Heels of Steel

by Barbara Kavovit

  Liam was still looking at Hana, but the forlorn hope had now changed to something more like horrified betrayal. Jay turned to see her, staring dully at the table, refusing to even glance toward the stage.

  “Have you ladies lost your minds? Five hundred dollars and I can’t get one bid? Do you all know something I don’t? Because I see a virile, handsome man with a full head of hair before me. I mean, hell, maybe I’ll bid on him myself! Okay, I hate to do it but I’m going to cut his price again because—”

  “Oh, for heaven’s sake!” came a voice from the audience. Scarlett Hawkins stood up at her table, sloshing her martini as she waved her hands in the air. “Y’all are a bunch of god damn fools! Fifty thousand dollars! I bid fifty thousand on that nice boy. And he is a bargain at the price!”

  The crowd gasped and laughed.

  “Now, that is more like it!” crowed the emcee. “Our illustrious hostess with impeccable taste has done it again. Sooo I am just going to assume that no one else is going to top that bid and say, sold to the lovely lady in the green dress who could buy and sell us all ten times over if she felt like it!”

  The crowd applauded wildly, and Jay watched as Liam slowly left the stage, looking like he didn’t know his way home.

  Chapter 53

  Bridget had been worried all night. She wanted to bid on Jay. Really, she felt that she must bid on him, all things considered, but she no longer had the kind of money to throw around on something like this. And she was sure she would not be the only one bidding. Jay would be in demand. Everyone knew who he was, the scion of a family known for its wealth and power, the CEO of a multibillion-dollar company. Everyone knew that he was recently divorced. Nobody knew that he was seeing Bridget, and since she had spent the evening talking to Alexander Redetzke about the role of 3-D printing in building design instead of being on Jay’s arm, she only had herself to blame for that particular issue. She was certain there would be a line of women all ready and willing to whip out their checkbooks and buy themselves a shot at being the next Mrs. Russo.

  How much could she spend? Nothing really, especially since, if she made it as far as making a presentation for Harrington, she would need every cent to put on the kind of dog and pony show that he expected. Still, she knew that she would bid. Even if she didn’t win, she wanted Jay to know that she thought he was worth bidding for. She set a mental limit of two thousand dollars.

  “And next, ladies and gentlemen,” intoned Jimmy Hilton, “we have yet another CEO of his own construction company, but this time you’ve probably actually heard of him. I bring you Jason Russo of Russo Construction! Jay was born and raised in Manhattan, has almost as much money as God—and by God, I actually mean Scarlett Hawkins—and, well, just look at him in that tuxedo, I mean, hellooo George Clooney before he hurt his back playing basketball, am I right? The bidding starts at one thousand dol—”

  “One thousand!” yelled a fifty-something blonde in a bright yellow catsuit. Bridget scowled at her and mentally promised herself that she’d body block that woman herself if necessary.

  “Well, okay! That’s more like it! I’ve got one thousand dollars. Do I hear twelve hundred? Twelve hundred dollars?”

  “Twelve hundred!” yelled Bridget, waving her paddle and rising from her seat.

  She was rewarded with a dazzling smile and a wink from Jay, and a measured look from Scarlett. “Now, wait a minute,” said Scarlett, sotto voce. “Jason Russo is the man that you were screwing on your kitchen floor?”

  “Yes,” replied Bridget. “And I really don’t want him to be bought by anyone else!”

  “Do I hear fifteen hundred? Fifteen hundred for this prime cut of man meat—”

  “Fifteen hundred!” shouted a woman who looked so much like a Disney princess that Bridget suddenly had a flash of Jay and the girl running down the steps of the palace, church bells ringing, while the girl lost her shoe.

  “Seventeen hundred!” yelled Bridget before the emcee could even speak.

  “Two thousand!” screeched the blonde in the yellow jumpsuit.

  “Three thousand!” yelled Bridget, losing all reason.

  “Twenty-five thousand dollars,” came a cool, steady voice from the back, and everyone turned to see Hana Takada, artist and recent ex-wife of the bachelor in question, calmly holding up her paddle.

