I tried to smile through my tears but it was useless. “Gia, Jerry fired me! This whole thing is a mess. Jerry fired me and all of myorders online are just people insulting me. I don’t know what to do.”

She gasped. “That sonofabitch fired you? I’ll murder him with my bare hands!”

“And the people who placed orders saying they wanted cakes with vulgar messages about my body on them!”

“How many are we talking?”

“Dozens.” I hiccupped and wiped my eyes on the hem of my shirt. “I don’t know what I’m going to do. I barely made ends meet as it was.”

“You know that you and Rosie are always welcome to come and live with me. I’ll be your sugar daddy.”

I snorted. “You know I’m not going to do that. I can’t take advantage of you. Plus, Rosie has been through enough without me uprooting her entire life. Not that I’m not already doing that. We had to leave the house. We’re…”

Gia laughed. “Where are you? I heard some of that interaction this morning before you hung up on me. Are you still with those Trio hotties?”

I sighed. “No.”

“Damn.”

“Because they had to go meet their publicist.” I groaned as she cheered. “We’re at Price’s house. It’s crazy, Gia. I so don’t belong here. I’m sitting by a pool that overlooks a lake.”

“God, I’m so jealous. I saw the pictures of the four of you and I was already miserably jealous of you, but now I have to hate you. I know this is unfortunate in a lot of ways but,wow! You’re living my dream life. The way those men were looking at you, girl… Tell me how it was. Please. Tell me it was everything you thought sex should be.”

“It was better.” I wrapped my arm around my knees. “I don’t know where to go from there, though. Drake’s ex-wife is their manager. She definitely hates me. It was strange, G. Even in themidst of feeling like my life was falling apart, I felt jealous of her. That’s not a good sign. I never thought I was one of those women who stupidly falls for men after one night and morning of sex, but I like them and I hated her. How stupid is that?”

“You need to give yourself a break, Sonnie. You put too much pressure on yourself to do everything right. You’re doing the best you can with what you’ve got. You’ve been thrown a curve ball right now, but I know you and I know this won’t keep you down. Jerry will hire you back. He needs you. Your real customers will place more cake orders. You’ll be okay. Who knows? Maybe you found your men and they happen to be loaded and you’ll never have to work again.”

“God, you’re crazier than me.” The idea of the guys falling for me was beyond ridiculous. Especially after seeing Price’s home. They had everything. Why the hell would they want me? I couldn’t even keep a job as a bartender. “I know I’ll figure it out, but I’m just tired. People are being cruel and I hate it.”

“Want me to take off for a few days and come down?” She heard me start to protest and talked over me. “I have the vacation days built up. I could come see you and help you with whatever you need. You don’t have to do everything alone.”

I wiped the last of my tears away and sniffed. “I love you. I’ll be okay for now.”

CHAPTER 26

Sonnie

“Have you been crying?”

I yelped and jumped when Cole spoke directly next to my ear. Clutching my chest, I looked up at him and scowled. “You scared the hell out of me! Where’d you come from?”

He gripped my arms and pulled me off the couch. “I wasn’t quiet. You were lost in thought. You’ve been crying, haven’t you?”

I looked over at Rosie on the other couch, but she was slumped over, taking a much needed nap. There was a blanket on the back of the couch and I pulled away from Cole to grab it and cover Rosie. I didn’t want to disturb her so I left the living room and found myself being pulled upstairs. Cole glanced back at me and searched my face. Judging by the frown on his, he wasn’t pleased with what he saw.

“You need a nap, too.” He pulled me into a massive bedroom that had more wall-to-wall windows and a view that took my breath away. The bed in the middle of the room was massive and it looked like a giant cloud. The colors in the room were neutral and the space was minimalistic, letting the view do most of the work. Instantly, I felt slightly less on edge.

Cole grabbed the hem of my shirt and lifted it over my head, but instead of stopping to appreciate that I wasn’t wearing a bra, he pushed my shorts down and nodded to the bed. I hesitated. “I should shower. I didn’t shower after this morning…”

He pulled the blanket down and nodded at it. “Get in the bed, Sonnie.”

I frowned but did as he said. Just when I thought he was going to leave me, he tugged off his own clothes and climbed in behind me. He wrapped his arms around me and held me tight. My heart immediately beat faster and my body responded to his even as my eyes grew heavy.

“What made you cry?” His voice was soft against my shoulder. “Don’t try to deny it, either. Your poor eyes are bright red. So is your nose.”

I groaned. “Great. I look like Rudolph.”

“Enough, Sonnie.” He softened his voice and sighed. “I don’t like that you’re crying while we’re not here. Especially when it’s probably our fault.”