Page 75 of Boss Level

Nope. I was making things out to be more than they were.

We said quick goodbyes and hung up.

I called Scott and he cheered. We chatted for a few minutes about the games—his and ours—before we both agreed we should get back to work.

“Thank you,” I said. “For giving me my start. For putting me on the path to get here.”

His laugh surprised me. “You would’ve done this, or something equally as great, with or without me. Thank you for letting me be a part of that.”

“You’re welcome.” I was feeling the warm fuzzies to the max as I called Grant. He didn’t answer, so I left him a quick message telling him what happened.

And then I wanted to call Xander back. To suggest he and Dom and I celebrate. Which was a perfectly normal thing for us to do.

But that ache inside was back that I hated and couldn’t define. I wanted that to be gone. I wanted…

To never be the scared girl from my past again. To never be my mother, yielding to the people who insisted they knew what was best for me, especially when they were wrong.

I wanted to get over whatever the fuck this was that felt uncomfortable and made me so fucking weak.

26

xander

She should be a bigger part of our lives. Dominic’s voice echoed in my head.

She’s already a massive part of everything we do. And I meant it. What more did he want?

The same thing I did.

I needed to get over my hang-ups of the past. Once she gave Dom back his ring, once that stupid farce was officially over, I could relax. The three of us could go back to life like it was.

The thoughts had been circling for hours, and I was walking into a meeting with Kandace. I needed to knock this the fuck off and get to work.

My phone rang, and Judith’s name and picture flashed on my screen.

Nope. I wasn’t tumbling down that rabbit hole. Judith and I as friends were supportive. Powerful. Made to conquer the world.

Judith and me as anything else? Bad. Idea. Rosie had been right about that since the first time she said it.

“Hey.” The instant I answered, I knew I sounded off.

“Hey, yourself.” So did she. “I have what I can only describe as fantastic news.”

I liked the sound of that. As she launched into the news about Elliot, I liked the hype that bled into her voice even more. Though, the hitch I still heard had to be that this didn’t go exactly the way she wanted.

Having Elliot shift to part time, putting someone else in charge, wasn’t ideal. Though this was probably the best possible outcome besidesnothing changes at all.

Why couldn’tnothing changes at all everbe life?

I almost asked if she wanted to celebrate tonight. The offer lingered on the tip of my tongue, and it would be a normal thing for us to do. Find any excuse we could to have dinner with her.

Instead, I promised to let her know how badly this news pissed off Oliver, and hung up.

“Do you need to reschedule?” Kandace’s voice cut through my wandering thoughts.

I was standing to the side of the hallway, looking like a first-class space cadet, and drowning in my own thoughts. “Nope. I’m good now.” With one caveat. “Actually, two seconds.” I sent Wade a quick note telling him we needed to talk. I’d head down to his office right this second, but he’d been in non-stop meetings since he got back. “NowI’m ready.” I followed Kandace into her office.

As a tech investment firm, we were inundated with pitches on an ongoing basis. There were several levels of filters in place, to make sure the partners didn’t spend all our time just reading incoming ideas. For instance, the messages that simply saidI have a million-dollar proposal. When can we meet?Were weeded out at a base level.

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