Trouble

Now, after what he said last night, I’ll be damned if I’m going to chase after him, no matter how magnetic it feels when I’m in his arms or how my eyes slide closed when he inhales deeply at the top of my head…

Which makes absolutely no sense. I should have told him he was full of shit. He wants me as much as I want him. It’s not my job to tell him to get his head out of his ass.

Anger tingles in my throat, and I grit my teeth. “Fuck Spencer Carrollton. This will all be over tomorrow night, and I can get on with my life. I’m not wasting any more time running down dead-end roads.”

“That’s the spirit.” Courtney’s such a great friend.

“How about you? Any word from Ozzy this week?”

“Not a peep. Maybe he’s decided to leave us alone finally. I can hope, right?”

A pinch of dread is in the pit of my stomach, but I want to be as encouraging to her as she is to me. “We’re going to do more than hope. We’re going to find some good men, not abusers or icebergs who only want to screw around and wreck our lives. They’re out there, and we’re going to find them.”

“Preach!”

Feeling motivated, I return to my work, giving the floral statues a final inspection. “Hey, Court, hand me two more of those roses, and I’ll be done.”

She steps forward, grabbing two oversized pink flowers from the bucket of water. I stoop down to get them, ignoring the sway of the ladder. It’s been doing that all day.

“Where is he now?” She asks as I straighten, leaning forward into the statue again so I can thread these last two pieces.

“Where is who?” Spencer’s deep voice makes my heart jump to my throat, and my foot twists in the rung, causing the ladder to sway wildly.

“Oh, shit!” My hands go out, and panic grips my spine. “No… NO!”

I can’t fall on the statues. They’ll be ruined, and I don’t have time to get more flowers. Hell, nobody will even have enough flowers to recreate them on such short notice.

These thoughts flash across my mind, but it’s too late. The ladder is collapsing, and my body weight is headed straight into Belle and Adam.

“Oh my God!” Courtney screams.

“Joselyn!” Spencer shouts.

At the last second, I arch my back, doing my best to throw my body weight away from the statues. The ladder jerks like somebody grabs it. My forward momentum halts, but my balance is shot. I’m going down.

“NO!” I cry, bracing for impact, praying I don’t slam my head against the floor.

With an Oof! I land on something hard. Spencer has me in his arms, and I grasp his shoulder. Only, we’re still moving too fast. He lets out a loud groan as we go all the way down, crashing to the floor.

“Sly, oh my God!” Courtney is at my side, holding my hand, and I blink at the chandeliers overhead, trying to focus.

It all happened so fast.

“Dammit, Sin.” Spencer grunts from under me. “Are you hurt?”

Courtney helps me roll to the side then onto my hands and knees, all while trying to catch my breath.

“I’m okay,” I gasp.

Trembling breaks through my body, and a tear falls onto my cheek. I’m not really crying. It’s all the adrenaline mixed with the relief I didn’t just smash all our hard work… or my skull.

Spencer struggles onto his butt beside me, placing a hand gently on my lower back. “Look at me.” Lifting my head, I meet worried hazel eyes.

He slides a thumb across my cheek, wiping the tears away. “Are you dizzy? Nauseated?”

“No…” I shake my head just before I collapse into his strong arms. They surround me quickly, muffling my voice against his chest. “You saved me. You saved everything.”

Courtney sits beside us, stroking my hair. “You did some pretty impressive acrobatics getting away from it. It’s more like you saved the flowers. He saved your head from splatting all over the floor.”