His Ex: The Cohan Billionaire Brothers Book Two (A Second Chance Romance)

by Layla Holt

  It did not take a genius to figure out that she was talking about her mother. Her advise would have been to go after her dreams. Not to settle for marriage when she could become famous.

  “It’s funny how wise we become with hindsight,” Ruby said and let out a bitter laugh.

  “I think things happen just as they are meant to and for our own good. If you never left, you’d have always wondered what you missed out on.” It was easy for Dean to say that now, four years later.

  At the time, he had been blind with rage, hurt, and hatred for her and the whole world. Thinking it through now, he would not have wanted to be married to a woman who wished she was elsewhere. He pushed away those memories. That was the past. What mattered was now.

  He held her gaze. “You’re here now, aren’t you?” His question was loaded and looking into her sea green eyes, he saw that she understood the meaning.

  She nodded. “I’m here now.”

  Chapter Seven

  Dean strolled from his bedroom to the living room and glanced at the clock on the wall. Half past twelve. Too early for his date with Ruby. He looked around his condo and felt as if the air was stifling his breathing. He had to leave even if it was for a drive.

  A drive would take the edge off the restlessness churning in his belly. He grabbed his camera and car keys, and left. A feeling of deja vu came over him. As though he and Ruby had slipped back into the past. As if they had been given a second chance.

  His stomach muscles tensed up as he thought about what he and Ruby were doing. There was no point in fooling himself that it meant nothing or that they were going out as friends. It was a date and feelings were involved. His love for her had roared to life.

  He had never stopped being in love with Ruby and it frightened him. Was it possible to want something so badly and yet be so frightened of it? Did she know how close she had come to destroying him when she left? Could he trust her with his heart again?

  Fifteen minutes later, Dean found himself pulling into a parking spot outside Ruby’s home. He killed the engine and looked at his wrist watch. One o’clock on the dot. He had half an hour to kill. He reached for his camera case and slipped his camera out and switched it on.

  He flipped through the stored pictures, laughing softly when he got to Matt’s pictures. His nephew wasn’t able to say uncle and had shortened it to ‘Ana’. He shouted ‘Ana’ every time he saw Dean and that just about melted his heart each time.

  A knock came on the window, startling him. He looked up, saw Ruby’s face and pressed the button to open the window.

  She grinned. She was so beautiful, and she got more so as she grew older. He couldn’t wait to see how she would look in twenty years’ time.

  “Do you want to wait inside?” she said and then leaned in to kiss his cheek.

  “Yes please. Thank you for sympathizing with an over-excited man.” Dean returned his camera to its case and got out of the car.

  He pulled Ruby into his arms for a quick hug and kissed her on the mouth. He followed her into the house.

  “I was working on Leah’s jewelry,” Ruby said, leading him to the dining room.

  Pieces of tools, gems, stones, metals and wires lay on the table and Dean quickly got out his camera. “Can I take some pictures?”

  “Go ahead,” Ruby said.

  As he took picture after picture of the works in progress, his stomach rumbled. He tried to cover it up with a cough.

  “Have you eaten lunch?” Ruby said.

  “No,” Dean said sheepishly. He’d forgotten that eating was a necessary activity for human survival. He’d thought about Ruby all morning and how much he was looking forward to the afternoon.

  “I have some leftover pasta. I’ll warm it for you,” Ruby said.

  He followed her into the kitchen and while she was serving food from the storage containers, he took dozens of pictures. Ruby opening the fridge, Ruby asking him a question, her skin so clear and flawless and her eyes a deep-sea green color that a man would happily drown himself in.

  Ruby sticking out her tongue at him as she waited for the food to warm up in the microwave. He captured what she imagined was a monkey face when in fact she just looked adorable. He couldn’t keep his laughter under control anymore when she turned and shook her back at him.

  He had missed that silly Ruby. She carried his food to the dining room and quickly set a place for him.

