I snapped my fingers and pointed at her. “Bingo. All of this shit? Having me work late and always beckoning me at the worst times? I think he’s working out whatever rage I remind him of, and I’m hoping that if I let him do it long enough, he’ll finally tell me what the hell happened between him and my sister so that we can get past it. I love this job, and I’ll do whatever it takes to keep it, but I know we won’t have a positive working relationship until I can pull out of him what happened all those years ago.”
Kelly leaned against the wall. “It sounds like this is more than just a break-up gone wrong.”
I scoffed. “You’re telling me.”
Brit shook her head. “Do you have any ideas at all as to what happened?”
I shrugged. “All I know is that after the break-up, Maggie wasn’t the same. She still lives with my parents, she goes to therapy twice a week. She’s been doing all of that since high school, and for the life of me not even my own parents will tell me what happened.”
Kelly whistled lowly. “Sounds like some serious bullshit.”
Brit nodded. “Sounds like Mr. Ryker needs a bit of therapy, too, to get past things.”
I sighed and closed my eyes. “All I know is that part of me wants to help him for the sake of whatever friendship we had back then, and part of me wants to help him because I love this job. I love where I work. I love this city. It’s come to be my home. And I don’t want to have to leave because some overgrown man-child can’t get his shit together because he wants to act like the tough guy.”
“Anything we can do to help?” Kelly asked.
I cleared my throat. “Just tell people to fuck off if they continue gossiping about us, because the more they talk the more JoJo closes himself off to me, which puts my job at risk.”
Kelly smiled. “Consider it done.”
Brit stood. “Me, too.”
I giggled softly. “Thanks, you guys. Now, if you don’t mind, I really need to try and get some work done.”
And after they exited my office, the crowd scattered, leaving me alone while I continued to answer emails.
Because it was going to be hell on earth for the next few days, I felt it in my bones.
17
Rebecca
I staredat the flier for the family reunion and almost threw up in my mouth. Since when did my family do reunions? I’d never been to one in my whole ass life. I’d never once heard my parents mention anything about family get-togethers.
And yet, the little asterisk note at the bottom of the mailed flier told a very different story.
*We hope to see you there! Everyone’s excited you’re coming home.*
“Fucking hell,” I whispered.
So, the first thing I did was call the person who had to sign off on my paid leave.
JoJo.
“Why aren’t you at work yet?” he asked when he picked up the phone.
I clicked my tongue as I dropped my purse on my desk. “Actually, I am.”
“Then, why are you bothering with calling me when you could just come up here?”
“I think you and I both know the answer to that question.”
He paused. “What do you need, Miss Loren?”
I sighed. “My family is having a family reunion this weekend. I just got the flier in the mail this morning.”
“There’s so much wrong with that sentence, I don’t even know where to start.”
