by Leslie North
Because there was one big thing he was eager to forget about. The lady of his life who almost was but then wasn’t. Haley. He spent his regular days trying not to think about her, and he succeeded for most of them. But yesterday? She’d sent him an email. The first contact from her since she quit two months ago. All it said was, “I made a mistake. I miss you.”
“Why are you still over here in this corner by yourself?” Brian came up to him, his expensive sunglasses reflecting the brilliance of the day. He was the model of happy-go-lucky dad. Board shorts, a loose top, and the sort of easy happiness that radiated off of him in waves. It made Nick equal parts jealous and happy for him.
“I don’t know. I’m not feeling it today.”
“Well you’re feeling the rum,” Brian pointed out. Behind him, the inground pool sparkled, waves rising as Donovan executed another cannon ball. At the side of the pool, Anna shielded herself from the water, her long, lean legs perfectly golden in the sunlight. They’d been dating for three months, but it might as well have been three years. They’d accelerated quickly. But something was missing. He already knew what.
“Yeah. This is a nice party. I’m glad I came.” Nick reached for the glass again and drained the mojito.
Brian sighed, adjusting his glasses as he looked out over the yard. “Okay. What’s wrong?”
Nick glowered, resisting the urge to refill his mojito immediately. It would look bad. But maybe that was the sign he should listen to. “Nothing.”
“Girlfriend troubles?”
Nick worked his jaw back and forth, his gaze drifting toward Anna. They were fine. They’d never been anything but fine. But Nick wanted more than fine. “Not exactly troubles. Just…”
Anna’s laughter snagged his attention. She and Connie talked, feet dangling in the pool, while Brian’s baby girl slept peacefully in a bassinet in the shade. Donovan hauled himself out of the pool, running a hand through sopping wet hair as he jogged over to join him and Brian. This was the perfect summer day…and Nick hated that he couldn’t just enjoy it. Haley’s simple email replayed in his mind as if she’d shouted it through a megaphone. And every second since reading it, he’d tortured himself with thoughts of what if?
“What are you two talking about over here?” Donovan ribbed, shoving Nick. “Brian, if he tells you he’s engaged, he’s full of shit. There is no ring on Anna’s finger. I’m going to win that bet.”
Nick didn’t even have the heart to joke around about it anymore. Marrying Anna was the last thing he wanted to do. Even with a million dollars on the line. “You didn’t show up with anyone. Unless you’re hiding your fiancée in your basement.”
Donovan snorted, resting his hands on his hips as he surveyed the pool. “Yeah, well…I don’t need to bring her here. All you need to do is watch TV. You’ll hear about it on Entertainment News soon enough.”
“Wow. Now this sounds like something we shouldn’t miss,” Brian ribbed.
“Yeah. Sounds like a scandal waiting to happen.”
Donovan scoffed. “Scandal or not, that million bucks is gonna feel real nice sitting in my account.”
Nick’s smirk dropped. Brian must have caught his gloom, because he said,
“Looks like Nick is having second thoughts.”
Nick sighed, reaching for his empty glass. “I’m going for a refill. Anybody want anything?”
“Nick.” Brian’s stern tone made him pause.
Nick gritted his teeth, weighing the pros and cons of spilling what was on his mind. He was with his two best friends. They, more than anyone, would know what to do.
“Donovan, could you please get our best friend another mojito?” Brian said, sending a pointed look to their friend.
“Of course, buddy.” Donovan squeezed Nick’s shoulder before wandering off with his empty glass.
“Just spill it,” Brian urged.
“I fell in love with a developer at work,” Nick said, the words coming out awkward and rushed. He’d never said these words before. Never even realized he’d loved her until last night. But fuck. He did. He loved her, and he didn’t want anybody else. Least of all for the money. “She quit two months ago. Her app was the one that hooked me up with Anna.”
Brian lifted a brow. “Wow. You went straight for complicated.”
