Make Me (Sterling Shore Series #10)(7)

I hate him for it.

At least I want to. I'm supposed to have a whole lot of hate in my heart for this beautiful man.

"So, this is awkward and long overdue, but I'm sorry."

He says the words in a rush, as though they're acid burning his tongue. Of all the reactions I expect to have, laughing is not one of them. But that's my only reaction. A full, ridiculous, belly laugh that almost feels painful.

He looks like he's torn between running away from the crazy girl and praying for me.

I wipe the tears from my eyes, the pain of laughing forcing them out. And he just watches me until I finally lose the riot.

I blow out a long breath, chuckle one last lingering laugh, and then shake my head.

"Sorry," I repeat, letting the word roll off my tongue. "Simple as that."

"I … uh … not really sure what else to say or do. I just wanted you to know that the reason-"

"Don't want to talk about it, Dale. Really, really don't," I groan.

He has no idea I came to this town with two purposes. To set up and launch my headquarters in the town that tried to destroy me so I can ram it down people's throats they were wrong about me. And to get some revenge. Sure, he wasn't a priority on that list. But the dick is still on there. He should know how it feels to be humiliated.

At least once in his life.

"Right," he says awkwardly.

His eyes rake over me, lingering a particularly long time on my breasts, and my lips twitch. He sure as hell never noticed them in school. I always tried to make him notice my one good asset. I just didn't know how to properly showcase them back then.

"You can stare, Dale Sterling, but you can't touch."

My grin flits across my lips as the confidence that hid from me earlier slowly starts to slide back into place. He jerks his gaze away, his eyes moving toward the ocean. The pure hatred I expected to feel when I laid eyes on him has vanished from thought.

Unfortunately, now I know Vivica was right about one thing. Seeking revenge on him for his part is just petty. I've been reading the file for the past hour; only stopped to take a break at the beach.

I let things go too cold. Whoever Dale was in school, that's not who he is now.

Mr. Charity and Good Guy are now his titles.

Not to mention the fact Vivica's notes also included why he stood me up on prom night. It was never the why that truly bothered me. It was the fact he stood by idly as I took on the mean squad alone.

Not even Tria would have had to face something like that alone. 

No one ever should.

"I didn't know what they were doing," he says, as though he's reading my mind.

"You didn't know," I repeat, sighing again. "Did you follow me here?" I ask, turning to face him.

He shakes his head. "Nah. Just came out here to think. But seeing you twice in one night is sort of a cosmic sign."

Cosmic sign. The universe is a sick bitch if so.

"Can we grab dinner tomorrow?" he asks randomly.

I whip my head around to face him. "What?"

He scratches the back of his neck like it's a nervous habit, and then meets my gaze again.

"Dinner. Tomorrow. My treat. I have some things I've needed to say for a while, and there will be knives all around if you don't like what you hear."

Like an idiot, a smile flits across my lips. Why am I smiling?

Oh, yeah. Because Dale Sterling just asked me out. Regardless of the fact I wouldn't mind humiliating him just a little, just hearing that long-time fantasy come true-for any reason-is impossible not to smile about.

And who knows, maybe I can finally lay to rest the teenage fantasies that have been burning in the back of my mind for too long during the process. It's a win/win, right?

Obviously I'm trying to convince myself to do this.

So I answer. "Sure."

One word. One word …

Wrong word.





Chapter 8



HARLEY



My eyes burn, and now I feel like a total creeper. Stalker even.

I've read all about Dale's life from cover to cover in the file Vivica composed, and I feel like I've invaded his privacy to the point of desperate femme fatale.

I groan as I pick up my phone.

"Hello?"

"I doodled his name in all my notebooks from fifth grade until the whole prom thing."

"Okay … " Vivica drawls, confused.

"Summer before sophomore year was my last year at fat camp-before my father took my life away, so to speak. I took a picture of Dale and told everyone there he was my boyfriend."

"Harley … that's … kind of creepy."

"It's really creepy. And pathetic. And seriously fucked up. I obsessed over him too much. And now I'm still obsessing all these years later, just in a different way."

