Romancing His Rival

by Jennifer Shirk

  Lucas ran a hand over the top of his head. “Wow, I can’t believe it actually happened.”

  His boss chuckled. “You’re totally deserving. I should also tell you that the rest of the partners would like to hire Elena on a contingency basis for a few other freelancing jobs. I have a client in mind who I think would really love her work. As your first order of business as new partner, you can have the honor of offering her the job.”

  “Yeah, that sounds…” He happened to look up just then as he saw Scott walk off the elevator onto the floor and head straight for one of the women interns.

  What the? Why was Scott here and why did he look to be flirting with that intern?

  “Hold that thought.” He automatically stood. “I, uh, will be right back, sir.”

  Lucas made his way out of the office and made a beeline for his friend. “Hey, man,” he said extending his hand. “You’ve been coming around here so often, my boss is thinking about offering you a job.”

  Scott chuckled, sending a quick wink to the intern he’d just been talking to.

  Lucas cleared his throat, dreading to hear the details. “So, I assume congratulations are in order.”

  “Congratulations?” Scott scratched his head. “For what?”

  “You and Elena,” he managed to reply through stiff lips. “That night at the party you said you were going to talk with her. Get back together.”

  Scott’s face paled. He glanced at the intern then motioned for Lucas to follow him several feet away from her desk. “Hey, keep it down,” he said in a low voice, “that intern over there likes me.”

  Lucas shoved his friend in the chest with one hand. “What the hell does that matter if you’re dating Elena? Hey, I thought you were going to be faithful to her. I knew you sucked as a boyfriend. She deserves better than—”

  “Hey, calm down. I’m not dating Elena,” Scott said, rubbing where Lucas had touched. “In fact, she broke it off between us for good.” He dropped his arm and studied Lucas with a suddenly speculative gaze. “And now I think I’m starting to see why.”

  Lucas stepped back, began to process the situation. Elena wasn’t dating Scott, wasn’t engaged to Scott—didn’t want any future with Scott. How had that happened? All this time and energy she put into them getting back together, and she gave it all up.

  “So, do you have a thing for Elena or something?” Scott asked incredulously.

  A thing? Lucas would hardly call it that. Unless it happened to be a thing called love.

  Yes, love. Elena with her fondness for gingerbread house decorating, rosé, and all things chocolate. That talented woman with the sentimental heart for friends and family that made him suddenly crave companionship. Her companionship.

  He looked up and met Scott’s gaze. “Yeah, actually, I do have a thing for her. You have a problem with that?”

  Scott shrugged. “Too soon to tell. But before you get involved, you should know, there’s no way you’re going to get her to move up here. And if you make partner, good luck with that long-distance relationship. For a woman who doesn’t know what she wants to do with her life, she sure knows where she wants to live it.”

  Truth be told, Lucas was beginning to have a strange fondness for the town of Cape Harmony as well. He could appreciate Elena’s attachment to it because of her parents and friends. To her, the town represented security and family. Something Lucas thought he was never meant to have. But he wanted very much—with Elena.

  He thought of his boss waiting in his office, the offer that was still on the table that had suddenly become meaningless, and smiled. “You know,” he said, clapping his friend on the arm, “I have a feeling that’s not going to be an issue.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Elena was worried it was going to be another Christmas that she’d have to struggle through without breaking down. So she figured there was no better way to get over a broken heart than to spend Christmas Eve with her friends. She’d invited Kinsley and her husband Damon, along with Wade and Arden, over for dinner, determined to put her life in perspective and live every moment enjoying the holidays as well as herself.

  She had wonderful friends, a job she loved, and thanks to Wade and Arden, a brand new kitten named Winston to keep her company. Plus, she had a talent she was pretty darn proud of. Life was good. And if every now and again her thoughts wandered to Lucas, she simply pushed them right out again.

  For the most part.

  She couldn’t help wondering if Lucas was celebrating his promotion to partner with his sister and dad right then. She hoped he was happy. He deserved to be. At least someone got what they really wanted for Christmas.