  “My turn,” Ruby said and took the camera from him.

  “Be caref—” he started to say.

  “I know. I’ll be careful with your beloved camera,” Ruby said laughing.

  He sat and ate as she took pictures of him. He scowled and frowned and then, like Ruby, made silly faces. He let a string of pasta hung from his mouth.

  “Gross,” Ruby said but she was laughing.

  His hunger distracted him and he concentrated on the food and tried to ignore Ruby as she took pictures of him eating. Like his dad, Dean hated having his picture taken. He preferred to be on the back end of the camera. But he couldn’t complain to Ruby when he had taken a zillion pictures of her.

  “Thank you, that was delicious,” Dean said when he swallowed the last of his lunch.

  “You’re welcome. I’ll just go freshen up and I’ll be ready. Five minutes tops,” Ruby said.

  Dean carried his plate to the sink and chuckled when he saw it piled with dirty dishes. He grinned as he folded the sleeves of his shirt. Another thing that had not changed about her. Ruby had hated washing dishes and got to it when she had no other option.

  He filled the sink with hot water and methodically scrubbed them.

  “Cups, plates, cutlery and then the rest,” Ruby sang behind him.

  He laughed. “I’m glad you remember.” He’d taught her that song to give her an order when washing dishes. A waste of time. He doubted that she used it. Her style of washing dishes was to clean whatever her hands grabbed first from the sink.

  “You shouldn’t have,” she said.

  “I don’t mind,” Dean said. As someone who spent most of his working hours thinking, he enjoyed mundane activities which required no mental effort whatsoever.

  “Thank you.”

  He rinsed the last bowl and turned to dry his hands. He caught a glimpse of Ruby as she leaned on the doorway waiting, and stood still. He felt a catch in his breath as he stared at her.

  She looked amazing with her hair pinned back, a white bouse tucked into a pair of black jeans that fitted snugly against her curves and tucked into a pair of high-heeled boots.

  “You look beautiful,” Dean said.

  “What? These old things?” Ruby said with a laugh.

  “You’d look gorgeous in a sack,” Dean told her.

  “I’ll leave the sack for another day.”

  THE SPOT ON MAIN STREET was the same except nothing was familiar about the swanky building they were staring at.

  “I can’t believe they renovated it,” Dean said. He sounded as morose as she felt.

  She hadn’t seriously believed that the old movie house could have undergone a renovation. And why not, she had been gone for four years. Things changed in four years, as did people.

  “It’s still a movie theatre. Let’s go in and watch a movie. So the ceiling won’t have a floral mural or a single screen. Right?” Dean said.

  “Right,” Ruby said, forcing a cheer into her voice.

  Dean took her hand and they crossed Main Street and entered the movie theatre. She could have been in New York or any other major city. They chose a thriller and Dean got their tickets.

  “Caramel popcorn?” he asked her.

  “Yes please, and water.”

  After they bought their snacks, they entered one of the eight theatres. They settled in the back row and nibbled on their snacks. In the old theatre, they would have been two of only ten people watching the movie.

  Dean kept up a string of conversation but her mind was not on it and she was glad when the movie started and she didn’t have
to try and concentrate. Her spirits deflated with every passing minute.

  Ruby shifted in the recliner seat. She couldn’t get a comfortable position. The disappointment of finding that the old theatre had been renovated reminded her of Dean and herself. Were they trying to recapture a magic that had long gone?

  Like the new theatre, things had changed between them. No matter what she wanted to believe, she was not the same girl she had had been four years ago. Maturing and living away from home had given her a different perspective on life.

  She was sure that Dean had changed too.

  It was not the renovation itself that had disheartened her. What it had done was open her eyes to what she and Dean were doing. They were living in the past. Doing things they did four years ago.

  The only nice thing about it was that Dean held her hand the entire time and gently rubbed his thumb over hers.

  “You don’t look like you enjoyed that,” Dean said after the movie ended and they were making their way back to the car.

