Tally nods understandingly. “Okay, I’m over here if you need me.”
“And I’m right beside you,” Saylor reassures me, his fingers gliding down my forearm, soothing my nerves.
“Thanks,” I say gratefully, making my way over to the table where North is sitting. I cross my arms over my chest, anger bubbling beneath the surface. I’m ready to confront him, and my body trembles slightly from the tension.
“North,” I address him, my voice firm but my heart pounding.
Fuck, was this a good idea?
“Blue,” he answers, his voice weary, and I notice the red-rimmed eyes that betray his inner turmoil.
I deflate a little. He looks broken.
Just as much as I am.
“What do you want, North?” I ask tersely, trying to hold back my emotions.
They always betray me and make me cry.
I will not cry in front of North Jones ever again.
Saylor chimes in, pointing out North’s disheveled appearance. “Damn, bro, you look like shit. Even worse than this morning. It almost makes me pity you.”
Fuck pity.
He didn’t have any pity for me when he treated me like dirt.
“I need to talk to you,” North states, his voice holding an edge.
I raise an eyebrow at him, my tone laced with skepticism. “Why?”
North takes a deep breath, his voice shaky, and I can’t help but wonder what the fuck is going on with him.
This isn’t the North I’ve gotten to know.
“You saved my son. I was an absolute asshole to you for weeks before, and then I got even worse. I treated you like garbage.”
“Thank you for the reminder,” I press out through clenched teeth.
Can this be over already?
But North keeps speaking, his remorse stark to the demanding prick I’ve come to know. “I treated you horribly like nobody should be treated, and instead of cursing me and leaving, not giving a shit about all of us, you fought for my son. You fought for Lio. You had the balls to stand up for him while I was too blind to see that you were right. You gave everything to help him, to save him, to give me and my family peace. You silenced the demons I had wrestled with for the last five years. There’s nothing I can do to tell you how much I have to thank you for this.”
“Why even bother then?” I mutter under my breath, frustration mounting.
“Well, that sounds like a step in the right direction,” comes from Saylor at the same time.
North pulls out a check from his suit jacket and hands it to me. Confusion washes over me as I look at him and then at the check. It’s for one hundred thousand dollars.
Saylor leans over to see it and snorts in disdain. “Never mind.”
“Are you fucking kidding me, North?” I exclaim, unable to contain my anger. “We already had this conversation. I’m not agold digger, and I don’t want your damn money. And if this is a test again, I’m going to shove that check right up your ass.”
“Test?” Saylor asks, confused, but I ignore him.
He doesn’t need to know everything. To know how deep of a hole I dug myself by letting North touch me, letting him make me come in his office, pressed against that glass wall, his breath in my neck.
“Good girls deserve a reward, don’t you think?”