  “Oh, this little guy is the cutest thing ever,” Kinsley cooed, gently scratching the kitten behind its neck.

  Wade pushed up his glasses and elbowed her in the side. “He has a brother that still needs to be adopted. You interested?”

  Kinsley’s eyes widened and then shot to Damon. “Can we, honey?”

  Damon looked to the ceiling as if searching for strength. “Don’t you think our family is expanding enough at the moment?” he said with a wink.

  Elena’s attention perked up. “Wait. Is that what I think you mean? Are you guys…pregnant?” She looked to Kinsley for confirmation, whose mouth split into a radiant grin.

  Arden and Elena rushed up to and threw their arms around Kinsley. “Oh my gosh,” Arden exclaimed. “I’m going to be an aunt. This is so great!”

  “Best Christmas present ever.” Wade slapped Damon on the back good-naturedly. “Congrats, man.”

  Kinsley rubbed her little belly bulge fondly. “To be honest, I’m still in shock.”

  “Do you know what you’re having?” Elena asked.

  Kinsley and Damon exchanged grins. “We don’t know the sex, but we do know the quantity.”

  “Quantity?” Wade frowned. “You mean there’s more than one?”

  Kinsley grinned, holding up two fingers.

  Twins. Elena’s heart gave a gentle squeeze as Arden and Wade made frenzied comments around her. She was so unbelievably happy for her friends. And even though she looked to be light-years away from that kind of life she also wanted for herself, she took comfort from basking in the glow of her friends’ good fortune. Her life wasn’t at all perfect or the way she wanted it to be, but since shedding some of those high expectations she once had about it, she realized something.

  She was going to be okay.

  “Let me get some champagne,” Elena announced. “We all need to have a drink to celebrate. Well, except for Kinsley.” She chuckled then headed to the kitchen. Her cell phone began buzzing as soon as she opened the refrigerator.

  She glanced down at the screen, feeling slightly disappointed when she saw that it was from Lucas’s boss, Mr. Sundberg, and not from Lucas himself. She thought maybe Scott would have mentioned their breakup to Lucas. But maybe Scott hadn’t told him. Or maybe Lucas wasn’t all that surprised. After all, he was completely right in his thinking that she and Scott shouldn’t be married.

  She picked up the phone and answered. “Hello, Mr. Sundberg. Merry Christmas.”

  “Elena, hello. Merry Christmas to you too. I’m sorry if I’m interrupting family time, but I wanted to personally tell you thank you and great work on the Fun & Games Toys project.”

  “Thank you, sir. That’s very nice to hear.”

  “I’m hoping you’ll also be happy to hear some other news. Bold Mine Advertising would love to offer you another freelancing job. Not quite as big as this last project, but just as flexible.”

  “Wait—another freelancing job? So this wouldn’t be a full-time job?”

  “Well, no. Not at this time. Right now, we’d like to just contract you for certain ads if we feel the fit is right. I hope you’re not disappointed.”

  Joy bubbled in her laugh. “Not at all. That would be wonderful.”

  She would still be able to keep her job with Kinsley—who would probably need her help even more while she was
pregnant—and work on her drawings as well. Plus, it would give her time to think about what she wanted to do with her future now that she was officially single again. Who knew what it could lead to eventually? But she was more open to considering the possibilities.

  “Great. Lucas will be overseeing your project. And seeing how well you two got along on the last one, I expect another smooth process.”

  She bit her lip. “Oh, but I thought maybe Lucas would be too busy for smaller projects now that he was made a partner.”

  “Well, normally that would be true. If he had accepted the offer.”

  If? She was barely able to hold her gasp of surprise. “I’m not sure I understand. I thought…”

  “Yes, we all thought so, too. Lucas turned the partners down. Said he didn’t feel right about taking it when it was basically all your work. He told us he wants to wait. But to be honest, I’m quite surprised at him. I can’t say when or if they’ll offer that to him again.” He cleared his throat. “Something’s changed in Lucas. You, uh, wouldn’t happen to have any idea what that could be, would you?”

