Bad Case of Loving You

by Deborah Cooke

  Logan came home around ten, having been dropped off by Simon’s dad, Ben. Lyssa’s cell phone rang after she heard Logan get into the shower. She thought it might be one of Simon’s parents—it wouldn’t have been the first time Logan forgot something—but winced at the name displayed.

  Reality was intruding all too soon.

  She couldn’t duck him any longer.

  “Happy New Year, Justin,” Lyssa said when she answered.

  “What the hell were you thinking?” he demanded.

  Always tactful and supportive—or not.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Lyssa said cheerfully. She’d halfway expected the storm and was determined not to respond in kind.

  “Sending Peter and the others back to the car last night, of course.” His tone was scathing and, not for the first time, Lyssa thought her manager had begun to treat her like a stupid child. Something had changed in the past six months, since he’d gotten her all the top bookings, and the break from daily discussions with him made her more keenly aware of it. “The whole reason the team goes with you is to ensure your safety. I was glad when I heard you’d booked them, but you shouldn’t send them away before you’re back at the hotel. It’s foolish!”

  “I just wanted to dance.”

  “You could dance with them there.”

  “But I always do that. I wanted to try something different.”

  “Lyssa! It’s irresponsible! You could be hurt...”

  “I’m an adult, Justin,” she said, interrupting him. “I managed just fine.”

  “And what about Logan?”

  “He was with friends. He was fine.”

  Logan came out of his bedroom, dressed for the day. He was absorbed in something on his phone.

  He took a bowl of fruit from the breakfast tray delivered by room service. “The Wi-Fi in this place totally sucks,” he muttered. He ignored the fact that she was on the phone, probably guessing that it was Justin, and Justin made no comment on the slight interruption. The two had never liked each other. Logan dropped into a chair, eating and texting.

  “Were you drunk?” Justin demanded.

  “I never drink alcohol. You know that.” Lyssa spoke mildly. “Too many calories.”

  “Were you high?”

  She frowned in impatience. “No. I just wanted to dance. I told you that.” She nodded at Logan, putting her hand over the receiver. “I’ll just get my coat and we’ll go see that other place.”

  He nodded and took a muffin. He was already starting to have a hollow leg. She was sure he’d grown six inches this term at school. “It’s okay. No rush.”

  “Where are you going?” Justin asked. “What place are you going to see? You’d better call the bodyguards or I will. After that display last night, you’ll be surrounded by photographers...”

  “Thanks for your advice, Justin.”

  “Why didn’t you take any of my calls? You shouldn’t have booked this appearance without checking with me...”

  “I told you that Logan and I were having a quiet holiday together.”

  “Well, it’s not quiet now. And I manage your career. What do you think you’re doing, making changes without authorization?” Lyssa felt her eyes narrow at his tirade. “What were you even doing at Flatiron Five? Why would you go there?”

  “Because I know them.” There was steel in her tone and Logan looked up with interest.

  “What?”

  “I went to college with the partners. I knew them before there was Flatiron Five. Not really well, but enough to say hello.” Lyssa shrugged, trying to ease into her lie. Logan was obviously intrigued. “And Cassie did say hello when I saw her at Nordstrom’s last week.”

  “Cassie?”

  “Nordstrom’s?” Logan mouthed, raising his brows. They hadn’t gone to Nordstrom’s and he knew it. They’d just looked at the windows, and she hadn’t talked to anyone else.

  Lyssa held a fingertip to her lips, then continued talking to Justin. Theo wouldn’t have been fooled. Logan wasn’t fooled. Justin was. “Cassie Wilson. She’s their marketing person. We talked about this club we used to go to, and she asked me to come to their New Year’s Eve party. She said it would make a big splash. It did, didn’t it?”

  “It did,” Justin admitted grudgingly. “The traffic on your social media profiles has gone through the roof. I have a ton of offers for new work already today.”

