Chapter 20
“This is all your fault.” Lucy spoke in a clear voice. Firm, yet not overly emotional. Granted this was her third attempt.
And I’m still talking to a stuffed, rainbow-haired unicorn outside my brother’s office.
“Luc?” Finn’s deep voice called through the door to his corner suite. “I got Jared’s text and ordered Chinese. Are you ready to come inside and talk?”
“No.” This time, her voice wavered. She closed her eyes and hugged the stuffed animal tighter.
She heard the click of the doorknob turning. She raised one eyelid and peeked at him. He wore a blue button-down shirt, but he’d ditched the tie and jacket. In one hand, he held his cell. The other was in his pocket. He offered a reassuring smile.
I know that grin, she thought.
He’d given her that same Everything-Is-A-Okay grin when she’d lost the homecoming queen race. And again when she’d broken up with her first serious boyfriend in high school.
But not when Barrett left. He hadn’t smiled then.
Because in the days and weeks after her carefully planned future moved to Boston with someone else, nothing had been remotely okay.
“Food’s here,” he said. “I’ll be right back.” Then he brushed past her and headed for the reception area.
Everything is not okay! Not this time!
He’d listened to her talk to his boss about her underwear. And then he’d heard a whole lot more. She closed her eyes and leaned her head back to rest against the wall.
“Lucy?”
The to-go bag rustled in his hand, and she knew he was close. The smell of eggrolls tempted her to open her eyes again. But she resisted. How could she face him? She was too embarrassed to yell at him. And right now, she needed to scream.
Why did you set me up with your friend through a dating website?
Oh yes, those words should echo against the walls of his office.
“Lucy, I’m going to put this in perspective for you,” Finn said. She could feel his shoulder touch hers as if he’d taken up residence beside her on the hallway wall. “Last night, I had sex with DeVilla’s daughter.”
She groaned. “Finn, I don’t—”
“You need to hear this,” he said flatly. “You’ll feel better.”
“I doubt that.” She opened her eyes but kept her gaze focused on the wall in front of them. A black and white picture of the Florida coastline filled the space. She’d never noticed it before. Maybe if she examined the way the light played on the waves, she wouldn’t feel dread and humiliation raining down on her.
“DeVilla’s daughter filmed the um, encounter, on her phone. Without my knowledge. She took the video to her father this morning. After, I went to Jared and told him the whole damn story.” Finn drew a deep breath. “So right now, my best friend is in the conference room trying to negotiate a deal with a man who watched me have sex. Hell for all I know, he’s showing Jared the video. Or his daughter plans to post it online.”
“Oh, God.” She turned to look at him. He’d ditched the reassuring smile, probably because nothing, nothing, about this was remotely hunkey-dory. “I don’t feel better,” she said softly.
“But you’ll take pity on me anyway and keep me company in my office?” he asked. “I’ve had a shit day. Eating dinner in the hall isn’t going to make it better.”
“Okay.” She turned and led the way into his office. Floor to ceiling windows filled the exterior walls. Through the glass, she could see across the island to the serene ocean. The waves were gently lapping the shore. Her brother’s mahogany desk stood in the corner, piled high with papers. A leather loveseat and matching chairs surrounded a wooden coffee table on other side of the office. Bookcases occupied the interior walls. The space had a lived-in look to it. Probably more so than his home.
He followed her in and headed for the coffee table. While he unpacked the food, she began pacing from his desk to the sitting area and back again.
“You knew?” She stopped and placed her hand on the back of the leather armchair. “About me and Jared? You knew.”
“Yes.” Finn sat on the edge of the loveseat. With his thighs spread and his feet planted, he reached forward and pick up an egg roll. He dipped it in the sauce and then looked at her. “He told me he’d been leaving you juice. I suggested there had to be a better way to ask you out.” He took a bit of eggroll, chewed, and then cocked his head. “Was I wrong?”
“No. But . . . ” She pressed her hands into the leather. “You created the dating profile?”
“It was an idea.” Finn dipped the egg roll in the sauce again. “His juice plan didn’t sound like it was working. You spend a lot of time on those sites. If he wanted you to give him a chance, he needed to get on them too.” He polished off the rest of the roll in a single bite.
“You told your best friend to lie to me?” she demanded.
“Yes.” Finn rested his forearms on his thighs. “I didn’t think you’d give him a chance unless you thought he was someone else. He has a crappy reputation—”
“But that didn’t bother you!” She spun around and walked away, heading back to his desk. “You told the bored, billionaire bachelor to lie to me so that he could seduce me, knowing that he’ll probably disappear to New York in a week.”
“Do you really believe he is going to do that?” Finn demanded.
