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

more,” he said. “When I read that initial recommendation email for your hire, I had some concerns. But I figured, if you could handle a biker bar—”

“I can handle pretty much anything,” I finished. I didn’t flush worrying what he thought. That was forever ago. It wasn’t who I was now.

“It’s a shame I never got to meet this Bethany Winston. It sounds like she was a major matriarch of this town.”

I blinked at the random reference of Jet’s mama, who I’d never met. “Bethany Winston?”

“She was the one who emailed Diane recommending you for hire. It was way down in the emails but I got the impression when Bethany suggested something, people listened.”

I nodded dumbly. How had Gretchen convinced Bethany Winston to email Diane Donner about me back in the day? I didn’t even know Jet’s mom. None of this made any sense.

He went on but I was still focused on his last comment. “I’ve enjoyed working with you.” He swallowed and I watched his Adam’s apple move up and down. “I had hoped maybe we could get to know each other more.”

I blinked in surprise. Wait, what? All these months of thinking he was judging me for being small-town trash and he’d actually been looking at me like I was a woman he was interested in? I replayed all our interactions in a new light. But there was nothing there. There were no zips and fizzes. He was a good guy but he wasn’t mine.

When I didn’t say anything fast enough, he sighed. “But I suspect that you’re interested in getting to know Mr. Olsson better?”

I made a sound that came out like a groan and a growl.

Vincent scratched at his eyebrow under his glasses. “Yeah, I had a feeling. Had I known I was pushing you two together …” He shook his head and cleared his throat. “I lost my wife a few years back.”

“I’m so sorry. I had no idea.” I watched his face closely.

“I don’t like to talk about it but I’m just bringing it up because well, if you have strong feelings for someone, you should give yourself a chance to explore them.”

“Oh—okay.” I straightened my bangs, wondering where he was going with this.

“I know it’s weird for me to say this to you. I’m not trying to be unprofessional. But since I’m leaving anyway.” He shrugged. “I witnessed the way you two looked at each other when you thought nobody was looking and … it made me think of my wife.”

Emotion tightened my throat. I had no idea what to say. This was by far the longest and weirdest conversation the two of us had in all our months working together. Not that it was his fault, I didn’t exactly scream “people person.”

He cleared his throat and went on, “Also, I was organizing some files and found these mail slots in the back office.” He reached into the breast pocket of his jacket. “The mail cubbies look like they’ve been long forgotten but I found these. Addressed to you.”

He handed me a stack of letters.

“These were in the cubby with your name on it,” he explained. “That kid at the front desk said he’d been putting them there instead of bringing them to you.” He made a face that shared my opinion of the kid. “I assumed you didn’t know they were there.”

I shook my head dumbfounded. The shocks kept coming with this one. I recognized Sanders’ all-caps scrawl on each one. My heart hammered. Letters. At least a dozen of them, addressed to the Lodge, care of me.

“People use email … since like the nineties,” I said numbly.

What had Sanders been thinking? Nobody had used those mail cubbies since the construction started. That room was for storage mostly.

“Not everybody,” Vincent said and I remembered he still stood there.

“I can’t believe this,” I said mostly to myself.

“Seems like maybe he realized it was a mistake to leave you,” Vincent said and his strong gaze held mine.

Not quite, but it was nice of him to think that.

“Thank you for bringing them to me,” I said.

“Good luck, Roxanne,” Vincent said.

“Roxy. Please.” I smiled.

“I hope everything works out, Roxy,” he added with a demure smile. He started to walk away.

“Wait, Vincent. Are you coming back to Green Valley?”

“Maybe.” He shrugged one shoulder. “For the right reasons.”

He gave me a wave and walked away.

I stared down at the letters. With shaking hands, I brought them back to my new office. I wasn’t sure what this meant. What could it mean? All I knew was that Sanders hadn’t been ignoring me at all.

The letters weren’t what I expected. They were updates, casual conversations about what was happening in Sanders’ life. Though it was nice just to hear from him, I wasn’t sure how to reply, if at all. He had been mailing them for weeks at this point without my response, I doubted he expected any.

I needed to talk to somebody. I needed to clear the air with Gretchen. The longer the time passed between us, the more excuses I made. And I knew they were just that. But as I tried to think of the perfect way to broach the hard conversation with Gretchen, the universe decided to step in.

One text from Kim and I was moved to action. I was at Gretchen’s apartment above Stripped within minutes.

“Did you see that bullshit?” I said as way of greeting when Gretchen opened the door.

Gretchen’s eyes widened for a fraction before her face slid into neutral. “Come on in. Suzie’s already here.”

“She must know it’s not right if she’s texting us,” I said as I walked into the room.

I dropped my coat on the side of the chair as I entered the living room where Suzie sat. She looked up at my proclamation.

“I agree. Something’s as wrong as a feathered armadillo,” Suzie said. “We should have tried harder to convince her to stay.”

“You know us. An SWS member won’t change her mind until she is ready to,”