  “Good. She was right then.” Lyssa chose to ignore the comment about more work. “It’ll give my stats a nice boost.”

  Not that it mattered anymore. Angel’s appearance at F5 was a finale. Lyssa was quitting at the top, which was probably a good strategic move—but one Justin would dislike.

  “It’s not up to you to think about your stats,” Justin said, his tone irritable. “It’s not up to you to think about your media coverage, Lyssa, or to decide which parties to attend. It’s up to me. It’s my job. Mercedes and I have that covered.”

  “I thought you’d be pleased,” Lyssa countered. “You always say I should be more visible. In fact, you were complaining before you went on vacation that I hadn’t booked any appearances while I was in Manhattan for the holidays, that I wasn’t making the most of it.”

  “Bitching, more like,” Logan contributed in a mutter. “Because it doesn’t earn money for you to hang out with your son for a week.”

  Lyssa held a fingertip to her lips again and they shared a conspiratorial grin.

  Justin exhaled and lowered his voice. “You should have told me, babe.”

  Babe? He couldn’t have said anything worse, in Lyssa’s opinion. “I wanted it to be a surprise,” she said, her tone hard. “Nice start to the new year.”

  “This is what you pay me for.”

  She was well aware that Logan was watching.

  “Well, sorry. I thought it would be fun. It was fun. I had a fabulous time.” She stood up. “I might go back.”

  “We’re not done talking about this,” Justin said with soft threat.

  “Aren’t we? I am.”

  “And who was that guy?”

  “What guy?”

  “The one you were kissing like you two had invented it.”

  Lyssa felt herself blush. “I don’t know. It was midnight.”

  Justin chuckled. “And you always did like dark meat, didn’t you?’

  Lyssa decided she’d had enough. “Happy New Year, Justin,” she said, hearing that her tone was crisp. “See you next Monday. I’ve got to go.”

  “You’d better be taking the car, and have Peter with you...”

  Lyssa ending the call and the lecture, then shook her head.

  Dark meat.

  What a disgustingly crude man he was.

  “Not taking the advice of the boss man?” Logan asked.

  “Justin forgets that I’m the boss. I’m not going out with an entourage today and I’m going to do whatever I want—which is, looking at more apartments with you.”

  Instead of smiling, Logan shrugged. “Well, he might have a point. You’re blowing up social media, Mom, with that appearance last night. There’ll probably be photographers in the lobby.”

  “Then it’s a good thing that we’re not playing tourist today. Once we’re out of the hotel, they’ll never find us.”

  “You mean you lied to Justin twice in one conversation?” Logan was watching her closely. They did have a rule about honesty.

  “Okay,” Lyssa said. “I know I’m breaking the house rule, but it’s because this transition is complicated.”

  “I don’t care if you lie to Justin, but I don’t want you to lie to me.”

  “I’m not.”

  He gave her a look. “You didn’t meet anybody at Nordstrom’s.”

  “Just because you were listening to my conversation with Justin doesn’t mean I was lying to you.”

  “But you never told me about this F5 thing. And you haven’t told me why you’re watching the video’s from there all the time. I think you know tha
t British guy, Theo Tremblay. I think that’s why you left the museum after we saw their pop-up there.”

  Lyssa put her hands on his shoulders and looked him in the eye. “And you’re right, but I can’t tell you the whole story just yet.”

  “Will you?”

  “When it’s time, I promise I will.”

  “I’ll remember.”

  Lyssa knew he would.

  She watched him frown. “What else?” she asked.

  “You said you were ditching Justin in the new year but you didn’t say anything to him just now. Aren’t you going to do it?”

  “I am but I haven’t told him yet about my retirement. I want to tell him in person.”

  “You mean you want to fire him in person.”

  “It’s not something that should be done over the phone.”

  “Why not?”

  “It’s not...gracious,” Lyssa said. The truth was that she was trying to do some things the way she thought Theo would do them, so Logan could learn from example.

  The other truth was that she wasn’t as good at being gracious as Theo.

