Until You

by Denise Grover Swank

  He shook his head. “Yeah, you’re right. I did until last spring.” He gave him the condensed, PG version of his experience with Nina. “That was the situation I was referring to earlier.”

  “And you haven’t dated anyone since?” Eric asked.

  “Not until Lanie.”

  “That sucks.” He devoured the last chicken strip. “You don’t want her to leave.”

  He decided to be honest with this too. “No. I don’t. I don’t understand it—I barely know her—but I don’t.”

  Eric nodded sympathetically. “The same thing happened to Ricky Henderson.”

  “Who’s Ricky Henderson?”

  “A guy in my English class. He fell for a foreign exchange student last year, Mei Ling. An older woman.” He grinned and then it fell. “But then she went back to China, and he was left with a broken heart.”

  “Poor bastard,” Tyler said with a frown. He was exactly like fucking Ricky Henderson.

  “So what are you going to do?” Eric asked.

  “I don’t know. I guess I’ll see her as much as I can before she leaves.”

  “Even if hurts when she leaves?”

  “Yeah.” And that’s what surprised him the most.

  Chapter Twenty

  Lanie sat in Britt’s backyard having major second thoughts about Aiden’s offer. She was fairly certain Atlanta was even hotter and more humid than Kansas City. But now that she’d turned in her notice, she might not have a choice.

  She wandered over to the drinks table and grabbed a bottle of water. Everyone else was drinking margaritas or beer, but she felt unsettled for some reason. Probably because she’d spent most of the afternoon giving Aiden’s offer serious consideration. She’d worked for Montgomery Enterprises for nearly her entire adult life. If she took Aiden’s job, her whole life would change.

  Randy made a subtle motion to her from over by the grill. She took a drink of water as she headed toward him.

  “I’ve been stewing about this for an hour,” he said, keeping his voice low. “I can’t believe I’m about to tell you this…”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “See that guy in the pink polo shirt over there?”

  “Yeah…”

  “He’s the attorney representing the firm that filed the injunction.”

  She gasped.

  “I know for a fact he’s talking about the case to the other guy, who is also an attorney from our firm.”

  She glanced up at him in shock.

  “I didn’t tell you a thing. And I don’t even know who you really work for. So if you happened to wander over there, how would I know that an interested party might hear some key strategy?”

  “Randy Harris, I had no idea you could be so devious.”

  He gave her a wicked grin. “If you ever implicate me, I’ll deny it until my dying breath.”

  “Understood.”

  He winked. “Go get ’em.”

  She headed back to the drinks table and poured herself a frozen margarita from the pitcher. With drink in hand, at least she’d blend in. Part of her wondered why she even cared what Randy’s colleague had to say about his strategy. She was leaving Margo Benson. But she’d had a successful seven years opening the stores, and she wanted to end it on a high note.

  The question was, how to play this? She decided to stand by them to see if she could pick up their conversation.

  “Going with Nelson versus Neidermier, huh?” a man in a white-and-blue plaid button-down shirt asked.

  “That’s right. Try to go through the back door,” the guy in the pink shirt said, then he looked up and saw Lanie. “Well, hello there. You must be Brittany’s cousin.”

  She had no choice but to be direct now. “That’s right.” She stuck out her hand. “Lanie.”

  “Victor. I work with Randy.” He shook her hand, holding on longer than necessary.

  She tugged her hand free. “So you’re an attorney?” she asked, feigning surprise.

  “You like attorneys?” he asked hopefully. “People either love them or hate them.”

  Tyler instantly popped into her head. “I fall into the approval camp.”

  “Britt tells me you’re single.”

  The interest in his voice made her shoot a quick glance to his left ringer finger. No ring. Thank God. Nothing worse than married guys hitting on her, which happened more often than she liked. But when she looked back up, she realized he’d noticed. She didn’t feel like leading this guy on. “Actually, I’m seeing someone.”

  Disappointment filled his eyes, but he said, “He’s an attorney.”