  “Twenty-five thousand dollars going once! Twenty-five going twice! Sold to the elegant lady in the back who probably could have got this guy for a lot less money if she had tried!”

  Bridget looked up on the stage and saw Jay, standing stock-still, a look of complete shock on his face, as he locked eyes with his ex-wife. Moments passed and he didn’t break his gaze with Hana, and he didn’t look down at Bridget, and she was pretty sure that, as far as he was concerned, she might as well have disappeared off the face of the earth.

  Chapter 54

  Liam bent over the toilet, violently puking.

  A moment ago he’d been standing outside the ballroom, watching Hana make a twenty-five-thousand-dollar bid for Jay, wondering if it could be real, and then suddenly he was running for the bathroom, his stomach in his throat.

  He stood up and leaned against the wall, wiping his lips. What the hell had just happened? Surely, there must be some logical explanation about why Hana would have betrayed him so thoroughly. Okay, yes, maybe he could understand her letting him hang up there on stage like a fool, forcing Scarlett Hawkins to pity-bid on him. They were not in a good place and she obviously wanted to see him suffer, but then publicly offering up a small fortune for a date with her ex-husband? The man who had taken her for granted for years, who had driven her away? Was she drunk? Drugged? Time traveling? There had to be a reason.

  His stomach churned and he bent over the toilet again, heaving until there was nothing more he could bring up. He sank to the floor, pressing his forehead against the cold tile, his stomach still in a spasm. He had to get back out there. He had to find Hana and figure out what the hell was going on.

  He pulled himself back up and staggered to the bathroom sink, glancing at himself in the mirror and then stopping to stare in disdain. He looked like he felt. Pale and miserable and weak. There was a spot of puke on his collar; his hair was plastered down with flop sweat; the dark circles under his eyes looked like bruises.

  He bent to rinse his mouth with water, and then rooted through the medicine cabinet, knowing that of course Scarlett kept a brand-new, pristine bottle of mouthwash in her guest bathrooms for those who might need it. He rinsed again, gargling this time, and then closed his eyes, gathering his strength, before he lurched back through the door and out to find Hana.

  Chapter 55

  “Well. That was quite the turn of events. You okay, darlin’?” said Scarlett under her breath as Bridget watched Jay stumble off the stage and head straight for his ex-wife.

  Bridget quickly knocked back her drink, plastered on a smile and stood up. “You know what? I just need—I think I’m going to—” She didn’t bother finishing as she headed out the door and away from the ballroom, grabbing a full bottle of champagne from a surprised waiter as she left.

  What had she been thinking? Why had she trusted this guy? She hardly knew him, really. A few decent rolls in the hay and she’d been dickmatized, willfully, stupidly blind to the fact that all men were the same—assholes.

  As she wandered down the hall, chugging the wine as she walked, she passed Liam Maguire on his way back into the ballroom. He looked like hell—desperate and broken. She considered stopping him, warning him, telling him to keep away from the shit show that she had just managed to extricate herself from, but instead, she let him pass. Let him figure it out on his own. Not my problem.

  The night air felt almost mockingly good as she slipped out the kitchen door. The moon hung fat and shining. The tide continued to sweep quietly in and out like nothing had happened. Halfway to the guesthouse, Bridget ch
anged her mind, slipped off her high heels and headed for the beach instead, bottle in tow. She couldn’t sit still right now. She didn’t want to think. She needed to keep moving.

  Chapter 56

  “What the hell was that, Hana?” Jay stood over her table, trying to keep his voice down below a shout. He knew that everyone in the ballroom was watching them—they weren’t even pretending to continue the auction—but he didn’t care.

  Hana stood up, biting her lip. “Come outside with me,” she said quietly.

  She reached to take his arm, but he violently shrugged it away. “Outside,” she insisted.

  He tailed her out. “Well, god damn!” Jimmy Hilton’s amplified voice followed after them as they left the ballroom. “I just feel like maybe we should shut down this whole night right now because, really, how are we going to top all that drama, folks? No? You want more? Well, I guess I can bring out the next guy but I don’t know that he’s going to be nearly as fun...”