Nick snorted, raking a hand through his hair. “Yeah. I thought dating Anna would help me get over her. Not working real well.”
“Why’d she quit?”
“The app didn’t get greenlit. And probably because she didn’t want to work with me anymore.” Nick shoved his hands into the pockets of his khaki shorts. “I know she felt the same way about me, but she refused to admit it. So here we are.”
“Damn.” Brian squinted toward the pool, a smile playing on his lips. “Sounds familiar. You remember Felicia, right?”
Nick wracked his memory. “Ah, shit. She was that blonde you were seeing for a little bit, right? Before Connie?”
“Yeah. And let me tell you, Felicia was the worst business deal I’ve ever tried to make in my life.”
“Anna isn’t a business deal,” Nick said.
“But it started that way,” Brian said. “You and Donovan made a bet.”
“It’s just fun and games.”
“Then why are you with her still? It’s clearly not fun for you.”
Nick sighed. “No. It’s not.”
“If it’s not about business, and it’s not about fun, then what is it about?” Brian took a sip from his tumbler. “Connie showed me money wasn’t the most important thing. And I know if you lose this bet, you won’t blink.”
“I don’t even care about the bet,” Nick admitted. “I’d pay the million just to get Haley back within a mile radius.”
“Well?” Brian smiled, like he knew a secret. “Then I think you know what comes next.”
Donovan came back, holding Nick’s drink and his own. He passed it to his friend, and the three friends clinked glasses.
“Thanks for the talk, boys,” Nick said before he took a sip.
“I missed the whole thing, but you’re welcome,” Donovan cracked. Nick relished the cold jolt of mojito, then he set the glass down.
“I think it’s time for me to go.”
“You don’t want to finish your drink?” Brian asked.
“No,” he said, his gaze shifting back to Anna. “You guys finish it for me.”
There was an important conversation he needed to have.
And it needed to happen now.
16
Haley glided down the sterile halls of her new workplace, everything decked out in white with sky blue accents. As a small tech startup, the office budget didn’t have much earmarked for aesthetics. Their mission was linking charities with wealthy donors, and she was the head developer of the app. Workplace aesthetics be damned—she was finally in the starring role.
It was everything she wanted, at least for now: a promotion, creative control, a voice that mattered in the workplace.
So why did she still feel like something was missing?
She rapped softly on the CEO’s door.
He barked, “Come in!”
She pushed open the door. This time around, the CEO, Greg, was a little younger than Nick—probably 29, which put him around Haley’s age—but had far less humor than she was accustomed to. She’d learned quickly that establishing a rapport like she and Nick had was out of the question. Besides, connections like theirs didn’t come around often. She’d been stupid to overlook that. Even stupider for underestimating it. Stupidest for walking away from it.
“Happy afternoon,” she chirped. “Just wanted to let you know that I got the latest bugs fixed in the app. I’ll roll out the update by the end of the day.”
“Great.” Greg scanned the papers on his desk. “Did you hear the news?”
“Um…no?”
“We’ll talk about it at the next staff meeting,” Greg said, “But I thought you should know first, since this will affect you sooner than the rest. We s
ecured the partnership we’ve been looking for, which means our resources and reach will greatly expand.”
“Ah. So you merged?”
“Not exactly. Bought out, more like.” Greg leaned back in his seat, looking satisfied. “And by an excellent company. They bid the highest, and honestly, we weren’t even expecting them to be a player.”
“Huh. Very nice.” Haley smiled. “May I ask which company?”
Greg paused. “Actually, you used to work for them. Hunter Enterprises.”
Haley’s stomach bottomed out. Yeah, she used to work for them all right. She drew a slow breath. Does Nick know I work here? “Ah! Well, that’s very interesting.”
Greg studied her, like trying to tease out a reaction. “Good interesting or bad?”