  She was never going to see this man again. What would it hurt? “Yes.”

  “Who is he?” he asked. “I might know him.”

  There were a half dozen reasons she couldn’t tell him the truth. Why had she dug herself into this hole? “He’s not from around here. He lives in Atlanta.”

  She was playing this all wrong. She should have pretended to be single and hung out with him for the rest of the evening, and found out everything she could to help the store, but the thought made her feel slimy. And strangely enough, she felt like she was being unfaithful to Tyler, which in itself was ridiculous. They had no commitment to each other at all. For all she knew, he was going out with some other woman tonight.

  But she knew he wasn’t. He was with his brother. He’d told her he hadn’t wanted to come, but she knew he’d stayed away because of her.

  She realized Victor had asked her a question, but she shook her head. “I’m sorry. I need to go make a quick phone call.”

  He nodded, and she headed into the house, setting her drink on the kitchen counter then hiding in the garage like she had during the shower.

  What the hell was going on with her? How could she be so taken with him? If she was going to fall for someone, it couldn’t be Tyler Norris. He was a terrible choice.

  She pulled a Stella out of the refrigerator and popped off the top. Hopping up on the work bench, she sipped her beer, feeling like something was missing.

  Tyler.

  Then, before she could stop to think it through, she pulled out her phone and snapped a photo of the bottle with the label showing and the garage in the background. She uploaded it to a message that read, Thinking of you.

  Sipping her beer, she waited several minutes for him to respond, disappointed when she got no response.

  She was a grown woman, moping around because the man she’d practically asked not to come to his friends’ party didn’t answer her text.

  What the hell is wrong with me? she asked herself, for what had to be tenth time that day.

  It was her professional life. It was in tatters and it was bleeding into her personal life. But then, who was she kidding? She had no personal life.

  But that wasn’t true either. She had Tyler.

  “Enough,” she said out loud, draining the last of the beer and throwing the bottle into the glass-recycling bin.

  She headed outside, grabbed a new bottle of water, and flopped down in a lawn chair next to her cousin.

  “I want to know more about Tyler driving you home last night,” Britt said as she sipped her frozen margarita through a straw.

  Good Lord. She needed to play this casual. Leaning back in her lawn chair, Lanie gave Brittany a pointed look. “Britt, I already told you everything.”

  “No…you didn’t. Not really.” When Lanie didn’t answer, Britt pressed on. “So he was… nice?”

  “Of course he was nice. Why wouldn’t he be nice?”

  “Well…after the shoe incident…”

  “In case you didn’t notice, we got along fine when I took off his bandage.”

  “True, but he seemed tense.”

  “He was in pain.” Which still made her feel guilty. “The tape was stuck to his skin.”

  “No. It was more than that. He showed up a good fifteen minutes early—totally on edge—and he paced like a lion at the zoo, watching the parking lot until you showed up.”<
br />
  Lanie tried to hide her surprise. “No offense, Britt, but he’s probably not a huge fan of all these photos shoots. If I was the last one to show up, maybe he was eager for me to get there so we could get started.”

  “Maybe…”

  Lanie didn’t believe her own explanation for a minute, but damned if she could figure out another explanation for his behavior. There was no doubt he was eager to see her again, but why would he be tense? He knew she was coming.

  “I think there’s something between you two.”

  Lanie tried to look amused. “You’re hilarious. There’s nothing there. Celesta was imagining things. Imagine that.”

  “Why don’t I believe you?”

  “Because you’re always trying to set me up. He took me home, and that was that. He had dinner plans, remember?”

  “It’s just weird,” Britt mused. “He was acting strange last night, then he took you home, and then he cancelled today, which is weird because he’s been hanging out a lot with us lately. I just wondered if something happened with you two.”

  Well, crap. If Britt wouldn’t accept denial, maybe she should try distraction. “When he took me home he mentioned seeing his brother today.”

  Britt perked up. “His brother? Which one?”

  “Um…younger. Eric?”

