Page 147 of To Hate Adam Connor

We told you, you should’ve acted fast and bought yourself a shed close to Adam Connor’s house so you could knock on his door and offer him baked goods or maybe ask for a cup of sugar. Now it seems like we’re all too late.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Lucy

I read the interview. I read the interview again and again, trying to make some sense of it, but nope, my name was still there and I was accused—quite bluntly—of breaking up a marriage.

How could I have broken up something that wasn’t even there? Were these people this stupid?

When I started reading it for the fifth time, Olive had to yank the tablet away from the death grip I had on it.

“What the hell?” I shouted, then lowered my voice when the other people turned around to give me the stink eye. I leaned forward in my seat and gripped the edges of the table to anchor myself. Then my phone started going off and my rage hit another level. “How did they even get my number?”

Olive sighed. “It’s a mess.”

“It’s more than a mess. What the hell did I do to her?”

“You didn’t do anything, Lucy. I suspect this is just to get the spotlight off her and onto Adam…or she is trying to get back at him; who knows. Ever since their divorce, she’s been all over the place. You know the saying There’s no such thing as bad publicity…I think she took that to heart.”

We were downtown at our favorite café, waiting for Olive’s new publishing team to arrive so we could go over their plans for her next novel. More than that, it was a celebration of the deal. We learned about the interview from Megan, Jason’s publicist, when she called to let Olive know there was a whole media frenzy surrounding it and that it was likely I’d be pestered by phone calls.

If I’d known how true that was, I would’ve never have left the house that morning. The moment we drove out of the gates, we were followed by paparazzi.

“Maybe she was hoping to get back with him. I mean, apparently she was, according to her. Maybe if I hadn’t climbed that damn wall, they’d be back together by now. Adam never said anything about a reconciliation, but what do I know about their relationship, right? They were married for years and not only that, they have a kid together.”

“Don’t go there, Lucy. If they were meant to be together, it wouldn’t have mattered how many walls you climbed.”

I took a deep breath and exhaled.

“We can leave, you know. I’m sure if we called Jason or Adam they’d come and get you.”

“Why do I have to run away, though? I didn’t do anything. And I want to be in this meeting, dammit. I didn’t do anything wrong that requires me to tuck my tail and run away from the vultures.”

The table started vibrating again, so I grabbed my phone and turned it off completely; it was either that or drop it into the glass of water in front of me.

Before Olive could speak, her phone started to go off. I growled and dropped my head into my hands in frustration.

“No, wait, it’s Adam. Do you want to answer?”

I thought about it. I shouldn’t have felt the need to, but unfortunately, I did. “I don’t think I can do that right now,” I admitted finally. When Olive winced and eyed her phone, I added, “It’s not him, Olive. I just don’t want to talk about this right now. I want to act like it never happened for at least a few more hours and focus on the meeting.”

“Okay, so we won’t answer. You’re right. He knows where you live anyway, so it’s not like you can run away.”

“These last few days I’ve been wondering whose side you’re on, and this kinda gives me the answer, I guess.”

She gave me a cheesy grin. “What can I say? I love that he made you fall in love with him so easily, and I think you’ve met your match; he won’t let you go easily no matter what you do or say. I think you’re curse-free, Lucy Meyer, and you don’t know what to do with yourself.”

“Please.” I snorted. “I’ll be curse-free the day I marry someone, wearing a white dress. That’s the tipping point in our family. No one has quite made it there yet. And even then—”

Olive’s gaze shifted, and she grabbed her water glass to hide an even bigger smile behind it.

“What’s wrong with you? Why are you snickering?”

She gestured behind me with a quick chin lift, and I turned back to find freaking Adam Connor barreling toward us with quick, angry steps.

“Why is your phone off?” he asked as a greeting.

“What the hell are you doing here?”

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