  The doors swung shut behind them and the emcee’s voice faded into the background as Hana stopped and turned toward him. “Jay—” she said.

  “I don’t know if I even want to hear this,” he said. “I should go talk to Bridget.”

  Hana crinkled her nose. “Bridget? Who’s that?” He opened his mouth to answer, but she grasped his hand instead. “Never mind. Don’t tell me. I don’t care. Jay...” Her words came out in a rush. “I think we should get back together.”

  He laughed. He couldn’t help it. It was an involuntary reflex. There was nothing to do but laugh.

  She laughed, too, weakly. “I know,” she said. “I sound insane. I know I do. But hear me out.” She looked up at him, her eyes searching for his. “I made a mistake. I had been angry with you for so long. I felt like you didn’t care about me or Alli.”

  “Of course I did,” he spat out.

  She held up her hand. “I know that now. Like I said, it was a mistake. I thought I needed...something else. But I don’t. I mean, it was working fine. I had my work, you had yours, we had Alli, we were friends. It was so easy. It was good. Why did I think I needed more than that?”

  Jay felt like his head was about to explode. He’d waited days, weeks, months, for her to say this to him—and now that she had—he felt like running as fast as he could in the other direction.

  “We’re ruining Alli,” said Hana, hitting him squarely where it hurt most. “She hates us both now. She’s going through so much, and she doesn’t have anyone to confide in.”

  “Liam,” he said. “She talks to Liam.”

  For a moment Hana’s face spasmed; just a hint of pain flashed in her eyes. “Liam isn’t her parent,” she said. “Liam isn’t her father.”

  That’s right, thought Jay. He wanted to roar it out. Damn right he’s not.

  “She needs us, Jay. She needs us together. She needs us to be a family again.” She tightened her grip on his hand and he realized with a start that she was still holding on to him. “We can go slow,” she whispered. “Nobody needs to know.”

  “Um...” His voice sounded strange to him, hollow. “I think you kind of blew our cover back there with that twenty-five-k bid.”

  She blinked. “It doesn’t matter. They’re all going to forget about this by tomorrow. We’ll take it from the beginning all over again. We can, you know, date, like we used to. Remember how good it all was back then?”

  This was madness. Like some kind of crazy fever dream.

  “We won’t tell Alli at first,” she continued on. “Not until we see how it feels. We can just figure it out as we go. But Jay, we owe it to her to at least try. I mean, what if it’s possible to just...go back to the way things used to be?”

  “What about Liam? I mean, Jesus, Hana, I thought you guys were in love? Isn’t that why you left me?”

  She shrugged. Her lower lip trembled. “I don’t know. I don’t know why I left you. I can’t explain. It was stupid. I was wrong. I thought there was something between Liam and me, but—” She grasped at his sleeve and then bent her head against his shoulder. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Jay. I just want things to be like they used to be. I want to be a family. I want it to be easy.”

  He stepped away from her. “Hana—”

  “Shhh,” she said, and put her hand to his cheek. “Shhh.”

  And then she reached up and kissed him.

  Chapter 57

  Liam felt the wind go out of his lungs as he watched Hana kiss Jay. He felt like sinking to his knees. He felt like rushing out and pulling them apart, dragging her away screaming “Mine!” He’d stood in the doorway, frozen, listening to everything they said. Every word out of Hana’s mouth hitting with a blow to his chest until he couldn’t speak, he couldn’t breathe, and now he couldn’t move.

  Jay was kissing her back. For a split second they were entangled in each other’s arms and it was like back in college; of course they were meant to be together and Liam was watching them from afar and eating his heart out, but this time, it was so much worse. Because Liam knew how Hana’s lips felt. He knew what she tasted like. He knew her scent and the little murmur of contentment in her throat she made when he kissed her the right way, what her hands felt like when they reached up and twined themselves in his hair.

  She’d been his. And now she wasn’t.

  Jay broke the kiss and stepped back. “What are we doing?” Liam heard him say. “This isn’t right.”

