“When people find out, they aren’t going to vote for me,” I moaned to Kate, pacing around my apartment. “They’re obviously going to vote for Hunter. I’m the mess who burned off her hair, and he’s the handsome, helpful billionaire who’s bailing me out.”
“Just keep pushing forward,” Kate insisted. “Hunter loves you. If he wanted to put your financial failings on blast, then he would have. But instead, he’s trying to help you.”
“Do you trust him?” Susie asked.
I shrugged. “I shouldn’t, but I guess I do. He usually means well. He just goes about it the wrong way.”
But was I just making excuses for him? Was I overlooking the lying, excusing it because I wanted the happily ever after?
66
Hunter
Meg hadn’t seemed as upset as I had expected. She didn’t tell me she hated me and never wanted to see me again. But the next day and a half after, she blew me off, responding to my olive branches with only short, terse text messages.
Hunter:Are you mad at me?
Meg:Just prepping for the debate.
Hunter:So you don’t want me to steal all your secrets?
Meg:Just need to prepare.
That was how all our text conversations went. When I called her, she never picked up the phone. The only thing worse than Meg’s hatred of me was her indifference.
I couldn’t lose her. I sat at my desk in my campaign office and went over all my bad decisions regarding Meg over and over in my head.
“Ready for the debate? You only have a few days,” Karen reminded me. “You know, we could order dinner, and I could help you prepare.”
“Look, Karen,” I said tersely, “I hired you to run my campaign, not sleep with me, not become the next Mrs. Svensson or even the side piece I show off to the tabloids. If you can’t do your job, then get out.”
Karen recoiled as if I had slapped her, then she straightened. “Of course. I’ll email you your notes.”
“Thank you.” I sat back down to brood over Meg. I scrolled through her photos she had sent… the sexy ones. I set the phone down. Was this going to be the rest of my life with her? Wondering if every time I slept with her would be the last, wondering if every time she texted me would be the last?
It was infuriating and took up too much of my brain power. But I couldn’t let her go.
“You want to ride together to the Svensson Investment meeting?” Weston asked me after lunch.
“Absolutely not,” I replied, grabbing my keys.
* * *
“How isMeg’s financial resolution coming?” I asked Blade when I walked into the Svensson Investment office.
My brothers were seated around the large conference table on the eighty-fifth floor of the Svensson Investment tower in Manhattan. If it hadn’t been for my father dumping my little brothers off at Harrogate for me to clean up and civilize, I would have had an office at the top of the Svensson Investment tower. I would be the top dog billionaire in Manhattan. Instead, I was fielding insane email messages from small-town kooks and telling my younger brothers for the thousandth time that no, they could not eat that slug they found in the yard, or pile their mattresses out of the window and jump on them, or skip showering for weeks on end.
It was never-ending. My father was never going to stop. This was the rest of my life. It would be bearable if Meg were in it, but she wouldn’t even fucking talk to me.
“You better get on it,” Weston said to Blade. “Hunter is in a state.”
“Hunter’s always in a state,” Beck said.
“No one asked your opinion,” I snarled at my half brother.
Beck raised an eyebrow.
“So, how is Meg’s financial situation?” he asked Blade. “Quantum Cyber hasn’t received any alerts of new loans being taken out in her name.”