  “This way, he can throw something at you,” Logan said, sounding wise beyond his years.

  Lyssa was intrigued that Logan also thought Justin wouldn’t take the news well. “You don’t think he will?”

  “I think he’ll be mad. I think you should do it in a restaurant or something, where there are other people around.” Her son glanced up, his intensity once again reminding her of Theo. “And Mercedes doesn’t count.”

  “You don’t like either of them, do you?”

  Logan shook his head. “We learned about parasites in science class this term. That’s what they are.”

  Lyssa was startled. “That’s a bit harsh.”

  He shrugged, then fixed her with a look. “So, where are we going?”

  “The real estate agent has more places to show us. She thinks we might like something more downtown. Gramercy Park or Chelsea.”

  “I’d like to be closer to Simon.”

  “I know. But it won’t hurt to look. I only want to buy a place here once, so we need to make the right choice the first time.”

  “Okay, but we still have to get out of the hotel first.”

  Lyssa dropped to the couch beside Logan, and scrolled through the images he’d pulled up on his phone. “Wow. I really did blow up my social media.”

  “Internet servers everywhere have been taken to their knees by Angel,” he said with satisfaction, then looked up. “You’re really quitting?”

  “I’m really quitting.” Lyssa smiled and gave Logan a hug. “I told you the truth. Nothing like a big finish, is there?” He smiled and turned off his phone.

  She’d wondered if her appearance at the club would end this phase of being out of the public eye, but she guessed that if they stayed away from predictable locations, the photographers wouldn’t find them. The interest would die down quickly.

  In a couple of days, no one would care.

  As was often her choice, Lyssa asked for Logan’s help in solving the problem. “Okay, so our first challenge is to get through the lobby without anyone taking a picture of you. How are we going to manage that?”

  “You’re such a control freak, Mom.”

  “When it comes to you, I am. All true. We’re meeting the real estate agent at a little restaurant on the next block. I’ll give her a call to set the time. But you’re right that my plan of keeping you out of the limelight will be more of a challenge today.”

  Logan smiled, a devious light in his eyes. “But I know where the service elevators are.”

  So did Lyssa, although she didn’t think that mattered. “Don’t you need a key to operate them?”

  He dug in the satchel he always carried and produced one with a smile. “The concierge gave it to me.”

  “Friends in all the right places.”

  “I wanted to have options, Mom. Like that time in London when you were surrounded.”

  “And the bellhop got us into the service elevator. How awesome that you remembered.” She gave him a hug and a kiss, then called the real estate agent. They bundled up and headed for the door.

  There was no one in the corridor and they hurried to the service elevators.

  Logan’s key worked and they grinned at each other once they were in the elevator alone.

  “It’s like we’re spies,” Logan said.

  “Incognito,” Lyssa agreed and tugged down his hat.

  Logan’s manner became so casual that Lyssa knew he was going to ask something, but his question still surprised her. “So, you did know him before?”

  “Him?” Lyssa echoed, even though she had a feeling who he meant.

  Thank God he hadn’t heard Justin’s comment.

  Logan turned his phone around to show her. He had a page up on a site that posted celebrity photographs and there she was, backed into the bar at F5, necking with Theo. “He’s the one in those pop-ups, the British guy. You know him?”

  “Yes, I knew him in college,” Lyssa said, knowing her son was asking more than that. “Really nice guy.”

  “You don’t kiss all the nice guys.”

  “No, I don’t.”

  Logan looked down at his phone. “Is he why we’re moving to New York?”

  “No.” Theo’s presence hadn’t been the reason she’d decided on New York. “I just think it will be a good place for both of us, plus Simon lives here.” She smiled for him, leaving it there, even though he obviously had questions. Logan wasn’t stupid. He only had to look in the mirror to see that he had mixed blood, and he could count back the years to her college days all by himself.

  Lyssa still needed to make sure of Theo’s reaction. The last thing she wanted was for Logan to be hurt.

