The One That I Want (Scorned Women Society Book 3) Piper Sheldon (classic books for 12 year olds .TXT) 📖

teeth and rubbed at his collarbone, shoulders stretching beneath his shirt as though to get some air. “The day of the conference, a big group came to town. They went to the hotel where they were supposed to be staying.” He winced. “I forgot to book their rooms. They showed up, about twenty of them, and there was nothing available. I rushed to go meet with them and find a place but everything was booked for the conference. I had to smooth feathers. But I fucked up. Big-time. Skip stood in for me at the trade show as I groveled to the customer and got them a place to stay at some Airbnbs. It was awful.”

He closed his eyes.

“I’m so sorry,” I said. Admittedly, that made my skin itchy. That type of mistake was my biggest fear.

“Skip is always there to clean up my messes. Following behind me with his sweeper to pick up my pieces.”

“Is that why he came to Green Valley?” I asked cautiously.

He glanced to me. “Yeah. Between my dad and the business”—his eyes flicked to mine and away—“I think he thinks that I’m struggling a bit.”

This made me frown. Sanders always seemed so put together. So confident. It was hard to imagine him needing help at all.

“One day …”

“What?” I asked.

“One day, he’s going to stop coming to my rescue.” He chewed his lip thoughtfully.

“And you will be fine,” I said. Reluctantly I released the rope to grab his hand. “You’ll figure it out and he’ll still be your friend. You’re more than capable of handling the business. I’ve seen it. You’re fantastic with customers. Skip is a great friend, but you could handle the business yourself if you wanted to let him go. You handled the mistake you made with the conference. You can handle more than you think, I bet. You’re whip smart. You’re just dealing with something terrible.”

“Thanks.” He glanced away and back, scratching at the back of his neck. “That’s why I’m out here. To help fix the damage I’ve done.”

“You will. This week will be great and you’ll get a ton of business. Maybe you could even open another branch out here?” I said hesitantly.

His gaze held me in place. “That would be great.”

We smiled at each other and I felt myself blush. God, I’m such a sucker. But I was honored that he shared with me. I knew what it cost him.

“See? Look at us. Sharing. You can see why this is good for people. Nothing enables trust more than putting your life in a stranger’s hands,” he said.

“Gee, when you put it that way.” My head shook. I didn’t put my life in others’ hands. I didn’t even put my laundry in other people’s hands. If I wanted something done right, I did it myself.

“You’re going to need to move eventually,” he said.

“I know.” I nodded a few times rapidly but still didn’t move. Now my eyes wouldn’t open.

Two large hands squeezed my shoulders. The sudden contact was so jolting my eyes shot open.

He gently squeezed. “Why don’t we try something else?”

“I’m not camping,” I said.

“No.” He chuckled. “I didn’t realize you were so scared.”

“I’m not scared. I’m sane. This isn’t healthy. Millions of years of evolutionary instinct yelling that this is a bad idea.”

“I understand.” He seemed genuine. “Let’s climb back down.” He started to reclip his carabiners.

“I’m not falling for your reverse psychology.”

“Roxy, I promise that’s not what this is. I wanted to show you what Outside the Box does. I’m not trying to force you into something you aren’t comfortable with. I have other activities we could try. Or we can hang out and watch the next group.”

I crossed my arms. “Screw that. I’m doing this.” I double-checked the chin strap of my helmet.

He was being honest with me. I could do this. Take a leap of faith for once. Even if it was just a tiny one. I crouched and pushed myself off without another word. My body zipped through the air. The forest blurred around me. Okay, I was only going like five miles an hour but it felt much faster.

I screamed, clamping my eyes shut. I was definitely making a fool of myself and knew that Sanders was laughing at me. It was all over fast. The next platform was waiting only a few yards away. I did as we practiced and landed with a gentle thump on the mat.

My whole body shook as I clipped myself to the next rung and the next until I was secured to the platform.

“That was awful!” I screamed across to him.

“You were great,” he yelled back with a big stupid goofy grin that made me want to kiss it right off.

He was across and on the platform with me not ten seconds later. I was beginning to sense this was the bunny hill of zip-lining.

“Okay, I admit it, Colonel, that wasn’t as terrible as I thought it was going to be.”

“Just wait until you do the ones that are three hundred feet in the air. Or half a mile long.” He grinned and it was infectious.

“That’s never going to happen. I’m good for the rest of time,” I said, dead serious. I was proud of myself but saw no reason to tempt fate ever again. “Can we get down now?”

He laughed. “I’ll go first. Just remember lead with red, unclip, clip, then green, unclip, clip.”

“Got it,” I said.

The platform was only about twenty steps but it took a few minutes to do the clip and unclip thing, so that by the time I almost reached the bottom, my already shaking arms were fatigued. Okay, I needed to work my upper body more. More classes at Stripped and maybe I’d be able to hang, literally, like Suzie.

“There you are. I went and made some tea and came back,” Sanders said a few feet below me.

“Aren’t you hilarious,” I said.

But I wasn’t paying attention. I’d let myself get comfortable in the rhythm of the work and realized I