“Who? I don’t know anyone named Bonnie.”
Aaron rolled his eyes. “Come on. Don’t be like that. Mitch was wrong to break things off on your wedding day. He’s the one you deserve to be mad at.”
“Mitch will rue the day he embarrassed me like that. He will pay, along with everyone who loves him.”
“Bonnie does not love him. Bonnie loves you like a sister. Or at least she did before you asked Dad to do all those terrible things to her and her dad. I can’t believe you went after her family. David has never been anything but kind to you.”
“David? Really? Since when do you call Mr. Windsor by his first name?”
“We’re all adults now.”
“Too bad his daughter is a spoiled brat who thinks she can ruin people’s lives and get away with it.”
“Lauren,” Aaron said with a sigh. “Mitchell told me that he hadn’t even told Bonnie how he felt until he professed his love at the wedding. She wasn’t in on it. Is there a reason you aren’t willing to accept that?”
Lauren stared straight ahead at the television. He could see her clench her jaw. She tucked some of her mahogany-colored hair behind her ear.
“Your best friend in the entire world would not go after your fiancé, especially when that best friend is Bonnie.”
“But my fiancé would choose to embarrass me in front of the entire town by announcing his secret love for my supposed best friend, who was completely oblivious to his feelings? I’m supposed to believe that?”
This was what Lauren was struggling with the most. Embarrassment was an emotion that didn’t sit well with anyone, but Lauren even more so. She couldn’t imagine Mitch would dare to humiliate her without knowing for sure he was going to get what he wanted.
“Come on, Lauren. Mitch’s ego is big enough that it’s completely plausible that he didn’t think for a second that she wouldn’t want to be with him.” He decided to try a little sarcasm. “Someone as humble as you might not get it, but there are people who assume everyone is secretly in love with them.”
She side-eyed him, jaw still tense. “She probably has been secretly in love with him this whole time. She’s always been jealous of me,” she said, refusing to go down without a fight.
“I love you, little sister, but you’re going to regret letting your anger blind you. When you realize you were wrong and Bonnie doesn’t forgive you for what you’ve done, you’ll be the one ruing the day.”
Her head snapped in his direction. “You are the one who is going to regret walking away from Cole Industries and defending the indefensible. I came here to try to talk some sense into you, but I guess you just want to self-destruct.” She stood up and started for the door. “Don’t come crying to me when Dad doesn’t let you have your job back and whatever you’re planning on doing fails.”
“Thanks so much for your support!” he called after her. The front door slammed shut. He was never going to go crawling back to his dad. Before he quit his job, he’d been thinking of a way out. And he’d come up with a plan to flip houses. He was determined to succeed. He had a huge to-do list to start working on in the morning.
He also hoped that he’d at least planted a few seeds of reality in Lauren’s brain. She had to see that Bonnie had had nothing to do with her wedding nightmare. That would ease some of this guilt he was feeling. It wasn’t like any of this was his fault, but he still felt terrible that he hadn’t been paying better attention to what Mitch was thinking and feeling. The guy was his friend. His best friend. He should have picked up on the signals when Mitch decided he wanted Bonnie instead of Lauren. He could have saved both his sister and Bonnie from all this hurt and pain.
He pinched the bridge of his nose. Sleep was calling his name. Aaron had a big day ahead of him tomorrow. It was the first day of being his own boss, and it was going to be amazing. He fell asleep the moment his head hit the pillow.
The next morning was full of promise. He’d never had such a good night’s sleep. It was as if a huge weight had been lifted off his shoulders. No more waking up and dreading the day. No more putting on a suit and tie. No more sitting in morning meetings.
This morning, he made himself some coffee and pulled out his to-do list. First things first, he needed to find some people to help him make his dream a reality. He wasn’t going to be able to flip houses on his own. As soon as he found the perfect house to buy, he needed some contractors to help him make it beautiful.
He spent the first hour of his day searching the internet for a house to buy. He hadn’t realized how hard it would be to find his dream flip. He had so many questions—was he picking a good neighborhood? Did other houses in the neighborhood sell for more money? Everything on the Realtor websites looked too nice. Where were all the run-down shacks that needed a face-lift? Didn’t they list them on these sites?
He decided he might need some help. Finding an easier way to locate the right kind of houses was added to his list. Maybe he should start with something easy, like calling a few of the contractors from around town to see if they were interested in teaming up. He knew who was the best of the best, and he couldn’t wait to get them on board. Networking was something he was good at, something beneficial he’d learned working for his dad. A couple calls and he’d have the best flipping team ever assembled.
Except that wasn’t what happened. Instead of
