Sean shouldn't have been surprised. The maître d’ gave Darcy the same look the guy at their hotel reception desk had. It was the same look the bellman had given her as he’d held open the elevator door for her. And let's be honest, that asshole wasn't really holding anything open. The goddamn elevator door was already open. And then the valet who'd helped them hail a cab had almost forgotten to shut Darcy's passenger-side door because he was too busy checking out her legs.
Darcy had said she had nothing to wear to the Hawksmoor. He'd never been to this place before, but from a cursory glance, she was hands down the best-looking woman in this place in her tight navy blue top and the same snug black skirt she'd worn earlier.
She wore her hair down and it just barely brushed the tops of her shoulders. It was parted to the side, and she'd tucked one side back behind her ear like she used to do when they were in school. Yet he didn't remember her looking like such a knockout when they were in school.
She was a mature, beautiful woman. Sean would even venture to say elegant. Something that his sixteen-year-old self would never have believed in a million years. Darcy had been a lot of things back then, but elegant wasn’t one of them.
"Ah, there they are," a man with a smooth British accent said from a nearby table.
Hyde Wellington stood while buttoning his suit jacket and extended a hand toward Darcy once they arrived at the table.
"So sorry we're late. There seemed to be a bit of traffic around Trafalgar Square," Darcy joked as she shook his hand.
"No worry at all. We've only just arrived ourselves," Hyde replied. He shook Sean's hand firmly. "Good to see you both."
"Thank you for inviting us to dinner, Hyde," Sean said.
Hyde wore his usual dapper three-piece business suit that probably cost more than Sean's monthly rent for his townhouse in Boston. Hyde stepped back around the table and laid his hand on the shoulder of the stunning woman sitting next to the window.
"May I present my wife, Rosalind.” Pride beamed from the man. He turned to his wife before saying, “Love, this is Darcy Owens and Sean McKenna."
The middle-aged woman had long dark brown hair and light amber-colored eyes. She was a prize if he’d ever seen one. Put her up with a lucky bastard like Hyde Wellington who could afford to buy her everything she could ever want and she was as close to a ten for an older woman as Sean had ever seen. She stood and extended her hand to Darcy first and then Sean.
"Such a pleasure to meet you both. I've heard loads about you from Hyde."
"So nice to meet you, Rosalind. Both Sean and I are looking forward to working with you on the design for the hotel. It's a very exciting project."
"Please, do call me Ros. Rosalind is an old woman's name. And I certainly hope I haven't crossed into that territory yet."
Sean smiled at the woman. "No, you most certainly have not."
He liked her instantly. Not just because she was easy on the eyes but because she had a laid-back style that made him feel comfortable. Rosalind Wellington seemed like someone you’d want to throw back a few beers with while watching a rugby match.
"Please, have a seat." Ros motioned to the two vacant chairs across the table from her and Hyde. Darcy took the seat across from Ros before Sean could pull out her chair for her like he’d wanted to do. He waited until the two ladies were situated before he slipped into his seat.
They had the best table in the restaurant. It was tucked back into the corner of the dining room nestled beside large floor-to-ceiling windows. This place was certainly a lot fancier than any place he'd ever been to before. His restaurateur father would cough up a lung if he knew Sean was trying desperately to remember which one of the twenty forks sitting in front of him was the salad fork. Why not just give them one and be done with it?
"How were your flights? Did you both get in on time?" Hyde asked.
Sean looked over at Darcy and smiled. "Yes, we actually flew in together. No troubles at all."
Darcy narrowed her eyes infinitesimally before turning to thank the waiter, who was pouring her water. Sean looked up just in time to see the waiter’s eyes linger on her chest before turning to his water glass. Sean made sure to stare the waiter down until he blushed and walked away.
Ros smacked her hand lightly on the table, causing the hundred pieces of silverware to rattle. "I'm just so excited to be here. It's very rare that Hyde lets me tag along on business dinners. Hell, he barely lets me out of the house." She looked over at her husband and grinned. Sean caught the censure in the older man's eyes but didn't miss the humor pouring out of them.
Sean laughed. "I somehow doubt that, Ros. I quite think our friend Hyde here is completely besotted with you."
She sighed and shrugged. "I suppose you may be right." She leaned into her husband's shoulder.
"But she’s indeed correct about one thing. This is actually the first time we've worked on a business project together. As you know, this boutique hotel in Boston was her idea. When Darcy suggested that Ros be allowed to assist in picking out the room designs, I knew she'd jump at the idea. She hasn't stopped talking about it since I told her."
The entire time Hyde spoke, he didn't take his eyes off his wife. The attraction, although subdued for the public eye, was extremely obvious between the two of them. He'd move mountains for this woman. It was written in every look and expression that passed between them.
