Page 49 of Burning Rivalry

“It’s a simple question,” Grayson pointed out when all I could do was glare.

There was nothing to do but come clean. “That asshole ex of hers came around, and I heard them talking about it, and she practically jumped at the idea.”

“So she said yes,” Aiden concluded. “Was it even his job to offer her?”

“You’re not getting it.” I looked around the table and found four blank expressions. “She didn’t say no, dammit. She didn’t tell him she had something here that she wanted to hold onto. What am I supposed to make of that?”

“Did you try asking her what she wanted?” Vaughn asked. When I glared at him, he wouldn’t back down. “Or did you assume what she wanted?”

“Oh, that’s a bad one,” Aiden said, clicking his tongue and shaking his head. “Women don’t like it when you assume shit.”

“Yeah? What, did you read that on a bathroom stall?” Jackson snorted.

“I know I did the right thing, and that’s all I need to know. All right? Let’s drop it.” I had a feeling my words fell on deaf ears.

“Listen. I’m only going to say this once, and I’m going to let it go.” Setting the glass down, Vaughn leaned in. “If you want her to stay, you should tell her that. Don’t let this go without at least clearing the air. For all you know, she could still be in town, wishing there was a way through this. Don’t be an asshole,” he warned. “You’ll regret it. If she matters to you, clear the air so you can at least say you did everything you could to make it work.”

Motherfucker.

I never asked what she wanted.

Looking back, I couldn’t believe my stupidity. I was hurt, wounded, so close to telling her how much she meant to me before that smirking asshole showed up and brought all of my deepest fears to the surface. The fear that she would decide staying with me wasn’t enough. Working with me, being with me. That her ambition could never be fulfilled with me. That she would decide she had made a mistake. That I had held her back. I couldn’t have lived with that, so I decided to tank us before she could. And look where it got me—miserable, directionless, unable to think about the next steps when I was stuck on her.

“I’ve got to go,” I decided, bolting back the rest of my drink, my phone in hand, before I left the table.

“Thank God,” Aiden muttered. “You’re about as fun as watching paint dry when you’re feeling sorry for yourself.”

“Fuck you,” I fired back, and their laughter ran out behind me as I headed for the door.

No big surprise, Claudia sending my call to voicemail. I tried a second time on my way to the car. What to do? Track her down at her apartment? I had never been there, but I still had the address on file.

On second thought, I took a chance, knowing it might save me time. I could only hope she would answer, that she hadn’t blocked my number after our disastrous date.

She hadn’t. “Make it quick,” Hadley whispered while I slid behind the wheel. “I’m hiding in the bathroom.”

A strange way to begin a conversation, but I put it all together quickly enough. “She’s there, isn’t she?”

“No, I enjoy hiding in the bathroom,” she whispered. “I shouldn’t even be talking to you. She would skin me alive.”

“I made a mistake.”

“No shit, Sherlock.”

Funny. I liked her a lot more this way when she wasn’t trying to awkwardly seduce me. “What do I do? I’m serious,” I insisted when she scoffed. What was the point of pride? The girl had damn near thrown up on me. “I fucked up. I need to make it up to her. I want us to be a team. I lashed out… acted before I thought. And I see now what a terrible mistake that was. I just want her to come back. If that’s what she wants.”

A few moments passed when all I heard was her breathing. “She didn’t want to leave in the first place,” she muttered. “God, I am being such a bad friend right now, but it’s true. She wanted to stay with you, but you never gave her a chance to explain.”

“I know.” I touched my head to the seat behind it, closing my eyes as a sense of regret bordering on grief settled over me like a shroud. I had caused all of this by forcing her hand. There was no one to blame but myself. “Did she take the new job?”

“She’s been in limbo since she got here. Listen, she can work anywhere she wants.” Fierce pride rang out in her voice. “That’s not the point. She left New York mostly to get far away from Brandon and make a new start. She came back because she has nobody out there now that you fucked everything up. Your line of work doesn’t exactly allow a person to develop a social life.”

“I know that.”

“So I’m all she’s got. I don’t know whether she plans on staying or if she’s only here to lick her wounds,” she concluded, softer now. Concerned.

“What do I do?” I asked, pride be damned. “How do I make this right?”

Snorting, she asked, “Honestly? You want to make it right? Or is this all about getting back what you think belongs to you?”