Page 51 of Enemies to Lovers

I hadn’t realized just how comfortable I’d become in my life with Baker and Holt firmly in it until they were both gone.

I walked into my office a week later with no Baker, and no Holt—I’d been working from home because I was too pissed off to go into work.

When I arrived at my desk, it was to see Keely sitting at it, tapping a pen on the edge of my desk, looking annoyed.

“What is it?” I asked as I walked in.

She looked behind me, then flicked her gaze up toward me before saying, “I can’t believe you let her leave.”

I felt those words like a shot straight to my heart.

I couldn’t believe I’d let her leave, either.

I was still reeling.

A week ago, I’d been at a club party, happy as could be, and the next day I was stunned into silence as she moved out without a backward glance.

I’d let her go, and I was still kicking myself for allowing it to happen.

I rubbed at my chest, the ache having started right around the time she’d announced her future departure, and said, “It was time.”

“Sure, it was.” Keely rolled her eyes. “You’re not a bad guy, Copper.”

I jerked my head up to look at her. “What?”

“I saw the way you looked when Holt said ‘dada’ the other day at dinner,” she said, opening up that wound that I hadn’t realized wasn’t closed all the way until now.

I gritted my teeth so hard my jaw screamed.

“But I’m not his dad, and the idea of Holt being raised by someone like me…”

Okay, so I’d been standoffish with everyone, even Holt, when Holt had babbled that at dinner in front of everyone. I’d been holding him, giving him a bite of tortilla, when he’d smacked my face hard and leaned in to give me a gummy kiss on the cheek.

He’d pulled back, and I swear he’d said “dada” and it’d gone straight to my soul.

But moments later, that sinking feeling of never being good enough sank into me.

“If you finish that sentence, I’m going to fucking scream!” Keely bellowed, standing up so fast that the computer chair smashed into the wall of windows behind her. The glass cracked, and I had her away from the edge of the now broken window so fast that my heart hadn’t even registered that I’d moved.

“What the fuck, Keely?” I growled. “You could’ve been killed.”

“I can’t believe you!” she hissed, her tiny little finger poking into my chest so hard that I would have tiny bruises by tomorrow. “I seriously don’t understand you…ugh!”

I tugged Keely to my couch and sat her in it, then left to find Millicent at her office, staring with startled eyes at my wide-open door.

“Can you call a window contractor in and get them to replace the glass in my office?” I asked. “I don’t care who it is, or how much it costs. I just need it done quickly.”

“Of course.”

I turned back to Keely.

“What the fuck, Keely?” I asked, enraged now. “You could’ve been seriously hurt, and then where would I have been?”

“The same fuckin’ place!” she seethed, her fingers fisting on the leather couch beneath her. “You are good enough, Copper. You! YOU ARE GOOD ENOUGH!”

I looked away from her intense gaze.

“I love you, Copper,” she said. “You deserve to be happy. You deserve to have your happily ever after. You deserve Baker. You deserve Holt. Give yourself a chance.”

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