Drew’s concern for her studio eased her paranoia somewhat. “Okay. I’ll keep looking with Karl.” She wanted to ask Drew to call her while he was away, but she didn’t want to sound needy. And judging by the fact that he’d been calling her and showing up on her doorstep every single day without fail, Casey doubted she’d have to wait too long to hear from him. “So, um, where will you be this week?”
A short silence. “Nowhere interesting. Look, I can’t talk now. I’m sorry about tonight.”
“Don’t worry. I’m fine.” Casey tried to make her voice sound level, adult, understanding and most of all independent. But it was Drew’s voice that troubled her. He seemed brusque, opaque, closed off. Not like the man she’d come to know so intimately.
Josh’s angry, accusing expression surfaced in her mind. And Casey wondered how well she really did know Drew Byrne.
Chapter 19
Drew steered his Porsche along East Hampton’s legendary Further Lane. He turned into an open wrought iron gate between tall hedgerows and coasted down a long drive to the palatial white-columned house of Harry Von Alston. A man at the door ushered Drew and his father through the broad foyer, its black-and-white tiled floor, sweeping staircase and pseudo-Greek statues gleaming.
He’d spent most of the day at the hospital with his dad, who agreed to take his meds and drink ginger ale—at least for a few days. Drew had to admire the way his father walked beside him with his chest out, shoulders back, when he’d probably rather be lying down right now. No way would that man ever let a business associate see him as anything less than the dynamic head of Byrne Trucking.
“There you are!” Julia Von Alston reached out for Drew and brushed air kisses on either cheek. Pharmaceutically thin in her strapless, ankle length sheath, she stood closer than was comfortable for Drew, her hands squeezing his biceps. She glanced at Andrew Sr. saying, “Your boy just gets sexier every time I see him. Grrr.”
Drew forced out a greeting that apparently wasn’t enthusiastic enough for his father, who shot him a critical glance and said to Julia, “You’re looking pretty hot yourself. Isn’t she amazing, Drew?”
“Sure is. Bet people think your Amber’s sister.”
Julia tucked her chin like a shy girl and smiled. Her hands, still wrapped on Drew’s biceps, slid down his arms. She took his hand and said, “Come on. Amber’s out back with her friends. I’ll bet you’ve missed her terribly.”
Missed her? They’d broken up six months ago. And even then it was more of an exchange than a relationship. His stint on that reality show had just aired, and Amber liked having him on her arm to impress her friends. In exchange he’d gotten some pretty good sex.
At least he’d thought so at the time. But that was before Casey. Sex with Casey was unlike anything he’d ever known. He sometimes felt like she was rearranging his soul. She touched some part of him he couldn’t figure out, something he’d forgotten was there.
Julia tugged Drew down the crowded hallway toward sliding glass doors. Still worried about his dad, he glanced back and was relieved to see him following with Harry.
“We’re looking forward to our stay at Amberland,” Drew said, wanting to come through for his dad and the company.
She beamed at the mention of her beloved horse farm. “You’ll be flying up there with us in Harry’s Cessna. I have so many things planned. And I know how you love the racetrack. One of Harry’s thoroughbreds will be in the Travers this year.”
They stepped out onto a stone porch that overlooked a swimming pool and a broad, green lawn dotted with more of those white statues. Fresh salt air wafted in from the Atlantic a few hundred yards beyond. A live band played vintage rock. Servers in black pants and bowties carried trays of hors d’oeuvres.
Drew figured he saw a hundred people or more, many of them Amber’s friends he’d met back when they were an item. Greetings, high fives, and playful kisses came his way as Julia guided him through a group of people who were all laughing and applauding. He wasn’t at all surprised to find Amber in the center of the crowd lapping it up. She buzzed around in a little circle in a toy electric car, waving her glass of champagne. He’d met a lot of attention addicts, but Amber was one of the worst with a need to be in the spotlight at all times.
