Shattered: A Salvation Society Novel Bella Emy (best ebook reader for laptop .TXT) 📖

leave the room alone. She went down with me to the beach, and after walking for about fifteen minutes, spilling all the details of what happened and all my emotions out to her, we sat down in the sand, and watched the waves.

When we got back to the room, she helped me make the appropriate phone calls to begin the insurance claim and everything that would need to be done.

As of right now, I’m out of a lounge and just watching my dreams spin down a drain. I extended my hotel stay here at Starling Paradise just because I can’t imagine going back in a couple of days to deal with this firsthand.

“Can I go downstairs and get you some breakfast, girl?” Erin asks me from where she’s standing against the couch in the living room.

I spin around in my chair and face her, shrugging. “I’m not really hungry right now.”

She frowns. “You’ve got to eat, Lexi. Let me go grab something for you.”

Before I have a chance to tell her I can’t manage to eat anything right now, the ringing of the room’s phone goes off. I jump at the sound. I had nightmares last night of my phone ringing and I kept receiving one bad notification after the next.

Who’s calling the room phone? If someone wanted to reach either one of us, wouldn’t they call our cell phones? It has to be the front desk.

I pick it up after it rings a few times. “Hello?”

“Good morning, Lexi.”

Kalen? Is that him? I decide to ask away. “Kalen? Is that you?”

“Ah, no more Mr. Starling. That’s got to be a good start.” His chuckle fills my ears. “But anyways, yes, it’s me… at your service, milady. How are you feeling?”

I swallow hard. Terrible. Miserable. Depressed. Any of those descriptors work right about now. But do I go ahead and confess that to him? He has no idea about my lounge, nor do I really want to get into it right now. “I’m okay… sort of.” Okay, so maybe I can’t hide it all that well. Shit. I really hope he doesn’t ask questions.

“I saw what happened on the news. I’m very sorry.”

Well, shit. He didn’t even ask. He already knows. But how? “How do you even know? I never said anything to you about my lounge.”

A soft chuckle escapes him. “I have my ways. But anyway, I want to get your mind off things for a while, and that’s why I’m calling.”

I furrow my brows. I’ve tried to take my mind off things since last night, but it was futile. I couldn’t stop thinking about what happened for a single second. Plus, the images I got to see online didn’t help either.

I guess he figures if he takes me out now, it’ll help. But I’m in no freaking mood. If I didn’t agree to it before, I sure as hell won’t agree to it now.

“I don’t know, Kalen. I’m not really up to doing much of—”

“Take a trip with me.”

I have to pause for a second to make sure his words register in my brain correctly. “What?”

“Take a trip with me, it’ll be fun, and get your mind off things… you can relax and take a breather.”

“A trip?” I repeat. Erin darts my way, leaning over my shoulder, trying to listen in. I smirk as she strains to hear the other side of the conversation.

“Uh-huh,” he says, and adds nothing further.

Guess I need to reject him yet again. There’s no way in hell I’m agreeing to go anywhere with him right about now. If I leave here, it will be to go home and try to figure everything out. There is a list a mile long of things I need to do now that my lounge is ruined and won’t be opening any time soon. Even if I had the amount of money needed to fix everything, there just isn’t enough time.

I take a deep breath. Erin nudges my shoulder, but it doesn’t stop my response. “Kalen, I’m sorry. I can’t do that. I just—”

“Aww, c’mon, Lex. It’s for your birthday.”

I furrow my brows and tilt my head, shocked he still remembers. “My birthday…”

Chuckling again, he says, “Yeah, you didn’t really think I forgot, did you?”

Um, yes…

I turn to face Erin as she nudges me again. She mouths the words, “Oh, my God!”

“The big two-six,” he says with a smile I can hear through the phone. “C’mon, seriously, it’ll be great. Three days on the water, just you and me. What do you say?”

“What do I say? Ummm, how about no since there’s supposed to be a huge storm coming?”

“Nope, no more storm. The weather reports all cleared it for this area. The storm has shifted and won’t be hitting anywhere around us. We’ll be fine. So how about that birthday getaway?”

I was supposed to be spending my birthday celebrating with Erin. Now, I don’t even want to think about my birthday. Again, Erin taps my arm, trying to convince me to accept his invitation.

But I can’t. I just can’t. “I don’t think so.”

Erin pulls my arm and I have to cover the speaker part of the phone. “Lexi, you have to go! Do it!”

“No!” I whisper-shout.

I hear Kalen’s voice, and I bring the phone back up to my ear.

Then a click, and I realize Erin pressed the button on the phone, causing it to go on speaker. I throw her a look and she just smiles stupidly at me.

I don’t even bother trying to take the call off speaker. I mean, she’s going to know sooner or later.

I place the phone down and listen to Kalen try to plead his case once more. “Come on, Lexi. A few days out on the sea will definitely clear your mind. And if it doesn’t, we can turn right around, and I’ll bring you back.” The sound of Kalen’s voice makes me bite my lip. Damn, does he have to sound hot, too? Isn’t looking good enough torture?

I think over his words