“No. Maybe.” She turned around and marched back to the sitting area. The food smelled too good. And dammit, she was hungry. “I don’t know,” she admitted, sinking into a chair.
“I wouldn’t have helped him if I didn’t think he was serious.” Her brother held out the eggroll container. “You know that don’t you?”
“Yes,” she said grudgingly. “But this isn’t about what he wants.”
“Okay.” Her brother nodded and looked at her expectantly.
“I wanted to find someone special, Finn.” She turned the eggroll over and over in her hand. “Someone who would write the things Philip wrote in that profile.”
“That was all Jared.” Her brother reached for another take-out box and a pair of chopsticks. “He gets you, Lucy. Down to that weird rule about a picture with another woman he hadn’t slept with.”
“Why do you think I met him on the beach last night? I wanted to blame him for lying to me. I wanted to yell at him and tell him he can’t play with my trust like that. He can’t.”
“Jared is not your ex.” He stabbed his fork into the Lo Mein and glanced up at her. “He’s not, Lucy.”
“You know what I thought set him apart? I thought he cared enough to go to crazy lengths—to build a fake profile—to date me.”
“He did—”
“But it was your idea!” She wrapped her hand around the eggroll. She didn’t want to eat it anymore. Her stomach was in a knot of confusion. How could Jared fail to mention that he wrote his online dating profile with her brother?
“Jared is a good man,” Finn said firmly. “He’s not perfect and yeah, he’s earned himself one helluva reputation. But he cares about you. And from what I heard earlier, you like him too.” He stared at her over the edge of his noodles. “Or do all of your second dates sound like that? If they do, I’m going to rethink my plans to lock you away in a freaking tower like what’s-her-name.”
“Rapunzel. And no, all of my dates don’t begin or end like that. I don’t go on second dates because the first ones are usually disasters.” She let out a laugh. “But tonight pretty much tops the list.”
“It’s not that bad.” Finn set the to-go container on the table and leaned back against the loveseat. “Give him another shot.”
She nodded slowly. “A third date can’t get much worse than this.”
“Jared wants this to work.” He lowered his arms and met her gaze. “But, if he gives you a single reason to believe he’s not serious about your relationship? Tell me and I’ll kick his ass.”
“Now you’re going to be the big, bad overprotective brother again?” She picked up an eggroll and tossed it at him. But he caught it easily.
“Just because I wanted you to date a decent man instead of those online losers doesn’t mean I wasn’t looking out for you. I’m always looking out for you.”
She let out a laugh and shook her head. Then she reached for another eggroll. “You have a funny way of showing it.”
The door to his office opened. She looked up from the duck sauce and saw Jared. He didn’t enter the room, instead resting his shoulder against the door jam. “Glad to see you guys are getting along.”
Finn turned, stretching his left arm over the back of the couch. “How did it go with DeVilla?”
Jared shook his head. “The deal is off.”
Her brother lowered his chin to his chest. “Damn.”
“It’s not your fault.” Jared stood up straight and walked into the room. He stopped at the edge of the couch. “Don’t beat yourself up over this. After talking to DeVilla, I wouldn’t be surprised to find out he sent his daughter to meet you.” Jared glanced over at her. “I think he wanted the leverage,” he added.
“I told Lucy,” Finn said. “I thought it would make her feel better.”
Jared turned to look at her again. “Did it?”
“Maybe a little.” She bit into her eggroll and tried to summon her anger. Jared had hid the fact that her brother thrust him into the world of online dating.
But I can live with that, she thought.
She stood up, silently hoping the voice in her head wasn’t pushing her into Jared’s waiting arms out of pure desperation. “Pick out what you want, but take it to go.” She nodded to the spread of take-out containers on the table. “I need a ride home, Mr. Ab Selfie.”
Finn looked up from his pity party on the couch. “Do I want to know how he got that nickname?”
“I’ll send you the picture.” She picked up another eggroll and headed for the door. “Seeing as the profile was your idea, I’m surprised you weren’t consulted on the messages.”
“Lucy,” Jared called after her.
She looked back. He was calmly opening containers, peering inside, and then either setting them aside or placing them in the plastic bag.
“I wrote every message.” He picked up two pairs of chopsticks and added those to the bag. “The pictures aren’t any of Finn’s business. Let’s keep it that way.”
“Okay then.” Her shoulders relaxed.
I hope you meant every word. Because I need to believe you didn’t set out to toy with me.
Still, there had to be a line. She needed to dig a freaking ditch in the sand and promise herself that she wouldn’t cross over it.
“I’m giving you another chance,” she said. “One more date.”
Jared picked up the remaining Lo Mein and met her by the door. “This one won’t end in disaster, Lucy. I promise.”