So different from Casey, who didn’t seem to know how beautiful she was. And when he’d called her to cancel their date at the Plaza it was as if she just understood there was something he had to do. She didn’t whine or nag or dump any guilt on him like other women did. She never acted like she was the center of the universe like some—
“Drew? Did you hear what I said?”
“Oh, sorry, Julia. Guess I kind of got distracted.”
“Don’t apologize.” She leaned close. “I know how mesmerizing my daughter can be. I think it’s sweet.”
Good thing he’d been staring at Amber. He tilted his head and grinned, a response vague enough to allow Julia to make of it what she would.
Amber saw him and squealed. “Bunny butt!”
Drew cringed inside. He’d told Amber how much he hated that stupid nickname she made up. Dad, you owe me for this big time.
“Hop on!” She waved him over.
“Nah.”
“Oh, come on.”
“It’ll never hold two.”
“Foo-eey. I only weigh a buck four. Get over here.”
“This is a bad idea, Amber.” Drew stepped into the circle and straddled the tiny red sports car, squatting down behind her. A clunky fit for his large frame.
Amber cooed and said, “Here we go, everybody.”
They rolled forward about three feet when a popping sound came from inside the toy car’s electric battery pack. A pungent smell filled the air, and the car sat motionless. Their audience reacted with a spontaneous, “Awwww.”
“Oh, poop.” Amber pouted. But then she shrugged and stepped out of the car. “Daddy’s buying me a real one, anyways. Come on, Bunny butt. Let’s get some more champagne.”
Her arm slid around his waist, and Drew wrapped his over her shoulders. He had to admit she looked hot in a yellow dress that was so tight he could see the crack in her butt. And her cantaloupe-sized breasts looked about ready to burst out of the low cut front.
Amber snatched a bite-sized morsel off a tray and fed it to him.
“Hey, that’s good.” Drew took a couple more.
“Peach and fromage. And that’s pineapple and lychee. My mom found a terrific caterer.”
He’d barely finished chewing when Amber stretched her arms around his neck and drove her tongue into his mouth, pressing her breasts against him. And being a red-blooded male, he didn’t give a hoot that they were enhanced by a surgeon or that everybody was watching the two of them. Amber knew how to kiss. In fact, she was ideal porn star material. Not an ounce of depth, but plenty of fun.
But as he kissed and teased and flirted with Amber, putting on a show for her guests, her parents and his dad, Drew realized that something inside him had changed. What women like Amber had to offer just plain didn’t interest him anymore.
Right now all Drew really wanted was to be with Casey.
***
“Thanks for helping me get all the trays set up, Casey. I guess you can grab one and join the other servers now.”
“Will do, Nat.” Casey neatened her ponytail. She was dressed in slim black trousers and white Oxford shirt, plus the short black vest and bowtie Natalie supplied to all her servers. “What room do you want me in?”
“I think most of the guests have moseyed to the back yard. Just follow the center hallway.”
She picked up a tray and left the kitchen.
Aside from wanting to help out a friend and earn some cash, Casey had decided to work for Natalie tonight to get her mind off Drew. But as she walked through the house toward the back, catching glimpses of rooms that appeared straight out of a Town & Country Magazine spread, she couldn’t help wondering what Drew’s house would look like. And if he had an office at home
where he was working away tonight. Or maybe he was in a boardroom hashing out some business problem.
She stepped onto the porch, smiling and holding the tray of Natalie’s canapes out to party guests. When she covered everyone on the porch she looked out at the sprawling yard to gage her next move. Her breath caught at the sight of a man with a beautiful V-shaped back like Drew’s standing with his arm around a pretty strawberry blonde.
Boy, you are in trouble, Casey. It hasn’t even been twenty-four hours since you last saw him, and you’re already imagining him everywhere you look.
She purposely turned away. But then she heard someone near her on the porch say his name. And not just Drew, but Drew and Amber.”
No. It couldn’t be. Drew had business that came up. Important business that couldn’t wait.