  “That’s great,” Britt said, getting excited. “I’m surprised he didn’t tell me. What else did you guys talk about?”

  “Are you trying to pair us off for real?” And why did the thought send a flutter through her gut?

  Britt laughed and gave her a look that suggested she was ridiculous. “Of course not. Tyler’s a self-proclaimed life-long bachelor, and you run from anything that even hints of permanency. There’s no hooking you two up.”

  That’s exactly what she wanted Britt to think, but she felt oddly insulted. And she definitely didn’t like her explanation. “What are you talking about?”

  “Tyler’s made no secret that—”

  “No, not Tyler,” Lanie protested, setting her bottle of water in the cup holder in her chair. “Me. What do you mean I run from any hint of permanency?”

  Britt sat up, incredulous. “Are you serious?”

  Lanie frowned. “I wouldn’t be asking if I weren’t.”

  “Look at your life, Lanie.”

  “I don’t have to look at it. I’m living it. And I’ve been with Montgomery Enterprises for ten years, and the…other division for seven. That sounds pretty long-term to me.”

  “But you move from city to city every few months—”

  “For my job, which I’ve held for years.”

  “You don’t own a home. Hell, you don’t even own a stick of furniture or even a car. You live a nomadic life.”

  “And I’ve made a lot of money. Most people would applaud me for being successful doing a damn hard job, and doing it consistently over and over again.”

  “But the job’s not faithful to you, is it?”

  Now Lanie was good and pissed. “If this is about Saturday night—”

  “No. It’s more than Saturday night. Or Thursday at lunch. Or Tuesday at my shower. Or the times when you were with me over the last two months, but you weren’t really with me because you were too busy thinking about your job.” Britt paused. “You’ve given your everything for this job, yet it’s screwing you over, and you just keep going back for more.”

  Lanie had no argument. As much as it burned her, Britt was right. “Fine. What do you want me to say? I know they’ve screwed me. Now I’m dealing with it.”

  “I wish you’d learn from this, but you’re just going to run off to the next city, or if they fire you, you’ll find another job that sucks you dry. You’ll go through the same thing all over again.”

  “You don’t know that, Britt. I’m trying.”

  “But are you really? You’re still working for them. You haven’t turned in your notice, have you?”

  Part of her wanted to tell Britt the truth, but Lanie knew she’d get the hard sell to stay. Better to figure out what she was doing before she spilled the beans. “I can’t just quit my job, Britt. I have to have another one lined up.”

  “Are you even looking?”

  “Britt…”

  “You’re running from something, Lanie. And until you face it, you’ll never stop.”

  Lanie’d had enough. She stood and glared down at her cousin. “I love you, Britt, but back off.”

  Britt set down her drink and stood to face her. “No, I love you too much to let it go. Name one serious relationship you’ve had with a man.”

  Lanie realized they were drawing attention and dragged Britt over behind a trellis covered in flowering ivy. “Tony,” she said, resuming where they’d left off. “We were together for an entire year.”

  “You were a sophomore in college, and you broke that one off too.”

  “Yeah. Because he liked Dungeons and Dragons.”

  Britt’s brow rose. “That’s not a reason.”

  Lanie clenched her fists at her sides. “In my defense, that’s just plain weird. He was some kind of magic guy and started walking around in a black robe, getting pissed if I didn’t call him Mage Llewellyn. How was I supposed to take that seriously? Could you imagine him at Thanksgiving dinner?”

  “Were you in love with him?”

  “What? Are you kidding me? I loved him at some point. Then he got too weird.”

  Britt shook her head. “No. Not love, I’m talking in love. You know, when you see a guy and you go weak in the knees, you can’t take your eyes off him, and he’s all you can think about.”

  “Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, Britt, but that’s lust.” She caught Randy in her peripheral vision. He must have walked over from the grill to see what was going on. “Love’s different. Deeper.”

  “That’s true. But let’s focus on the first part. Name one man who’s made you feel alive.”