"So what are you going to do about it?" she asks, genuinely interested.

I blow out a breath, pushing his file away as my stomach churns uneasily.

"His ex cheated on him."

"I know. I'm the one who put it in the file."

"She didn't do it secretively. It looks like he was the last to know. In a town like Sterling Shore, that's humiliating. Especially with the circles he runs in."

"Again, I'm aware," she points out. "Which is one reason why I refused this job. It still doesn't answer what you're going to do."

I release a long, defeated breath, hating myself a little for even holding onto a grudge this long after reading how his life has gone. It only looks shiny on the surface.

He's possibly as damaged as I am. Only he's nicer about it, considering he hasn't retaliated against his ex-Fiona. I know of Fiona. She's definitely a bitch if the musings are true. Sounds as though he's more than been punished enough.

"I'm going to go to dinner with him tonight," I say with finality.

"So you're going through with it?" she screeches, purely annoyed.

"No. I'm going to let him apologize. I've never really heard an actual apology before, so it should be interesting. Then I'm going to focus on those other two jobs I gave you. I'm moving on."



       
         
       
        

She gets quiet for a second, as though I've stunned her into silence. That's a big task to do with Vivica Drivel.

"Well, alright then. I'm proud of you," she finally says, though she sounds a bit suspicious.

"I need to go. I have to get ready for a date," I say before hanging up.

I stare at my closet, wishing I wasn't in a ball of knots. My date with Dale is still hours away, and I'm already wound tight.

It's not like it's a real date. It's an apology date.

Tell that to my fluttering heart and overactive stomach that is currently doing somersaults.

Don't judge me. If I'm going to put Dale behind me, I'm going to leave one hell of a last impression that may or may not have him wondering what it might have been like.

At least that's what I tell myself while preparing to spend three or four hours getting ready for a pleasant goodbye.





Chapter 9



DALE



"Why the cloak and dagger?" I ask as Kade and Raya step into my house. "I thought we were meeting at the restaurant in thirty minutes."

Raya is legit wearing a hooded coat, and has a scarf around her face. Kade is wearing a ball cap that's pulled down low, concealing his eyes from sight. He pulls off the hat and rolls his eyes as Raya sheds the ridiculously large coat.

"I'm burning up," she groans.

"You were wearing a huge coat," I remind her, then I even point to it as she hangs it on the hook in my foyer.

She casts a wary glance through the window, and I pinch the bridge of my nose as Kade staves off a laugh.

"What the hell is going on?" I ask again.

Raya whirls around. "We just wanted Vivica to think we were going to the restaurant. Just in case she tried to scout it out or something."

My eyebrows go up, and Kade laughs under his breath, turning away when Raya glares at him.

"You forget what my family is capable of. Vivica is literally a revenge specialist. Do you want on her bad side?" Raya asks Kade, glaring at him.

He just walks off as Raya continues to glower at his back.

"Care to clue me in on who the hell Vivica is?"

"One of my many cousins," Raya states as though that explains everything.

She walks by me, and I follow, because I'm too confused to not ask questions.

"Why would your cousin be stalking us to lunch?" I ask, but she doesn't answer right away.

Instead, she helps herself to my mini-bar, while Kade lounges in my den, watching her with an amused expression on his face.

"Vivica takes on revenge cases against people who have wronged other people and want to pay for her services," Kade tells me, his lips twitching when Raya peers through the curtains and downs another drink. 

"Okay … why are you two here and talking about Raya's cousin?" I ask, sounding like a broken record by this point.

"Because Vivica was hired to get her mitts on you," Kade says, swinging his gaze toward me.

My eyebrows try to reach my hairline.

"Well, just spit it all out there without any sort of prelude or background information that he needs to know," Raya hisses.

Kade shrugs, running his index finger over his lips as he watches her with a smirk.

"I like seeing you all riled up," he confesses, his grin growing.

She cuts her eyes toward me.

"Why am I being targeted?" I ask incredulously.

"You're not," she grumbles, dropping to a chair. "At least not by Vivica."