A strange combination of butterflies and numbness crept over her. Casey forced herself to look again at the guy with the beautiful back. She couldn’t see his face because he was bent over putting an intense kiss on the girl he was with. And the girl’s hands were all over his body. A body just like Drew’s.
He looked up.
Drew.
She dropped the tray. It crashed on the porch, and Casey squatted quickly, ducking her head, hoping the noise wouldn’t catch his attention. But when she peeked in his direction she saw that Drew’s attention was fully occupied with the girl in his arms.
That lying bastard. Her hands shaking, tears pricking behind her eyes, Casey gathered the fallen food.
Right now she’d like to charge into the yard and make him wear this damn tray. But she wasn’t about to give the two lovebirds the satisfaction of witnessing her breakdown.
She hurried back to the kitchen. Luckily Natalie was alone. “OMG, Casey. You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“No, I’ve seen what a fool I am.” She ran for the bathroom off the kitchen and burst into tears.
Natalie followed her in. “What happened?”
“Drew’s here. With another woman.” Her whole body trembled, as if she were shattering from the inside out.
“That little—”
“No. It’s my fault. I knew what kind of guy he was from the start. But I plunged right ahead and fell in love with him.” She bit her fist trying to muffle her sobs. All she needed was for other servers to hear her. “Please don’t tell anyone about this.”
“Of course not.” Natalie put her arms around Casey. “But I’d sure like to give Mr. Byrne a piece of my mind.”
“I’m the one who needs a talking to. It’s only been about a month, and I doubt any of his hook-ups last longer than that. Drew’s just being who he really is. A lying, manipulating, womanizing prick. And I stupidly let myself believe he might be more than that.” She rested her cheek on her friend’s shoulder and let herself cry, pouring out a flood of anger and heartache.
“I’m partly to blame, Casey. I encouraged you.”
“Nobody’s fault but my own.”
“Doesn’t mean you can’t hate his guts now.”
“Oh, I do. You bet I do.”
Chapter 20
At 3:00 a.m. Casey sat cross-legged on her sofa staring glassy eyed at the TV. Sugar Boy on one side, Buster on the other, and Miss Daisy on the rocker. She’d wept enough to fill a bathtub. Had at least twenty highly creative conversations in her head with Drew, telling him just what she thought of him. Polished off a pint of butter pecan, a pint of vanilla fudge and a whole frozen pizza. But she couldn’t get rid of that awful hurt inside.
Parker had warned her this would happen, but she hadn’t listened. She remembered her misgivings when Drew had suggested helping her get a new studio going. Why did she drop her guard? The first time she met Drew she could tell he was a heartbreaker. And she went and handed him hers.
And what would she do now about her dance academy? That dream was gone, too. She remembered that night when she agreed to his plan, Drew saying that it would be pure business and nothing that happened between them would influence it. And she wouldn’t be surprised if Drew could just go right along with their plan as if nothing had happened between them.
Because for him nothing had.
“Well, I’m not going through with it.” She told Sugar Boy. She stomped to the bedroom and threw herself facedown on the bed. Big mistake. She pictured Drew lying there next to her. Worse yet, she hadn’t changed last night’s sheets, and they still had his scent on them.
She stood and violently tore the sheets off the bed. “I hate sandalwood! I don’t ever want to smell it again! And I don’t ever, ever, ever want to see your face, Drew Byrne!”
But even with fresh sheets Casey lay there haunted by the face she’d had pressed so close to hers every night for nearly a month now. She curled under the covers and began to cry again. But she knew she needed to stop crying and start thinking. In less than a month this apartment and studio would be gone. What was she going to do? Should she pretend she didn’t care about Drew and go through with their business plans?
I can’t do it. I’m in love with him.
Casey wiped tears from her cheeks and tried to tell herself she couldn’t possibly be in love with someone she hardly knew. Except she felt she did know Drew. She knew a part of him that had nothing to do with time. There were moments when they were so connected, so in tune with each other’s thoughts and feelings that they seemed as close as couples who’d been together forever.