God, what would that feel like? To love another person so much that you would do anything for them? And to do it gladly. Sean didn't know whether it would be humbling or suffocating.
"I'm excited about our meeting tomorrow, Ros. I think we’re going to have a lot of fun coming up with the designs." Darcy sounded genuinely excited. It was a hell of a lot better than the dry tone Sean had gotten used to over the course of the day. It was nice to hear her sounding more herself again.
"Me too, dear. But let's not talk about business tonight. We'll get down to business tomorrow. I'm eager to learn more about you both. Have you two worked together long?"
Darcy shook her head. "No, actually this is my first subcontracting assignment with Rolland Construction."
"Oh, I'm sorry," Ros replied. "I'm not sure why I thought you two had a long-standing working relationship."
"We've known each other since we were ten years old. We just haven't worked together before." Sean smiled at Darcy as he took a sip of the wine that had been poured for the whole table. It was dry and not at all his drink of choice, but it wet his throat just fine. He didn’t miss the way her eyes shifted to his mouth for a fraction of a second before looking back across the table at their hosts.
"So that explains the familiarity between you," Hyde mentioned, passing the bread basket to his wife.
Darcy smiled and nodded.
"Hyde and I have known each other forever as well. In fact, we met when we were both children.”
"Honestly, love, I'm sure Sean and Darcy are not interested in hearing all of that."
"Nonsense. I'm sure they are fascinated about you. He hasn't always been such a strict and severe stick-in-the-mud, you know?"
Hyde looked relieved when the waiter interrupted their conversation to take their dinner order. But as soon he was gone, Ros resumed her story.
"I’m actually three years older than he is. I was good friends with his older sister, Olivia. I would see Hyde quite often, but he was always my friend’s little brother. A rather bratty little brother at that.” She smiled over at her husband. “After grade school, Olivia and I lost touch. I had no idea what had become of little Hyde Wellington until one evening in London when I was out with my co-workers several years later. We were having a drink after work at this quiet little pub, and in walks this boisterous group of young men who were set on spoiling the lovely atmosphere. Before too long, a waiter approached our table with a drink for me. He told me a gentleman sitting at the bar had sent it. When I looked up, there was little Hyde Wellington. And he was all grown up.”
Hyde cleared his throat.
“Thank you, my dear. That was a lovely walk down memory lane.”
Sean could picture a cocky, impeccable Hyde sending a drink over to a young, pretty Rosalind. Maybe winking at her from across the room after their eyes met. Sean wondered if Hyde had had his sights set on Ros back when they were kids.
“Darcy, would you like some more wine?” Hyde offered.
“Oh, no thank you,” she replied. “Actually, if you’ll excuse me, I need to find the ladies’ room.”
Darcy pushed back her chair to stand. Sean got up and moved out of her way so she could get around him. When their eyes met as she walked by, Darcy quickly looked away. Before Sean could ask if she was okay, Ros spoke up behind him.
“Darcy, if you don’t mind, I think I’ll go too.”
Darcy smiled over at Hyde’s wife as she collected her purse. The two women walked off in the direction of the maître d’ stand.
“And she wonders why I don’t bring her to business dinners,” Hyde muttered, signaling for the waiter to bring more wine.
“She’s quite spirited, Hyde. She’s a lovely woman.”
A dreamy smile creased his face. “That she is. I wouldn’t trade her for anything in the world.”
Sean looked over to where he’d last seen Darcy. He felt that way about her too. If these last few weeks had taught him anything, it was that he needed Darcy in his life. He wanted her back. The tactless woman who spoke her mind without thinking of the consequences. He wanted the smiles back and her laughs.
“You know,” Hyde continued, “you remind me a lot of myself at your age. The world just waiting for you. Completely attainable yet just out of reach. I see the drive in you to reach it, Sean. Just keep working hard, and your career will take off like a rocket.”
Sean smiled at his client. He didn’t think he’d ever received a nicer compliment.
“What happened for you that put everything in reach?”
Hyde waited as the waiter filled the wineglasses at the table. Half his mouth was pulled up into a grin. “Rosalind happened to me. I was gaining tremendous success in my career, but it wasn’t worth anything until I had her to share it with.”
Sean smiled at him. He really was a love-sick sap, wasn’t he?
“After Ros and I started dating, I only waited about five months before I proposed. I knew right away she was the right woman for me. Before my wedding, my father—God rest his soul—told me something that changed everything, from the way I do business to the way I live my life. He said every man has the ability to be a good husband, but it takes the right woman to make him one. Ros is certainly the right woman. I wouldn’t be half as successful today if it weren’t for her.”