  There was only one, and she sure as hell couldn’t tell Britt, so she remained silent.

  “See?”

  “Storybook endings are for you, Britt, not me.”

  “You don’t know that. You won’t even try.” She took a breath. “So instead you’ll just stay with your job, or you’ll get fired and find some other impersonal corporation to work for, pretending that you like being alone.”

  “You have no idea what you’re talking about,” Lanie said, tears stinging her eyes. She never cried, and that pissed her off even more. “That’s why Aiden was here yesterday. He asked me to—”

  “Britt,” Randy interrupted and rushed over to step between them. “Do you know where the hamburgers are?”

  Britt gave him an exasperated glare as she pointed in the direction of the grill. “There’re over there where you left them.”

  He forced a laugh. “I must have had one too many beers.” Then he moved over to Lanie and wrapped an arm around her shoulder, giving her arm a hard squeeze. “Britt, I think it’s time Lanie and I came clean about Aiden.”

  Britt gave him a bewildered look, but Lanie shot Randy a glare. She didn’t want Britt to know until she’d made a decision.

  “Randy—”

  Randy squeezed again and cut Lanie off. “Let me tell her.”

  “Randy,” Britt said sounding confused. “How do you know about Aiden?”

  Randy kept his arm in place. “She told me yesterday after the photo shoot. While we were discussing your gift…Isn’t that right, Lanie?”

  What was he up to? “Yeah, but—”

  Britt put her hands on her hips. “Go on.”

  Randy continued. “As you know, Aiden is Lanie’s old boyfriend.” He shot Lanie a pleading look, then turned to his fiancée. “She wants him to come to the wedding as her date.”

  Lanie tried not to look relieved, but Randy mistook her reaction and squeezed again. “It’s okay, Lanie. She’s not going to be mad.”

  “Why would I be mad?” Britt asked.

  “Because,” Randy said, “the guest list is ti
ght, and Lanie knows how stressed you are. So she asked me if I would check into getting him an invite. I just hadn’t talked to you about it yet.”

  “Lanie,” Britt said with a groan. “Your invitation was a plus one. Which means you didn’t even read it.”

  Lanie was irritated because she had read the invitation. She’d actually planned to bring Stephanie as her plus one. But she also saw the silver lining. Aiden was a thousand miles away and out of Britt’s reach. If Britt thought she was dating Aiden, that took the heat off her and Tyler.

  Britt must have seen this as a positive development and dropped her antagonistic attitude. “You want to bring a date.”

  Randy turned to her with pleading eyes. He’d been a huge help to her and stuck his neck out on a limb, especially when he’d told her about Victor. He had to have some reason for lying to his fiancée, and he was obviously asking Lanie to trust him. She took a breath. What harm could it do to go along with Randy’s lie, especially when it helped her too? It wasn’t like Aiden would even know. She had three weeks for Aiden to “change his mind” to explain why he wasn’t able to make it to the wedding.

  She only hoped it didn’t bite her in the ass.

  “Yeah,” she said, and Randy dropped his arm. “And I did see the plus one. I planned to bring Stephanie. But if it’s okay, I’d like to bring Aiden too.”

  “Well, of course he can come. Just give me his address and I’ll send an invitation to him.”

  Shit. She hadn’t thought that all the way through. “Don’t worry about it. I can just tell him.”

  “Not a chance. He’s getting an invite.” Excitement lit up her eyes. “What does Aiden do?”

  “He’s an attorney,” Victor volunteered from several feet away. “Sorry. I heard loud voices and came over to make sure everything was okay. You are talking about your boyfriend from Atlanta, right?”

  Britt’s gaze narrowed, no doubt pissed that Randy’s coworker had found out the “good news” before she had.

  Lanie was in a world of shit, but she was more worried about what Victor had heard. Had she said anything to clue him in that she was associated with Margo Benson? Surely Randy would be freaked out if she had. But instead, he was over at the ice bucket, grabbing another beer.