  “You’re wrong,” said Hana. She reached up and kissed him again. Liam felt his stomach lurch. “This is exactly right.”

  Jay gently pushed her away, holding her at arm’s length. “Listen, I’m not going to lie and say I never wanted this. Because you know I did. And maybe I even still do. I don’t know. And maybe you’re right about Alli. Maybe she needs us to be together. I don’t know about that, either. But you can’t just kiss me, Hana. I didn’t ask for that. I’m not ready for that.”

  “I’m sorry,” she said swiftly. “I won’t. I won’t kiss you again until you say you’re ready. But shouldn’t we just try? For Alli’s sake?”

  Jay shook his head, looking blindly past her. Suddenly, his eyes widened. “Liam?”

  Liam stepped out of the doorway. Hana swung around and locked eyes with him. “Liam?” she echoed.

  He couldn’t speak. He couldn’t move. They all just stood, staring at one another. Like the worst kind of hell.

  I deserve this, thought Liam. This is exactly what Jay must have felt when he lost her.

  “So that’s it?” he finally said. He sounded eerily calm compared to the writhing, screaming emotion inside him. “Hana?”

  She stared. She stared and stared. And then she nodded. The tiniest nod. Her eyes full of pain.

  He blinked. “Okay, then. Okay.” And he stumbled back into the ballroom, looking for another drink.

  Chapter 58

  Bridget hadn’t slept at all the night before, wandering down the beach in the dark until she was afraid that she would be too drunk to find her way back if she didn’t turn around. Once she made it back to the guesthouse, she checked her phone, hoping maybe there would be a message from Jay, explaining that Hana was nuts and he had spent the night looking for Bridget and was so worried and she should call him right back. But there were no messages, and when she swallowed her pride and tried his phone? Straight to voice mail.

  After that she’d thought about just leaving, driving Scarlett’s car back into Manhattan. But it was late and she’d downed most of her champagne, and damned if she was going to let some ridiculous broken fling make her do anything stupid.

  So she lay in bed with her eyes wide open until the sun came up and then she washed her face and packed her stuff and wheeled her suitcase into Scarlett’s sunny kitchen.

  Scarlett wasn’t up yet. She never got up before ten, especially not the night after a party, but Liam Maguire was sitting at the huge, scrub
bed oak kitchen table, nursing a cup of coffee and looking like a miserable, beaten and battered puppy.

  For a moment Bridget almost felt sorry for him. But then she remembered, this was all his fault. If he hadn’t run away with Jay’s wife in the first place, Jay would have stayed married and Bridget never would have been in this stupid, brokenhearted predicament.

  “Good morning,” she said. She didn’t smile. She didn’t feel like smiling. He didn’t deserve a smile, anyway.

  He looked up at her and nodded.

  “You mind if I join you?”

  He shrugged.

  She poured herself a cup of coffee. Damn, it smelled so good. She wondered what obscure, ridiculously expensive brand Scarlett was buying these days.

  She sat down across from Liam and baldly examined him. He was wearing his dress shirt, which was wrinkled and stained and open at the collar, and a pair of equally rumpled tuxedo pants. His hair was a mess, and not in a casual, I-just-rolled-out-of-bed kind of way—there was nothing studied and charming about the crazy that was going on there. His skin was bleached of color, except for the black stubble on his chin and the purple bags under his eyes, and his hand shook when he lifted his coffee cup to his lips.

  She took her own gulp of coffee. Bliss. “You look like hell,” she said casually.

  He glared across the table at her. “You don’t look so hot yourself, Steele.”

  She shrugged and took another sip. “So did they leave together last night?”

  He curled his lip. “Who?”

  She sighed. “Who do you think? Jay and what’s her face.”

  “Hana.”

  “Yes. Fine. Hana. Jay and Hana. Hana and Jay. Did they leave together?”

  He sighed. “I have no idea.”

  “Well, what are you doing here? Don’t you have a house in town?”

  He put his coffee down. “I was too drunk to go home. Scarlett invited me to stay the night.”