  “I… No. I don’t know why he wouldn’t accept the offer.”

  He sighed. “Too bad. Lucas is a good guy. Hard worker. Driven. But he’s not acting quite like himself ever since the Fun & Games ad was completed. He seems…a little bit lonely.”

  Lucas Albright lonely? She was bemused. That hardly seemed like Lucas at all.

  “Mr. Sundberg, why are you telling me all this?”

  “Well. I like Lucas. Reminds me of myself when I was his age. However, I never made time for relationships or love. It’s the one thing I regret most in life even though I’ve made a lot of money. I think he may have realized he didn’t want to have that same regret.”

  “I—I see.” But she really didn’t. It was all too much to comprehend.

  “After the holidays, I’ll send you an email about the project and the contract. I hope you’ll consider it.”

  “I will. And thank you.”

  “Great, and I’ll have Lucas be in touch. Unless, of course, you’re in touch with him first.” He chuckled. “Enjoy the rest of your holiday.”

  After Mr. Sundberg hung up, Elena slowly placed her phone back on the counter. It just didn’t make sense that Lucas would have turned down what had been so important. Partnership at his firm meant everything to him. But he hadn’t taken it. Why? It didn’t make any sense.

  “What’s the hold up, Elena?” Arden yelled from the other room.

  Elena grabbed the champagne from the fridge and as she headed back into the living room, the doorbell rang. Good grief, but she was popular today!

  “Here,” she said, handing Wade the bottle, “you open this and I’ll get the door.”

  “Expecting anyone special?” Kinsley asked with a wink.

  Elena rolled her eyes. “You know that’s not the case.” She looked through the peephole and saw Lucas standing on the other side of the door. Oh my gosh! Her hands were shaking as she reached and fumbled with the doorknob. She immediately swung it open.

  She blinked twice to be sure it was him. Her knees weakened, and her heart felt like it would shoot out of her chest. He’d never looked so good to her eyes.

  “Lucas,” she gasped. “What are you doing here?”

  A wry smile spread across his lips. “It’s good to see you, too.”

  “Oh, sorry.” She tried to keep her heart still, but it felt like a hummingbird in her chest. “Come in.”

  He stepped in and began unbuttoning his coat. “Elena, I heard about you and Scott. And I didn’t want you to be alone for the holiday…” He blinked as he gazed around the room at her four friends giving him wide-eyed stares. “Hmm, I see I’m a little too late on that front.”

  Arden folded her arms, beaming. “Oh, don’t mind us. Pretend we’re not even here. You two go right ahead and talk.”

  Elena cleared her throat. “You came down all this way on Christmas Eve to keep me company?”

  He turned his attention back to her and smiled. “Yeah. Turns out my schedule isn’t going to be as tied up as I once thought it would be.”

  “I know. Mr. Sundberg told me you didn’t accept the partnership. But I don’t understand. I thought that was all you wanted.”

  “Yeah, well, I had thought so, too. Turns out I want something else a little more than that promotion. In fact,” he said, taking both her hands in his, “I want someone else more than that and anything else in this world.”

  Her gaze met his and her heart began to fill with hope. “Lucas—”

  Kinsley sniffed loudly as she choked back tears. “Oops, sorry! Feeling doubly emotional here. I’ll try to be quieter.”

  Damon threw an arm around his wife and began guiding her toward the kitchen. “Uh, maybe this is our cue to give you guys a little privacy.”

  Wade nodded and grabbed Arden’s hand. “Come on. That means us, too.”

  “But Lucas was just getting to the good part,” Arden protested.

  “I’m nowhere near the good part,” Lucas said with a chuckle. “But I promise I’ll call you back in when I get to it.”

  Arden shook a finger at him. “I’m holding you to that.” Then she allowed Wade to pull her into the kitchen.

  Elena blushed. “Sorry about them.”

  His hand reached for hers and held it tight. “Elena, as I told you before, you never have to apologize for your friends. They love you. And I love you.”

  “You do?” The words flipped through her heart but landed with a thud in her head. “Oh, you mean…as a friend?”

