Page 22 of Tough Luck

I poked her in the ribs again. “I’m thankful I had you to be there and set me straight.”

“What are friends for?”

I was on a high, knowing I was going to nail my presentation tomorrow. I was going to mop the floor with the man who had tortured me over the past year.

“Come on,” she said, wiggling her car keys in my face as we hit the parking lot. “You need to get out of your head and, more importantly, you need a home-cooked meal. My mom said your mom is making her famous green chili carnitas tonight.” She did a little booty dance.

“Yeah,” I chuckled as I tossed my tote bag into her passenger seat. “I’m going to eat until my pants burst.”

Our parents had been friends for as long as I could remember, and they had been neighbors for my whole life. It was one of the reasons Nova and I were so close. We’d been raised like sisters.

The drive up into the foothills overlooking Golden was exactly what I needed to clear the lingering static from my brain. As the road twisted higher and the bustling town shrunk below us, the lights of our parents’ neighborhood flickered to life like a string of amber beads dotting the foothills.

Our parents lived in a quiet neighborhood nestled high in the hills. The houses here were built to embrace the landscape—lots of exposed timber, native stone, and massive floor-to-ceiling windows designed to showcase the mountain views. Nova’s family lived just three doors down from my parents’ place. Growing up, we’d basically treated the entire ridge as our personal playground.

Nova pulled into my parents’ driveway and parked next to my mother’s new SUV. The moment we stepped inside the front door, the rich, spicy aroma of roasted Hatch green chiles and simmering pork made my stomach instantly growl.

We had barely made it through the front door before my older sister, Emily, intercepted us in the entryway. She had just gotten engaged to her best friend, JJ Walker, whose family lived a few doors down from us. Because we all lived on the same street, the Walkers, the Clarks, and our family were incredibly tight-knit. All of us kids had basically grown up like siblings.

“Mom! They’re finally here,” Emily called out. “Nova told mom you got a corner office and banished the office goblin. Is it true? Did you actually get him fired?”

I laughed, hugging her back tightly. “Yes, it’s true. Leonard is officially history.” I fist-pumped the air.

“Good. He sounded like a total parasite,” Emily said, pulling back with a fierce grin. “Dylan called from campus earlier, by the way. I told him what happened, and he said to tell you he’s using your new promotion as leverage to make you buy the good pizza the next time he comes home for the weekend.”

“Of course he is.” I smiled, a wave of warmth settling over me. My brother Dylan was buried in his sophomore year at Colorado State, but no matter how busy he got with exams, he never missed a chance to demand food from his older sisters.

“Girls, we’re back here,” my mom called out from the kitchen.

We kicked off our shoes and headed toward the back of the house. The kitchen was warm and loud, and the counters were crowded with bowls of shredded cheese and warm tortillas. A massive pot bubbled on the stove. Nova’s parents were already leaning against the island, wine glasses in hand, laughing at something my dad was saying.

It was loud, comfortable, and completely normal. But as I took a glass of white wine from my dad and listened to the easy banter of the people who loved me most, my mind briefly drifted back to the executive hallway at Gold Standard Media. Back to the deep, rumbling sound of Rick’s chuckle. Back to the lingering, electric warmth of his hand brushing my shoulder.

Today, Leonard Whistler had tried to steal my future. But looking around this room, and thinking about the bulletproof pitch that I had created, I realized I wasn’t afraid anymore.

Leonard had stolen my ideas for a full year. But I had the vision, the raw talent he’d never had—and for the first time in my life, I had a boss who believed in me.

Chapter 8

Rick

The morning sun was just starting to crest over Table Mountain, bathing the canyons in brilliant gold hues. But inside the leather-scented cabin of my Audi, the tension was thick enough to cut with a knife.

Sofia was sitting in the passenger seat, her hands locked in a white-knuckle grip around the handle of her briefcase. She’d ditched the forest-green blazer for a sharp, tailored charcoal skirt with a crisp white blouse today. Her dark hair was pulled back into a sleek, professional twist that sat at the base of her neck. She looked incredible, like a woman pulling a six-figure salary at a top-tier global agency, but the frantic, rhythmic tapping of her left heel told a completely different story.

“You’re going to put a hole through the floorboards if you keep that up,” I joked softly, keeping one hand on the steering wheel as I navigated the winding road toward the valley floor, where Clear Creek Brewery sat.

She snapped out of her daze, freezing her foot and letting out a shaky, breathless laugh. “Sorry. I just… I didn’t sleep at all. What if Leonard’s presentation was much better than mine? What if they liked his ideas and hate mine?”

“Hey.” I pulled up to a red light, shifting in my seat so I could look at her directly. “Look at me, Sofia.”

She turned her hazel eyes toward me. They were wide and swirling with anxiety.

“Leonard Whistler is a joke,” I said, my voice dropping into a firm, unyielding register. “It took me less than an hour to see through his bullshit. He couldn’t come up with anything close to as amazing as you did. You have the brain that created all of the ideas he has passed off as his own. You built a bulletproof campaign. No matter what he said or showed them yesterday, he couldn’t replicate your vision if his life depended on it. You are going to be brilliant today.”

She stared at me for a beat, the rigid line of her shoulders dropping just a fraction. A small, tentative smile finally touched her lips. “Are you always this good at speeches?”

“Only when the talent is worth the breath.” I smirked, hitting the gas as the light turned green. “Now let’s go wow Marcus and his team and take what’s ours.”