  “It was fine,” Ruby said. It wasn’t fair to say that she couldn’t tell him one thing about the movie. It wasn’t his fault that she hadn’t enjoyed herself.

  “Do you want to go for a drink? Coffee?” he said. He held the door open for her and she slipped in.

  She waited until he went around and entered the driver’s side. “Do you mind if I take a raincheck? I need to work on Leah’s pieces. I don’t have a lot of time to do them.”

  “Sure, no worries,” Dean said, his tone cheerful.

  She remembered that about Dean. He never fussed over things and took a person’s word for it. It used to make her feel guilty. Dean would not drill you about what you said or try to dig deeper. She appreciated it, especially moments like now when she couldn’t decipher her own thoughts.

  They were silent on the way back. She felt his stare every so often but he never asked her a thing. He killed the engine when they reached her house and got out to walk her to the door.

  He gathered her in his arms outside the front door and kissed her lightly on the mouth. Looking into his eyes, uncertainty came over Ruby. Was it possible to go back to what they had? Was that what she and Dean were secretly doing?

  She gently extricated herself from his arms and turned to enter the house. The house phone shrilled as she closed the front door and she hurried to the living room to pick it up.

  “I’ve been trying to reach you on your cell phone all afternoon,” Bernie’s irate voice said.

  Ruby pulled the phone to the window. Dean had his hands deep in his pocket and was walking towards his car. He looked dejected. Her chest tightened and her heart squeezed. She fought the urge to fling the curtains open and shout for him to come back.

  Instead, she turned away from the window. “Hi Bernie.”

  “No explanation,” he said. “Not even a morsel of an excuse.”

  Ruby laughed. “I don’t need an excuse because you’re not supposed to call me until after six weeks.”

  “I know...I know but this is important,” Bernie said. “You’ll kiss me when you hear what I have to say.”

  Ruby doubted it. “Go on then.”

  “I got you an audition for...drumbeats...When She Left,” Bernie said and waited for her to shout in glee.

  Her first reaction was dismay. She didn’t want anything that would take her away from Lockwood. From Dean. Not now when they were beginning to discover each other again. But maybe she was reading too much into their friendship.

  The smart thing would be to go on with her life. To make plans for when she left Lockwood.

  A sliver of excitement started to grow. ‘When She Left’ was a big budget movie and was rumored to have the most talented actors in its cast.

  “And wait for this. You’re auditioning for the part of Lola,” Bernie said. “Say something. I’m sweating here. You can start by saying ‘thanks Bernie’.”

  “Thanks Bernie. I’m just worried because I can’t be away from Lockwood for long,” Ruby said.

  “You can come on the day of the audition and then fly back the same day,” Bernie said.

  What if she got the part? Not possible, Ruby told herself. She had a better chance with one of the smaller parts. Lola’s part required a more experienced actress and her chances of getting it were slim. Still, auditioning for the part would be a good experience for her.

  Chapter Eight

  Ruby looked at Dean the following day when he came in at lunchtime and knew she couldn’t tell him about the audition. A person who was not in the industry would not get the logic of participating in an audition when you were sure you’d not get the part.

  Rather than explain to him all that, plus the anxiety she knew he would feel, she decided not to tell him.

  “I came to check how you are doing?” he said to her. “You didn’t seem like yourself yesterday.”

  He was really sweet. Her breath caught at the look of pure worry on his boyish features.

  “I’m fine and thanks for checking on me,” Ruby said. “I was just being silly. Finding the old movie theatre renovated killed my spirits. I’m not hot on change.”

  “I know what you mean. I’m glad you’re okay,” Dean said.

  Her gaze dropped to his mouth as he spoke. His lips were made for kissing.

  “I also wanted to give you an update. Do you have a minute?” Dean said.

