She pulled back the living room curtains, looked up and down the empty street, then closed them. She’d been doing this for ten full minutes. Ever since she got the text from Jack that he was on his way over.
Though he had officially arrived the night before. His flight from Los Angeles had been massively delayed. By the time he made it through Denver International, his flight had essentially become a red-eye. She didn’t mind having a moment—a whole night, in fact—to let her armor settle back into place before she faced him.
That armor was still pretty thin, but at least it was something.
Oh God. She was going to be sick.
The dissolving of a Cinderella contract did that to a girl. She wasn’t a total doomstagrammer—just a realist. Her influencer contract held a clause—something about ethics and appearances and not screwing any of that up. Her attorney friend, Sadie, had explained it all in detail, and much more eloquently after a couple of rounds of Kitty’s juice box cocktails as they all immersed themselves in what was being said about her online.
The firestorm Betsy started wasn’t kind, and it was definitely not tranquil. The words “fraud” and “liar” had been tossed around not-too-lightly. And that hurt the worst.
Because she didn’t want to believe it, but she definitely felt like one. When Jack dismissed her from her contract, she’d go back to teaching yoga full-time. She could become a micro influencer—it wasn’t the size of the audience, it was how she used it.
Oh dear God. That was the kind of thing her ex would’ve said. She did not need his type of thoughts rattling around in her brain. Not today, when she was doing the hard things.
Harmony stood on the sofa to get a better look out the window.
“Shoes off the sofa.” April gave a pointed glance at Harmony’s shoes pressing into the couch cushions. The green shoes April was prepared to burn the next time Harmony was out of the house.
“Relax,” April said, smoothing Rohan’s hair. “He’ll be here any minute.”
She stopped herself, dropping her hand mid-smooth.Doesn’t matter.
Rohan had also gone with a green shirt, but for different—amphibious—reasons than Harmony.
Lola was wearing purple stretchy pants, for what it was worth. Her purple matched April’s yoga pants from a start-up company that had been hoping April might become one of their brand ambassadors.
This was, of course, before yesterday.
Harmony scooted from the sofa and opened the door to peer onto the street, then she looked back at her mom. And April was pretty sure there was a teensy bit of accusation in little Harmony’s eyes. “He’s not here. Are you sure this guy’s coming?”
April scratched at her neck. No, he was not there yet, but—
“He is.” April picked a dog hair from the supposed-to-be-breathable poly-blend fabric suffocating her thighs.
These were definitely not her favorite. Not even the top ten, to be honest.
Harmony closed the door and slunk back to the couch.
A car door closed outside.
The bottom seemed to drop out of her stomach.
“He’s here.” Harmony bounced in her green-freaking-shoes.
He’s here.And April was about to handle the hell-o out of some hard life stuff. Starting with Jack, followed by issuing a response to the video.
She needed to face Jack, accept his termination of their contract, and start on step two. Whatever that was going to be.
April gulped. Took a deep, not-so-calming breath and moved back to the curtains, pulled them aside, and watched as Jack adjusted his suit jacket. He did that jacket-arm shake thing guys do to wrangle their sleeves into submission. Kent used to do that. She thought it was super hot. Now, she saw it for what it was…a guy probably trying to get his shirt cuffs aligned for his own comfort.
Still, her blood all seemed to rush to her head like she was upside down.
Harmony squirmed in beside her on one side; Rohan did the same on the other. Though he wasn’t so much bouncing as hopping from foot to foot.
April’s entire focus shifted to Jack.
Damn. His loose-limbed gait across the asphalt of her cul-de-sac drew her attention right to his thighs. They were nice thighs. The fabric of his slacks stretched really nicely there.