That’s what she’d always wanted with the man she’d hoped to marry. A connection that ran so deep it had nothing to do with anything on the outside. It belonged to a special kind of magical time and place that was only theirs.
She could’ve sworn Drew felt it, too. But I guess that was just me chasing rainbows again.
Casey finally fell asleep and woke up to the sound of her cell’s ringtone. “Hi, Natalie.”
“You okay, sweetie?”
“No, but I’ll get through it eventually. And falling for Drew isn’t the only thing I’ve got to deal with. Without his backing I can’t possibly continue my dance academy. I’ve got to find somewhere to live and a job. Fast.”
“What about Parker’s offer?”
“I’d clean out every penny of his savings just for initial rental, renovations and start-up costs. I won’t do that to him. Enough about me. How’d things go last night? Think you got a repeat client?”
“Yep. Which is why I’m taking a much-needed and deserved day off. Why don’t we have lunch or something?”
Casey told herself not to ask, but she had to. “Any more on Drew?”
“You really want to hear this?”
“I already faced the worst.”
Natalie sighed. “Here’s the deal. The Von Alston’s daughter Amber—Drew’s her boyfriend.”
Casey’s chest tightened. An unbidden image surfaced of Drew kissing that beautiful, foxy girl. “How’d you get the intel?”
“I listened in when he and his father stayed after most everybody left.”
Drew’s father was there? She found herself wishing she’d seen him, forgetting he wasn’t supposed to mean anything to her anymore. “Know anything about Amber?”
“Only that she just returned from Europe. Her family is mega rich. Breed racehorses at their farm estate near Saratoga Springs, live in Bermuda part of the year. You get the picture.”
“Maybe they’d like to invest in a dance academy.” Casey meant it as a joke, but Natalie took off on it.
“That’s what you need to do. Find another investor.”
“Yeah, but I don’t know anybody rich except perverted rock stars and—”
“What’s wrong with that? Ask Taz Ravage to fund your school.”
Casey was about to blow off the idea, but she recalled Drew’s obnoxiously competitive response to Taz paying attention to her. She grinned at the possibility of revenge. “Maybe it’s worth a try. Tonight. Let’s go to his party.”
“Woohoo! I’m gonna party like a rock star.”
***
Mond
ay afternoon Casey looked out the window of Natalie’s Coffee Cove at the torrential burst of rain that sent people scurrying to their cars or taking cover in storefronts. A roll of thunder came tumbling in from the darkened sky, creating a shudder in the windowpane.
“We made it just in time.” Taz Ravage sat across from her at the table, his elbow bent, chin resting in his palm, his eyes bloodshot and sleepy. Last night at his party he’d agreed to meet Casey for a late lunch, but she could see even getting here by two o’clock was a major hardship for Taz.
Casey wanted to keep their meeting in a public place to avoid Taz’s groping tendencies, and she figured this hour at the Coffee Cove would be a safe bet for avoiding the squealing groupie factor. On weekdays the diner usually had a lull in the early afternoon. A few people watched them, some clearly recognizing the rock star, but no one approached their table except Natalie.
“Nice place you got here, Natalie.” His voice sounded groggy, but Casey gave Taz points for remembering her friend’s name, considering all the women he’d had hanging on him at his party. Actually he’d been so high on who knew what that she was amazed he remembered to show up at all today.
“Well, I had an awesome time last night at your place. Lunch is on me.” Natalie held up a pitcher. “Coffee?”
“At least six cups just to get my eyes open,” he mumbled.
Natalie poured. “I’ve got that chicken avocado salad you like, Casey.”
“Ooh. That would be great.”
Taz ordered a burger and fries. Natalie left, and Casey started right in.
“So. I’m not sure if you remember our conversation.”
“You need money to open a dancing school.”
A little blunt, but at least he remembered. “I already have a dance academy, but out of the blue my landlord tells me the building I’m renting has been sold. So I need to find a new place. Soon. And I need either a loan or a backer.”
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