Come As You Are
“That’s why he said I stole his scoop. Which is ridiculous. But are you going to do one with him?”
“He’s determined, and Jennica convinced me since he’s becoming quite a playmaker in this space. But I won’t be talking to him until we’re done.”
She fidgets with her earring, twisting a daisy-petal stud back and forth. “What if he knows Bob Galloway? What if he says something to him about what he thinks happened with us at the party?”
“Why would he do that?”
Fear seems to flash across her eyes. “He’s Evil Kermit.”
“That was just a part he played,” I say, trying to reassure her, though I’m not entirely sure there’s nothing to worry about.
“I don’t trust him. I don’t trust anyone.”
And that—that I understand. “We’ll deny it. He has no evidence. All he knows is I had your halo, and that doesn’t prove anything. I don’t want you to lose this chance with the article and Up Next. I know how much it means to you.”
Her lips quiver, then she presses them together. Her voice is a feather when she speaks again. “Stop it. Stop being so sweet and thoughtful.”
“I’m not being sweet and thoughtful. It’s just how I feel.”
“And how you feel is because you’re good and generous, and I wish I didn’t have a job on the line.”
“Me too.” As I glance at the field where Carson tosses the softball to Jennica as they warm up, I know we all have something on the line.
I do my best at Haven to take away my employees’ worries by treating them well, treating them like family. I wish I could take away Sabrina’s worries. I wish I could do something to make her life easier. I don’t know what it would be though.
Grabbing my glove, I vow to try and figure it out as I play the game today.
“Wait.” She reaches for my shirtsleeve, her voice dropping to that low, sultry tone that absolutely obliterates my resolve. “Do you want to know how I could tell you and your brother apart?”
“How?”
She zeroes in on my face, her voice barely audible. “Your lips. I’d recognize them anywhere.”
“Why’s that?”
“Because they drew me to you. They’re the reason I talked to you that night. I wanted to kiss you as soon as I saw you.”
I ache with desire. It fills every cell in my body. “I wanted to kiss you. I wanted it so fucking much.”
And God, I want it again.
I want it again so badly that I strike out all three times I’m at the plate, because my mind is on what I can’t have.
The woman I’m falling for.
* * *
When the softball game is over, we head to a café. Ostensibly, she wants to talk about the future of tech, and we touch on that briefly, but mostly we just chat. She tells me more about her mom. She talks about Ray too, how devastated she was when he left her but how her work as a reporter was critical to her moving on. She poured herself into her job, and as she tells me this, I understand even more of what makes her tick—who she is beneath the mask she wore the night I met her.
“Remember the dress I wore to the costume party? The angel wings?”
“Yes. They were satin or something soft.”
“Chiffon. That was my unused wedding dress. Everything was ready, then he called and said he was leaving the country.”
My jaw tightens. “Do you think he was cheating on you?”
“It’s possible. He might have been lured by gambling, by another woman, or by his own unhappiness. I don’t actually know.”
“Do you want to know?”
She pauses, seeming to consider the question. “For the longest time, I did. I wanted to understand. But ultimately, I had to accept that maybe this is one of those things I won’t ever have an answer to, just questions. So, I’ve learned to let it go. It’s an unsolved mystery, and I learned from it.”
“What did you learn?” I ask, hoping she doesn’t say that she never wants to get involved with a man again.
“I learned I won’t always have the answers, and that’s okay.” She offers a small smile. “What about you?”
“I learned to be cautious about who I trust.” I take a breath and tell her about Annie, and how the end of that relationship hurt but how I walked away from it knowing that leaving was the only choice.
Sabrina meets my gaze, her hazel eyes fierce. She stabs the table with her finger. “She did not deserve you. I mean that, Flynn. She didn’t deserve you at all. No one does unless they love you for you. Unless they love you no matter what you have or don’t have.”
When she says that, I start to believe we could be that way—we could be a no-matter-what. That’s what scares me and, honestly, kind of thrills me at the same time. A no-matter-what with her—I feel the potent possibility in my chest, thrumming in my veins.
As we drain our iced coffees, her phone rings. It’s FaceTime. She glances at the screen, and her face lights up. I’ve never seen her like this. Absolute delight spreads across her features as she declares, “It’s Kevin!”
I tip my chin to the phone. “Answer it.”
She shakes her head. “No, I can call him back later.”
“Sabrina, you can talk to your brother. It’s totally fine. I get it.”
“Are you sure?” she asks nervously.
The phone rings again. “Answer it, or I’ll answer it for you.”
With a grin, she slides her thumb across the screen and says, “Hey, Kevin. I’m here with Flynn.”
The fact that she didn’t need to introduce me says she’s already told him about me. That has to be a good sign. I sit a little taller. She shows me the phone, and I say hello to her brother, a baby-faced blond with a straight nose and kind eyes.
“Hey, Flynn. Nice to finally meet you.”
“Good to meet you. Sabrina has told me a lot about you,” I say. “She thinks you’re the cat’s meow.”
Kevin meows. “And the pajamas too. Also, thank you. I’m glad to hear she said good things to you.”
Sabrina peers at the screen. “Hey, can I call you later when I finish this interview?”
“Sure.” Kevin scratches his head. “You’re doing another one?”
Her answer comes at the speed of light. “Yes.”
“How often do you guys do interviews? Hasn’t this kind of been going on for forever?”
Sabrina glances at me over the top of the phone, a guilty-as-charged look in her eyes before she returns her focus to her brother. “Kevin, stop saying things you shouldn’t be saying right now. I love you, and I’ll talk to you later.”
When she clicks end, I cluck my tongue. “We don’t really need to talk this much for the story. Do we?”
Sabrina shakes her head. “I don’t think we do. I kind of have everything I need already.”
“Really?” Perhaps she can hear the disappointment in my voice. If she can’t, she should have her hearing checked.
“Well,” she says, tapping her chin, “I suppose there are a couple more things I wanted to ask you.”
“I guess we should talk again tomorrow?”
“Definitely.”
We make plans for the next day.
20
Sabrina
Since I’ve had so many interviews with other people, it’s only natural that I need to talk to Flynn after I speak with the others.