Page 58 of Flirting with 40

Funny how when I finish, it seems all of the air has suddenly been sucked from the room.

“Moving on,” Heather dismisses with a quick shake of her head. And on she drones from one slide to the next. None of them mine like the first one was, but they are someone’s nonetheless.

By the time we’ve worked through her slides, nature is calling me. And I don’t mean going to the bathroom. I mean the outdoors that I’ve never liked before now seems a hundred times better than being in this stuffy room with Horrible Heather.

That, and I get to see Slade again. The thought makes me giddy like a high school crush. I should be ashamed of it, but I’m not.

“So, we’ll see you in forty minutes down at the dock for paddleboard yoga, everyone!”

I catch Gemma’s wince and am glad that I’m not the only one who isn’t fond of the combination of two activities. On their own, I can manage, but putting them together is going to be a disaster.

“Blakely, can I have a word?”

The air deflates in my chest, but my voice remains chipper. “Sure. Yeah.” I keep my back to her with my hand on the door.

“I wasn’t trying to offend you with the critique today.”

I plaster my fuck-you smile on my lips when I turn to look at her. “Of course you weren’t. You were too busy pointing out to everyone how inadequate I was in an effort to undermine any support I might have for the VP position.”

“I’d never do such a thing.” She crosses her arms over her chest. “You have more experience than anyone for the job.”

Exactly. I have more experience than even you.

“Barbie was telling me all about her run-in with you and Slade last week.”

“Oh?” I’ve been waiting for this to come up.

“She was just saying how Paul thought it was interesting how you’d been hanging on to hope that the two of you would get back together and then, there you were, with Slade. Pretty convenient if you ask me.”

I laugh and hope I pull it off. “Convenient? Just because your bestie is marrying my ex, it doesn’t give you the right to have any commentary on my personal life. Paul lost the right to have any thoughts or opinions about me a long time ago, so I wouldn’t put much stock in his opinions considering he knows nothing about me. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go and get my suit on for paddleboarding.”

Right when I reach for the doorknob, her words hit me from behind. “Good luck trying to keep a man like that.”

I freeze as I try to figure out how to respond. I think of the girl in the bar and how I let her scare me away without my saying a word. I think of how I vowed to never cower from a comment again, and then I rationalize that I don’t have a choice but to walk away without a word this time.

Why give her more fuel for her fire? Why bark back when I know she’s looking for a fight?

I grit my teeth, swallow my urge to lay into her, and then turn and look at her with the professionalism I don’t really feel. “For someone who’s spent the last twenty-four hours preaching about us coming together as a team, comments like that from our team leader seem counterproductive. But what do I know, I’m just the person who turned down your job before they offered it to you.”

CHAPTER TWENTY

Blakely

I yelp when arms wrap around me and pull me off the path toward the cabin. Like full on freak out. In those few seconds, I lived my own horror story in my overactive imagination. One where I’d been abducted off the trail at Red Mountain Lodge, never to be seen again. Slade would search endlessly for me to no avail before vowing never to be with another woman because I was his everything.

My ridiculousness lasts only seconds before my abductor spins me around and slants his lips over mine.

“Slade.” His name is a breathless pant of relief before I get lost again in the carnality of Slade’s kiss. In the desperation I can taste on his tongue and the need I manifest by fisting my hands in his shirt. I allow myself to forget what Heather said and how much it has owned my thoughts since leaving the meeting room a few minutes ago.

Slade and his lips are exactly what I need.

“What was that all about?” I murmur when the kiss ends and he leans back.

“I needed a little something to motivate me before I have to go do this next activity.”

I reach up to pull a piece of leaf from his hair. “Paddleboard yoga not your thing?

“Is it anyone’s thing?” He laughs, pointing to the cabin. “Go get our swimsuits on?”