“Good. Very good.” She rolled her lips inward, trying to find the most diplomatic way to convey I love the owner, but he’s about to get married to a woman I forced him to be with. He’d never responded to her email earlier that month, which sealed the deal for her. He was permanently gone, and it was all her doing. There was nothing else she could do, shy of showing up on his wedding day and demanding he reconsider. Which…well, the jury was still out on that one. If the knot in her stomach didn’t let up after a few more months, she’d be forced to do something drastic.
“I’m glad to hear that. Nick Hunter will be around the offices periodically to check things out, take some meetings, things like that. We might need you to be on board for a few meetings, but I’ll let you know which ones.”
Tension prickled through her. Every inch of her wanted to see him. Two and a half months away from him had been far too long. She physically pined for him, which was not a reaction she had expected. Not in a million years. But that’s what happens when you fall in love, you idiot. And you loved Nick for way longer than you could even admit.
This seemed like the only rightful penance. Shove away the only man she’d ever truly fallen for, then suffer when he came back into her orbit by purchasing the company she’d escaped to. It made sense in a masochistic way. She just wasn’t sure who the true masochist was: herself or Nick. Probably both.
Questions swarmed her as she moved like a zombie through the rest of her work day. Wondering if Nick still hated her, or maybe even liked her. Whether or not he and Anna had gotten rings for each other yet. Maybe they were already living together. Inhabiting his attic lounge nightly. The thought made her stomach clench. That attic lounge had been her sacred space once. And then she’d left it to chase a dream, only to fall flat on her face.
She didn’t regret the app. But the fallout with Nick had shown her that she couldn’t succeed with a product that promised an outcome that she refused herself. The irony was that since finding her footing at the new job, she’d been thinking more and more about the idea of dating.
Probably finding—and pushing away—Nick had helped her realize that her life, while great, could be even better with the right person.
But what if you lost the perfect person?
She wasn’t going to dwell on that. And when the time came to face Nick and eventually see him in his happy relationship with his model-caliber girlfriend, Haley would do her best to smile. To congratulate them. To feign interest in the name of their unborn child, who would probably also be born a CEO right out of the gate.
The next few days at work had her on pins and needles. Waiting for word about Nick, trying to not bounce off the walls with excitement at being within in the same four walls as him. At this point, she felt like a celebrity was coming. One who couldn’t know how she felt, and she absolutely shouldn’t say that she loved him, but it might slip out anyway.
And as a weird sort of antidote, Haley had re-installed Married Ever After on her phone. As part of the original licensing agreement for the beta phase, the app was going to remain functional and available to participants for another couple of months yet. Perhaps the only way for her to truly put the project to bed was to use it herself. She felt ready, so why not?
Maybe she could find her own Prince Charming before Nick came around. If she was brutally honest with the app, then she could attract just the right man for her. It might be a little unlikely, but hey, this was a new chapter in her life, and she wasn’t above a little desperate soul mate hunting.
That week, Haley spent her free time—in the quiet hour after Amanda went to bed—and even some of her work hours perfecting her profile. She pondered and rehashed and polished almost every line in it. She answered the questions and the accompanying scales with an honesty that made her cringe. It was the only way it would work.
Nick showed up at the office two days after she finalized her profile. Not nearly enough time to find her Prince Charming, much less send him a text message. Haley spied Nick approaching the building from her second-floor office, and her heart immediately started racing. She’d imagined what she might say to him a thousand different times, almost as much as she’d imagined their lovemaking.
But imagining him hadn’t prepared her for actually seeing him again. His strong, purposeful stride. The dark glint of his hair, which looked shorter now, more tightly cropped. The wave was gone from the front, and she clamped a hand over her mouth. How dare he cut out the wave and not ask me first. Maybe it was his wench of a girlfriend Anna who had insisted he cut his hair short. She fumed as she paced her office. Work would be futile now; she couldn’t concentrate while he was in the building. All she could focus on was waiting for him, listening for his footsteps and the deep undertone of his laugh.
