Parkerlooked at her, concern all over his face. “Areyou okay?”
Whatwas she doing?Shehad let herself bond withJames’sfamily, so she knew first-hand how painful it was to get close to a boyfriend’s family, knowing that if you ever broke up with the boyfriend, you could never see his family again.
Shewas trying to not let herself fall forParkerso quickly and so fully and so completely.Butit wasParker.Andthe man was just way too easy to fall for.Shestill had no idea how she had worked on the same floor as him for two-and-a-half years without falling blindly, madly, fully in love with him.
“I’mgreat,” she said and flashed him a big smile.
Sixteen
Parker
Parkerwokeup happy before his brain was even awake enough to remember why he was so happy.Thecarriage ride last night had been so amazing, and he’d spent the whole time memorizing how it had felt to haveKelliin his arms.Tohave her head on his shoulder, her breath on his neck.
Hepicked up his phone to text her good morning and hoped a little that maybe there would be a text from her.Instead, his screen was filled with social media notifications.Hejust stared at them, confused, not understanding why so many random comments were showing up on his screen.Hetapped on one of them.
Andthen he wished he hadn’t.Theywere all comments on a post that his ex-fiancée had made.Hescrolled up toStephanie’spost, dreading reading it, but feeling like he needed to know what was going on.
Hey, everyone!Youall know that my wedding withParkerBrockbankwas supposed to be last week.I’vehad quite a few people check in to ask about it, soIthoughtI’dgive an update.Mostof you know thatParkerandIcalled off our wedding a few months ago.Iknow.Butdon’t go clicking on that sad emoji, because there’s no reason to feel bad for me.I’dlike to announce thatI’vemet the most wonderful man on the planet.Hisname isRoger, andIfeel so blessed to be adored by him.Sometimeswe have to go through the pain of a catastrophic hurricane to get to the sunshine and blue skies and true love on the other side.
Thepicture she posted with it was of her andRogeron vacation together, and it looked like they were on one of the islands his honeymoon cruise with her was supposed to stop at.Andnow she was there with her “true love,” and feeling blessed that she was no longer withParker, her “catastrophic hurricane.”
Andof course, she had tagged him in her post.Thatway he was sure to also see all the comments from her friends—people he used to call friends, too—about how she shouldn’t feel bad becauseParkerwasn’t good enough for her, and how glad they were that she had found someone better.
Heun-tagged himself from the post and closed out of the app, his teeth grinding and all the muscles in his body tensing.Insteadof heading straight to the shower as he’d planned, he got dressed in his gym clothes and shoes and took off for a run along the beach.Heneeded to do something constructive with his racing heartbeat so he didn’t do something stupid instead.
Butrunning gave him too much time to think and question if he ever was or ever could be relationship material.Stephaniecertainly didn’t think so.Dozensof people commenting onStephanie’spost didn’t seem to think he was, either.Andthey were mostly people he had known.Peoplewho hadn’t given him any kind of indication that they thought he wasn’t worthy ofStephanie.
Whatmade him think he could start a new relationship and be successful?Especiallywith someone as incredible asKelli?
Evenafter showering, he still couldn’t shake the weight he’d been carrying since readingStephanie’spost.Runningusually helped, but since it hadn’t, he didn’t know what else to try.Soeven though he didn’t feel like it, he met up with everyone else in the family room to go make snowmen out of sand.Itdidn’t sound possible, but maybe it had a chance of distracting him.
Whenhe walked into the family room, though, his eyes immediately foundKelli, and her face lit up again just from seeing him.Hecouldn’t letStephaniebring him down.Notwhen a relationship withKelliwas on the line.Kelliis different, he told himself.Youare different.
Sincethe storm passed, the weather climbed back into the sixties, and with the sun shining, the beach felt amazing.Asit turned out, it wasn’t impossible to distract himself whenKelliwas around, and it also wasn’t impossible to make a snowman out of sand.Itjust involved creative stacking and packing of wet sand, the same way making a castle did.Theywere just making a “castle” that was taller than he’d ever made, so it took some extra good packing, which they’d found out the hard way.JoyandThomaswere working with them, and for the most part, they were having fun.
Butsomething seemed off withKelli, and his mind never drifted far from that fact.Shewasn’t smiling as easily as normal, and when he asked her if she was okay, she responded with “I’mfine.”Hewas pretty sure that meant she was anything but fine.Maybeshe had been coming up with her own list of things about him that annoyed her.Everytime he worried about her even for a second, the weight ofStephanie’spost settled on him again.
Theyneeded some wetter sand, so whenKelligrabbed a bucket and said she’d get some, he grabbed a bucket and said he would, too.Oncethey were away from everyone else, he said, “Itseems like something is bothering you.Doyou want to talk about it?”
Sheglanced toward everyone who was busy working in groups of four to make their snowmen, as if she was making sure they couldn’t hear, then let out a huge breath. “Ilogged in to work, just to check the numbers from my campaign that was running overChristmas.Nowdon’t give me any grief about being a workaholic, because you put in as many hours at the office asIdo, andIhaven’t logged in the whole time we’ve been here.”
Sheshook her head, looking down at the bucket she was shoveling sand into. “Idon’t even know what made me log in this morning.I’vebeen enjoying the trip and hadn’t even thought about work most days.IguessIwas just feeling worried or unsettled or something, andIkind of just wanted that boost you get from seeing a job you worked hard on doing well, you know?”
Henodded.Heknew exactly what she meant—it was one of the reasons why he was a workaholic, too.
Sheglanced up, looking even more worried that someone might hear, her cheeks flushing.Thenshe whispered, “It’sgoing terribly,Parker.So, so, so bad.Imade a huge mistake and wasted a big chunk of our marketing budget.Lizprobably doesn’t even know about it yet, but when she finds out, she’s going to fire me.”
“She’snot going to fire you.”
“Sheis!Itook a big risk, thinking it was going to go well and knock everyone’s socks off, and it tanked.Andthen after she fires me,GrahamandMeritare going to find out and they’re going to wish they never brought me on this trip.”
“Kelli.”Heheld onto her hand and pulled her to standing. “She’snot going to fire you.Takingrisks is a good thing, especially with your record.Takingrisks is also what gives the biggest return on investment.Lizdoesn’t expect every risk to pay off.”Evenas he said the words, he hoped that she would be willing to keep taking risks—like taking a risk on him, specifically.
“I’vebeen trying to be the perfect, model employee becauseIreally like working atZentCube, and that mistake showed thatI’mthe exact opposite of a perfect, model employee.I’mnot even sure if winning a weekly lunch for my team for a year is going to make up for a mistake that huge.”
Theskin just under her eyes was turning pink, and he could tell by her erratic breathing that she was on the verge of tears but didn’t want to cry with everyone around.Hewrapped his arms around her, enveloping her in a hug.
“Kelli,Lizhas been your boss for how long now?”
