Laina Turner - Presley Thurman 09 - Romance & Revenge by Laina Turner Page A

“Every once in a while. Always to ask me to come back to manage Silk. He has a hard time keeping people. I assumed that’s why he was calling this time, which is why I hadn’t called him back yet. I have no desire to work for him again and it’s easier to avoid him than to tell him no for the millionth time.”
    “Could you do me a favor and call him back? Just to make sure that’s what he wants. Call me curious.”
    “Sure. I can do that tomorrow.”
    “And then you can let me know and it will give me another excuse to talk to you,” he said grinning.
    “You don’t need an excuse .” I smiled.
    “Good!” he said and gave me a look that under other circumstances would have made me happy , I think Katy was right, he was interested. Right now my emotions were too all over the place to appreciate it.

Chapter 7
     
    “Cooper, it’s Presley,” I said into his voicemail hesitantly. “I just wanted… I wanted to see how you were. Call me, OK? I think we should talk.” I set the phone down on the counter and reached for the coffee pot, wondering if it was too early in the morning to put Baileys in my coffee, or better yet, the pumpkin pie liqueur left over from Christmas. That stuff was amazing and I needed something to make settle my nerves. I almost felt worse, now having left that voicemail. What if he didn’t call back? It would be more rejection.
    “You finally did it.”
    I jumped, startled to find Katy behind me. She was all dressed and ready to go for the day, and here I was in my pajamas, wanting to put alcohol in my coffee at eight a.m. Something was definitely wrong with me.
    “Was it because you didn’t h ave fun last night with Willie? Is that what finally prompted you to call him?”
    “I had fun. Do you think I didn’ t? You don’t think Willie thought I had a bad time do you?” I was worried because I didn’t want to have come across as rude to Willie. My not being able to get my mind off Cooper certainly didn’t have anything to do with him and I would have hated to give that impression.
    “Relax. He couldn’t tell anything was wrong. Though he did notice you were a bit upset when he asked about your dating status, but I know you. I could tell you were trying really hard to be chipper. Too hard. Since we were having a good time I can only assume Cooper kept invading your thoughts?”
    “He was and you were right . I should be the one to make a move just as much as he should, so I decided to buck up and call him. But I got his voicemail as you could hear and now I have to wait for him to call back. If he calls back. If he doesn’t, it’ll be worse than if I’d never called him.” I felt like I was tying myself up in knots in what seemed to be a vicious circle.             
    “Don’t forget you need to call James , too,” Katy said.
    “I was going to do that after my call to Cooper.”
    “James? Is he bugging you to w ork at Silk again?” Jared asked, joining us in the kitchen, putting his favorite K-cup in and pushing the button to start.
    I shook my head. “No. Well , I guess that could be it,” I said and filled him in on what Willie had told us and that James had called me a few times and wanted me to call him back.
    “See what I miss when I go to bed early because I’ve had too much to drink,” Jared said, pretending to be disappointed.
    “Funny! Why don’t you call James right now?  I’m curious,“ said Katy.
    “OK. Might as well get it over with,” I said. I was sure James just wanted me to work at Silk again and I didn’t relish actually talking to him. He wasn’t one of my favorite people. Knowing he was in some legal trouble made me skeptical as well.
    I sat down on one of the bar stools with my coffee and my phone. Knowing he was in trouble did change the perspective I had and my curiosity was overtaking my dislike.
    He answered on the first ring, almost like he had been waiting for my call which maybe he was. After a lengthy