  And the second-last thing she wanted was to hurt Theo again.

  Maybe by the time Logan headed back to school, she’d have thought of a good way to solve it all.

  What a chicken-shit she was.

  “Okay,” she said to Logan as the doors opened in the service corridor. “We’re almost in the clear.”

  “There’s no one at this door, Mom. Come on!”

  The wind blew around them as they stepped into the street on the quiet side of the hotel. A taxi had just pulled into the curb and Lyssa saw the silhouette of the man in the back paying. She would have led Logan around the cab but the back door opened and the man stepped out, right in front of her.

  Theo.

  He was impassive except that the line of his lips became taut when he saw her. That meant he was really angry.

  His mood wasn’t going to improve anytime soon.

  “Did you get the exposure you wanted?” he demanded, some bitterness in his tone. She thought he’d say more, maybe something about the pictures online, then his gaze flicked to Logan. He blinked, clearly astonished, and Lyssa could practically see him connect the dots. “Lyssa,” he whispered, exhaling her name.

  The truth, apparently, wasn’t going to wait any longer.

  In a strange way, Lyssa was relieved.

  Nine

  Who was the boy?

  Was he Lyssa’s son?

  Theo had to guess so by the way she had her hand on his shoulder.

  But he was at least part black.

  And he was maybe ten years old. Theo couldn’t help but stare at him. It couldn’t be...

  “We should go over there for a coffee,” Lyssa said, grabbing Theo’s elbow and steering him toward the restaurant across the street. She looked up and down the street, and hurried him across the pavement. There was no doubt that she was freaked out, but Theo wasn’t sure why.

  “The pictures,” he said, glancing at the boy again. How old was he exactly?

  The boy was looking at Theo, too, a similar speculation in his eyes.

  “I know,” Lyssa said in a hurry. They reached the opposite curb but Lyssa shoved him toward the door of the restaurant with all the subtlety of a hurricane. “I didn’t think it through. I’m
sorry, Theo. That midnight kiss was an impulse. I had to kiss someone on the hour, so I chose you.” She flashed one of those reckless smiles, the ones that made his heart turn somersaults, and Theo had to remind himself that he was angry with her. “I can’t regret that, but I do regret the pictures. I had no right to draw attention to you like that.” She sighed and pushed her hair behind her ear, looking up and down the street again, then urging them all into the restaurant. “Why am I screwing this all up so badly?” she muttered with such obvious frustration that Theo knew she hadn’t been trying to be manipulative.

  “Because you’re being impulsive,” he said, reassured. “For whatever it’s worth, I’m not sure you can help it.”

  “There’s a good sign for the future,” Lyssa said, and gave him a rueful look. “For whatever it’s worth, I think you make that tendency worse.”

  And why would that be? In other circumstances, Theo might have thought it a good sign. In this moment, he didn’t know what to think.

  “You left,” he reminded her. He was well aware that the boy was listening to them and chose his words with care. “I thought you were going to stay and talk.”

  “So did I,” she ceded. “But I changed my mind.”

  “Why?”

  She faltered, looking vulnerable and uncertain. Theo fiercely wanted to fix whatever had gone awry in her world. “I wasn’t sure.”

  “Talk to me, Lyssa. We used to have complete honesty between us.”

  “You’re right. Okay.” She licked her lips, studying him, then took a breath. “You have a tattoo. I didn’t expect that.”

  The boy’s eyes widened. “Cool! Can I see?”

  “No,” Lyssa said in a decidedly maternal tone.

  “Just a little one,” Theo said.

  “It must be for a reason,” Lyssa insisted and he wondered why it troubled her. She was the one who thought there was no such thing as love. Why would she worry about a heart tattoo?

  “I can’t see that it matters,” he said, watching her.

  “No, you probably can’t. There are some things we really need to get sorted out.”

  Theo had a feeling that one of those things was the boy watching him so intently.