Haley tortured herself for a half hour, checking and rechecking her email, until she decided she’d casually wander the halls until she ran into him. Greg hadn’t messaged her with any meeting information, so if she didn’t intercept Nick now, she might miss him altogether. The thought jarred a cold fear into her. For some reason, this felt like her last chance.
Haley walked to the small employee lounge, glancing furtively down the halls as she checked for Nick. Her first sweep yielded nothing. She filled her water bottle from the cooler in the lounge, then walked—crept, really—back toward her office. At the last minute she hung a right, passing by Greg’s office. No voices in there. Hell, maybe Nick was gone already. A door closed behind her, and she jerked her head around to look.
Thud. Haley connected with something. Hard. She jerked her head up.
It was Nick. She’d run into the wall of Nick. He watched her with an arched brow.
“Excuse me,” he said, his voice dripping with wryness. “Are you okay?”
“Oh my god.” Haley pressed a palm to her forehead, feeling suddenly lightheaded. “I’m sorry. Jesus. I…” She floundered for a response. This wasn’t how she imagined their reunion might transpire. “I didn’t expect to see you here.”
Her words rang hollow to her. Like she was reading a script. Nick fiddled with the button on his sport coat, glancing down the hallway. She used the opportunity to scope out his left hand. No ring. You might have a chance.
“I thought I might run into you,” Nick said, smirking, “but I didn’t realize I literally would.”
It was a sliver of lightheartedness—and it ballooned inside of her, prompting a giggle. She covered her mouth as more giggles escaped; she was laughing far more than necessary. Seeing this man again had turned her into a teenager.
But she couldn’t stop laughing. She’d been deprived of this man, his energy, his sense of humor, for so long. Being near him again only reinforced what she already knew—she was deeply in love with him.
“It wasn’t that funny,” Nick said, after she’d laughed for too long.
“I know,” she said, waving her hands, trying to calm herself down, “I know. It’s just that…I don’t get to joke around a lot here.”
Understanding flashed over his face. Things felt good between them. At least he wasn’t being icy. At least she’d gotten to laugh.
“How do you like your new job?” He glanced around. “Or shouldn’t I ask while we’re standing out
side your boss’s door?”
She rolled her lips inward, fighting another laugh. She wanted to shove his shoulder, touch him any way she could, but that might be too much.
“I love it,” she finally said. “It’s great. I just…” I just miss the ever-living hell out of you. “Extra responsibility takes some getting used to.” A pleasant moment of silence settled, and she wracked her brain for what came next. “Am I keeping you?”
“No.” Nick flashed a dazzling smile. One that would have had her ripping his pants off, if they were in his sex attic.
“Well, good.” She batted her eyes. She couldn’t stop herself from flirting if she tried.
“So. You might like to know that your former colleagues are still using Married Ever After,” he asked.
Her stomach tightened. “That’s great!” She gnawed on the inside of her lip, wondering if she should admit her latest move. “I’m finally on it, too.”
His brows shot up. “Really?”
“Yeah. Figured I should give my own code a whirl.” She shrugged. “See if I can’t find my blackened, charred heart its soul mate.” She snorted, searching his face for a response. Any recognition of the words she’d used in his bedroom the evening she walked out. His face remained neutral.
“Well, good luck with that,” Nick said, shoving his hands in his pockets. Interest didn’t register on his face. Nothing other than good-natured friendliness. Her smile drooped a little. This is supposed to be where you tell me you want to be my married-ever-after.
“Thanks.” She tucked some hair behind her ear, then crossed her arms over her chest. “I better get back to work. Lots of things to do. Lots of wealth dispersal to coordinate.” She backed up slowly, offering a smile. Nick’s eyes glittered with humor as he watched her.
“Good seeing you, Haley,” he said, his voice softer. Or maybe she was just imagining the tenderness there.
“Yeah. You too.” She turned, but her heel wobbled. She stumbled and caught herself on the wall. She grimaced, looking back at Nick. He was fighting to keep in a laugh. Which in turn made her snort.