Chapter 172

Ryan's POV The boardroom hummed with the excited voices of Blackwood Enterprises' top executives as they discussed the Winchester Boulevard project. Though everyone else seemed fully engaged, my mind kept drifting away from the projected financial charts and architectural renderings. It had been exactly one week since that senseless argument with Serena. Seven days of silence. Seven days of replaying her words in my head. Seven days of wondering if I should have handled things differently. I stared at the presentation without really seeing it, my thoughts a thousand miles away in her design studio. Was she thinking about me too? Or was she relieved by the distance between us? "Mr. Blackwood? Your thoughts on this approach?" The question jerked me back to reality. Charles Martin, our head of development, was looking at me expectantly, along with everyone else around the massive conference table. I straightened in my chair, forcing my focus back to the screen. "The commercial density rat