he told me that while he wasn’t pleased with the situation, he knew that ordering me not to mess with Donovan wouldn’t have made a difference.

“It may have just made you stubborn enough to continue a relationship that wasn’t good for you, just to prove me wrong,” he surmised. “I knew it would eventually fizzle out. It was only a matter of time.”

And tragically, he was right. I didn’t know it at the time, though. I thought that Donovan and I were about to begin this grand love story, where I was the one who finally healed the wounds I could sometimes see in his eyes. But no. I was just another notch on his lengthy belt.

And he continues to see you as just that.

And that was precisely the problem, I realized, as the bulb went off. To Donovan, I was two things—Garrett’s little sister and the girl he occasionally fucked once upon a time. I needed to show him that I was more than that. I needed to prove I was a woman who had the business acumen to foster a rapidly growing business and that my only mistake was trusting the wrong person to handle my finances.

But how on earth would I prove that? I couldn’t even spend three seconds in his presence without wanting to jump his bones.

My brain was so occupied with thinking that I didn’t hear the car roll to a stop beside me, not until a deep voice quipped, “You think any harder, and you’re going to give yourself an aneurysm.”

I immediately turned to see Donovan in the driver’s seat of a sleek, black Mercedes.

My stomach dropped, and everything froze.

Donovan was here.

I was still standing outside the kindergarten, mere feet away from where Avery was probably sitting and eating her sandwich right now, which meant that Donovan was in the same vicinity as Avery. If she ran out of there as she had done in the past and came to hug me goodbye again, he would see her.

And he would know.

And my world would be over.

While I was frozen in fear, Donovan pushed his sunglasses down his nose, eyeing the sign behind me that proclaimed the name of the building. “What are you doing outside a kindergarten?”

Oh God, it’s happening. Think of something quick.

“Um, my…my friend.” The words practically trembled out of me. “I came to see my friend. She goes here.”

“You’re friends with a kindergartner?” His voice was amused. “Now, I’m not one to judge such things, but Georgie, you might need older friends.”

“No, I mean she teaches here.” Even in my panic, the irritation arose. Why did he always have to make what I said sound stupid? “What are you doing here?”

“I was in the neighborhood,” he said simply and then reached over, popping open the passenger door. “Come on, hop in. I’ll give you a ride home.”

“I’m not going home,” I said because the last thing I wanted was for Donovan Dresden to know where I lived. “I’m going to the supermarket.”

“With no purse?”

I glanced down at my empty hands. Shit. I had been in such a hurry this morning that I completely forgot to grab anything.

“Yes, well…I….” I couldn’t think of any other reason.

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