  “Of course,” Ruby said. “I’m going out in a bit but I can spare a few minutes. Leah invited me for cake tasting. She said if she took Adrian with her, she’ll leave angered by his lack of interest.” She led the way to the back office.

  “Smart woman,” Dean said.

  In the office, Ruby turned to him. “You went with me to sample our wedding cake. Wasn’t it boring for you?”

  He grew solemn. “I could have gone to a desert with you with nothing to do for days and weeks, and not experience a moment of boredom.”

  Why did that make her want to cry? And now, she wanted to ask. But she didn’t. She had no right and she didn’t think the answer would be the same. You didn’t dump a man on his wedding day and expect his feelings for you to remain the same.

  “The real estate people called me earlier. They have interested buyers. They’re a couple looking to move to Lockwood,” Dean said. “I thought I should tell you right away. I knew it would make you happy.”

  She searched his face. He was the one who looked pleased. Her chest tightened. The prospect of wrapping up the sale of the bakery and her returning to New York did not seem to bother him too much. Had she read too much into his words? He hadn’t openly expressed an interest in their relationship.

  He probably meant to revive their friendship and like a fool, she had concluded that he meant their romantic life. Ruby suddenly felt tired and didn’t know what to think. She missed the days when they could be open with each other.

  “It’s what I wanted,” she said to him. “I’m going to New York on Friday.” She held her breath as she waited for his reaction.

  “You are coming back, aren’t you?” Dean said, his tone playful, but he couldn’t hide the tinge of fear in his voice.

  It broke her heart and at the same time made it leap. That had to mean something. If he wasn’t interested in her, he wouldn’t care if she came back from New York or not.

  She adopted the same playful tone. “Of course, I will. I have a bakery café to run.”

  “Good,” he said in a heavy-with-emotion tone, that turned her legs to jelly.

  She wasn’t wrong. Something was brewing between them and Dean felt it too. Better yet, he didn’t sound as though he minded whatever was happening. As for herself, her insides shook and shifted when she gave it too much thought.

  Why was it that when it came to her professional life, she had always been sure of what she wanted but when it came to her love life, she became a different person? A woman with one foot in the pie and the other out of it.

  “You’d better get going to your cake tasting,” Dean said
. He kissed her cheek and his utterly male scent enveloped her.

  When he left, she had a big grin on her face.

  “I LOVE THIS ONE,” RUBY said with her eyes still closed. The cake practically melted in her mouth. It was a red velvet flavor with cream cheese frosting.

  She loved the setup of Antonio’s wedding cakes. As soon as they had walked into the specialist bakery, they had been taken to the back where a seating area that resembled a cozy living room had been set up.

  “Am I late?” a strange breathless voice said.

  Ruby snapped her eyes open to find a red-haired, green-eyed woman pick a piece of cake from the tray, deposit it into her mouth, and then lick her fingers.

  She closed her large green eyes, opened them after a moment and announced dramatically. “I love it. Now, where’s the champagne to go with it?”

  Ruby laughed along with Leah. Leah and the woman kissed and hugged. They both turned to her.

  “Ruby, this is my best friend Maisie, and Maise, this is Ruby, I told you about her.”

  “Hi,” Maisie said and struck her hand out. She grinned and cocked her head. The she let out a dramatic sigh. “I would do anything for your eye lashes. Are you open to a trade?”

  Ruby laughed. “Sure. I’ll take your eyes.” But it was the other woman’s personality which she loved.

  They told her how they had known each other since they were little girls. They kept looking at each other and laughing. Ruby envied them their easy friendship. It made her think of Penny and miss her. Though they had met in New York, they had immediately been drawn to each other and had become as close as sisters.

  The main chef, a man named Darian, came in then to ask what they thought of the cake.

  “Still happy with your choice?” he asked Leah and she nodded.

  Planning for a wedding was hard, more so a Cohan wedding. The family knew everyone and for hers and Dean’s wedding, it seemed as though the whole of Lockwood had been invited.