Page 1 of Crushing on the Grumpy Boss

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RILEY

“What time will you be home?” my best friend, Evie, asks over my car speakers.

I let out a sigh.Homeisn’t what I’d call it. Myhomeis now two hours away, but it’s ahomeI can’t go back to—not after what I walked in on. “Another hour or so.” I glance from the road up to the rearview mirror, noticing how dark the circles are under my bloodshot blue eyes. I quickly tear them from the mirror, deciding my focus needs to be on my driving and not my appearance.

“I’m so sorry you’re going through this. You’re the best person I know. You don’t deserve this. Ugh, I just want to kill him.”

Tears build in my eyes, and I do my best to will them away. “It is what it is.” I let out a sigh. “I don’t know what I’m going to do.” My voice cracks as a sob breaks free. “I have to live with my parents… in my childhood bedroom?” I laugh at that, shaking my head.

“You know you’re more than welcome to stay here with me and Jackson.”

“I don’t want to impose. I just…” I take a deep, calming breath. “I need to get my shit together. I need to find a job so I can make money and get my own place. Start over.”

She’s quiet for a moment. I almost think the call disconnected until she says, “I know you won’t like this, but if you really want a job—”

“Need,” I correct, cutting her off.

“If you really need a job… my brother mentioned needing help at the bar.”

Travis Miller.

My best friend’s brother is ten years older than us, and he hated me growing up. Of course, it probably didn’t help that Evie and I took every opportunity to drive him insane.

I let out another sigh, my tears finally disappearing as I imagine better days from my past when we were just a couple of kids living every day to the fullest. “He’ll probably change his mind when he finds out it’s me you have in mind.”

She scoffs. “Girl, please. He’s still the biggest pain in the ass known to man, but he’ll do damn near anything I ask him to.”

I smile, wishing I had someone on my side the way she does. “If he’s willing to give it to me, I’m willing to take it. I’m too broke to be picky.”

“Good.” I can practically hear her smile. “One step at a time, right?”

“Right,” I agree. Right now, even one step seems too hard.

“Take the job, save money, find your own place. You’ll be back on your feet again before you know it.”

I don’t reply. I don’t even know how to. I’ve never been on my own before. I went from my parents to Ryan…

“I’ll go see him right now. Let me know when you make it into town. We’ll meet up, have dinner or something.”

“Okay,” I agree.

“See ya soon,” she says, preparing to hang up.

“Evie?”

“Yeah?”

“Thank you.”

“What are friends for?”

I disconnect the call, giving the road my full attention.

If you would’ve told me five years ago that I’d end up back in this small town, living with my parents, I never would’ve believed you. I guess no eighteen-year-old who runs away from home to marry her high school boyfriend would want to believe that things would end badly. This is nobody’s fault but my own. My parents warned me. Hell, everyone warned me; I just wouldn’t listen. Now, it’s time I come back home with my tail between my legs. I guess I should just be thankful that my parents are welcoming me back after all this.

I was a dumb kid who thought she knew it all. I’d read too many romance novels and watched too many rom-coms. I loved him and he loved me, and that was all that mattered. At the time, anyway. But people grow and change, and that’s exactly what we did. We grew apart. He grew into a man that I no longer knew. Still, we were married, and I was determined to make it work. He was not. He made that clear when he took another woman into our bed. And when I walked in and saw that, I knew I had to be done. I wouldn’t allow myself to turn into the woman that explained away her husband’s indiscretions. I wouldn’t fall prey to that trap again and again, buying all his lies.

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