Chapter 39

Jeremy

“Get your head in the game, Jeremy.” Rocco taps his knuckles on the table. “You’re going to walk out of here a poor man.”

I don’t give a fuck.

I arrived at Rocco’s apartment hours ago with a thousand dollars in the pocket of my jeans. I’m down to my last hundred now and it doesn’t look promising.

It’s rare that I win on poker night, but tonight I’ve barely glanced at my cards.

Linny Faye has consumed me all day.

I said goodbye to her at the hotel this morning and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about her since.

I swear to god I’m falling in love with her.

“I’m out.” Dylan Colt, Rocco’s friend, drops his cards on the table. “You two can battle this one to the end.”

The night started with Rocco, Dylan and me.

Harve showed up an hour later with a case of cheap beer and two hundred dollars.

He lasted five minutes in the game and two beers before he went home to Blythe.

“I almost feel bad for taking your money tonight.” Rocco leans back in the wooden chair he’s sitting in. “You’re clearly not all here, Jeremy.”

I laugh. “It’s that obvious?”

He places his cards facedown on the table. “Everything alright at home?”

Rocco knows what’s waiting for me at my apartment every time I open the door. I confided in him after he showed up there one day unexpected.

“It’s not that.” I shake my head. “I met someone.”

“Someone?” Dylan’s dark brows rise. “I’ve known you for a couple of years and I’ve never heard you mention a woman.”

We’re not friends outside these games, but Dylan’s a solid guy.

He’s drowned his sorrows in a few glasses of vodka during our games and confessed one night that he’s been hung up on a woman named Eden for years.

I barely know the guy, but I could see that it tore him up inside.

I took it as a reminder that relationships can destroy a man. I vowed that night, as I often do, that I’d never willingly hand my heart over to a woman.

Then I met Linny Faye.

“I haven’t met anyone worth mentioning until now,” I fire back at Dylan with a grin. “It’s early. We’re having fun but Jesus, this woman.”

Rocco pushes back from the table and stands. “You deserve it. Enjoy it.”

I nod. “I’ll take that advice.”

“I went over that email you sent with the details of the launch contest for the vanilla vodka,” he says as he opens a bottle of beer in his kitchen. “Whoever came up with that is a genius.”

“You approve?” I ask with a laugh.

“I’m thinking of hiring them to handle marketing for a few other projects I’ve invested in. Do you think he’d be open to that?”

I glance back to where he’s standing, pride blooming in my chest. I want the best for Linny. I want everyone to know how talented she is. “She’d be open to that. I’ll send you her contact details.”

He lifts his beer in the air. “I can’t wait to talk to her.”

I can’t either.

With any luck, I’ll be next to her within the hour.

***

Linny: Why don’t you come to my place?

I glance down at my phone again. I’ve read her text message at least a half-dozen times since she sent it to me.

It lit up my phone when I was about to leave Rocco’s place, penniless and anxious.

I was anxious to see her. The need to hold her had only increased after I told Rocco about her marketing skills. I could talk about the woman all day to anyone who’ll listen.

Now, I’m standing on the sidewalk in front of her building.

I called her after I read the message the first time. I asked why she didn’t want to meet at the hotel.

In a breathy voice, she told me that she’d prefer to have me in her bed.

It was only after she assured me that Mitchell was on an airplane headed to Boston for a consultation with a client, that I relented.

I won’t put her at risk.

The CEO job means everything to her and I’ll move heaven and earth if need be to secure it for her.

I type out a quick message after I enter the foyer of the building.

Jeremy: I’m here. Buzz me up, angel.

Linny: I’m 502.

I yank open the heavy glass door and make my way to a bank of elevators across the lobby.

I jab my finger into the call button.

I’m about to see Linny in her apartment. I’m about to fuck her in her bed. It feels like we’re taking a step forward that we can’t retreat from.

Hope isn’t a feeling I’m familiar with, but it’s there, in my chest, inside my beating heart.

I step onto the elevator, push the button marked five and take a deep breath.