  He cracked a smile. “Yeah, but a little more than that, too. I love you as a friend, as a partner, and as a lover. But I really came down here tonight to tell you I’m in love with you, Elena.”

  The world suddenly stilled. Not only was Lucas here, but he was professing love to her, too.

  “B-but you don’t do love or attachments,” she reminded him, knowing it had to be said and that she had to be sure. “You don’t want marriage. How can you say you want it now?”

  “I didn’t want a lot of things before I got to know you,” he said with a lopsided grin. “But the more time I spent with you, the more things began to change. I didn’t want to admit it at first—not even to myself—because of Scott and because I had thought marriage brought only misery. But then I thought you were going to be out of my life for good, and that’s when I experienced true misery. Partnership in Bold Mine didn’t matter to me at that point anymore. The only thing that mattered to me was you. So, when I found out you and Scott were officially done, I had to come here and find out if you felt anything for me, too.”

  She was close to tears. Her throat felt so tight, she could barely talk. “Oh, Lucas.”

  He gave her fingers a little squeeze. “Look, I know you might be feeling raw right now, and I know logically, it’s too soon for you to lov—”

  She felt a burst of happiness and leaped into his arms, her mouth automatically finding his.

  After a minute she finally pulled back, feeling as if her grin was way too big for her face. “I do love you, Lucas Albright the third, in case you couldn’t tell. So very much. Ha! You’re finally wrong about something.”

  He chuckled. “I was wrong about a lot of things. Mainly, I was wrong about functioning better alone. That might have been true before I met you, but not now. Being alone is great until you find that one person who makes you realize what you’ve been missing in your life.”

  Her heart felt so full, she struggled to breathe. “You made me realize what was missing in my life, too. I did idealize my relationship with Scott because it seemed to have everything that my parents had and made them happy. But happiness isn’t that cut and dry, nor is it one size fits all. Love doesn’t have to be perfect. Just perfect for me.”

  “Do you think I’m perfect for you?” he asked, running a finger along her jaw.

  She gave him a coy shrug. “Only time will tell. We’ll see how we do working on the next
Bold Mine project together.”

  “Does that mean you’re going to take the freelancing job?”

  “Does it matter whether I do or not?”

  He shook his head. “No. The only thing that matters is you wanting me to stay and spend the entire holiday with you—gingerbread house decorating and all. I’m ready for whatever else you and this town wants to throw at me.”

  She laughed. “Well, that’s one decision I can confidently say yes to then. Besides,” she said, standing on tiptoe and wrapping her arms around his neck, “Christmas isn’t Christmas unless you’re with the people you love.”

  He lowered his head and kissed her. “Then it’s going to be a perfect one for me.”

  Epilogue

  One year, ten days, and twenty-three hours later…

  Elena crossed the dance floor to the other side of the ballroom and grabbed Chef Rick’s arm. “Oh my gosh, I don’t see the champagne. Don’t tell me we didn’t order champagne for the New Year’s Eve toast.”

  Rick smiled, sending the corners of his eyes crinkling. “Then I won’t tell you that. But only because we did order the champagne. I wanted it extra cold before serving so I rolled the tray out back to sit outside for a bit.” He nudged her. “Look, here it comes now.”

  She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw one of the servers wheeling two dozen bottles toward the bar. “Oh, thank God.”

  “Relax,” Rick said, patting a meaty hand on her shoulder.

  It was hard to relax. Elena was officially in charge of tonight’s big New Year’s Eve party at the hotel, because Kinsley’s daughter, Mia, was sick with a cold. So, tonight, Elena wanted everything to be extra perfect. Since Damon and Kinsley had their children, Kinsley had been laying the responsibility of running the hotel more on Elena’s shoulders, and Elena wanted to assure her friend that she was absolutely up to the task. “I really am trying to stay calm.”

  “You’re doing great, kiddo.”

  “I’ll second that,” Lucas said, coming up behind her and kissing her on the cheek. “I can tell you’re doing a great job simply based on the fact that I’ve barely had five minutes alone with you.”