Sean saw the women making their way back through the restaurant. Darcy was smiling at something Ros said. Her smile was lovely. The full bright smile that he longed to see. He watched her curvy hips make their way around tables and chairs before finally arriving at their table.
Sean wasn’t sure if Darcy was the right woman. But just looking at her was doing things to him that no other woman had made him do before. Under his desperation to get her back as his friend, there was a desire that lay smoldering in his chest. It was sweltering just under the surface. It had gotten him into a lot of trouble before, but goddamn it, he hadn’t learned his lesson.
What if Darcy was his Rosalind? Maybe he’d been a fool all these years and hadn’t realized what was right under his nose.
Chapter 18
Darcy watched the air-freshener pine trees dance as they hung from the cab’s rearview mirror. God, there must of have been twenty of them, and with each sway back and forth, they set off a fresh injection of fragrance into the car’s interior. It was enough to make anyone gag. Even though it was pouring down rain, she still considered rolling down her window just so she could pull in a breath of fresh air.
Sean sat beside her, unusually quiet. She snuck a few sidelong glances his way, and each time, she only caught his profile as he stared out his window at the passing London cityscape. Lord knew what he was thinking about. At first she welcomed the silence after the way he’d constantly badgered her from the moment they’d met at the airport in Boston. But now that he was deep in thought about something, she was beginning to worry.
What if I’ve hurt his feelings?
What if he’s changed his mind and he doesn’t think I’m worth the effort anymore?
She hadn’t been too terribly rude to him. And if Sean McKenna couldn’t put up with someone ignoring him, it certainly was a first. Sean had acted perfectly normal at dinner, cracking jokes and being his ever-so-charming self. No doubt Rosalind Wellington was half in love with him by now.
Their evening had been surprising to say the least. The meal was lovely and Darcy had had a little too much wine, but the chilly London had air shocked her out of her buzz as soon as she stepped outside the restaurant. She looked forward to meeting with Ros the next day. The woman was high energy and full of vigor. No doubt their time together would fly by in the blink of an eye.
The surprising part of the evening was how a larger-than-life figure like Hyde Wellington was brought down to mortal status by a tiny powerhouse woman. A woman he obviously adored with every ounce of his being. Darcy bet that if forced to choose, he’d gladly give up his whole career for his wife.
And for someone like Hyde Wellington, that said a lot.
Growing up, hearing those kinds of real-life stories where the unrequited love eventually turned into a true love story for the ages always gave Darcy hope that her feelings for Sean weren’t in vain. Watching such stories play out in movies and reading about them in books fed her fire for him.
But now? Here she was, presented with a true-life story of what could be, and it did nothing but make her sad. It was now clear that she and Sean were not on the same path as the Wellingtons. He’d made that quite obvious all those weeks ago in her apartment.
Before long, they arrived back at their hotel and the valet was opening up her door. She stepped out while Sean settled the tab with the taxi driver. The onslaught of fresh oxygen outside the cab was enough to make her temporarily dizzy. The air inside that cab was probably ten percent oxygen and ninety percent faux pine scent.
She took her time going through the revolving door, waiting for Sean to catch up. She could tell when he’d stepped inside the door because he pushed it so hard she almost got her leg stuck as she tried to step out quickly. She looked back at him expecting to see a teasing smirk on his face, but instead he was staring at the floor with a serious set to his handsome features.
She wanted to ask him what was on his mind. She wanted to make sure he was okay. But those were traps that would lead her right back to caring more about him than he did about her, and she wouldn’t allow herself to do that. She’d walked perilously around such traps all day long, half the time wanting to fall into the familiarity and hopefulness of one, the other half trying desperately to stay out of what was sure to be heartbreak ahead.
They walked side by side to the bank of elevators and Sean pushed the call button. He stepped back beside her as they waited and shoved his hands in his pockets. He rocked back slightly on his heels and the silence between them was deafening. Instead of saying something, she fidgeted with the button flap on her clutch.
When the elevator doors opened, they waited a minute for the car to empty before stepping inside. Sean stabbed the button for the third floor before stepping back to the corner with Darcy as others joined them.
Sean hadn’t pressed the button for the seventh floor, where his room was located. Darcy knew that was where his room was because they’d originally had rooms right beside one another. She’d asked the person at reception if she could kindly be placed on a lower floor. She claimed she had a fear of heights, but really she just wanted to get as far away from Sean as possible.
She wouldn’t get a wink of sleep knowing he was right on the other side of her hotel room wall. Sean, knowing she had no fear of heights, had only chuckled to
himself as the front desk attendant had given her a new room on the third floor.
Darcy was about to ask him why he didn’t press the seventh floor button when a buxom blonde got into the elevator at the last minute and stood right in front of them. The woman, dressed head to toe in a fitted pale gray pantsuit, devoured Sean with her eyes like she’d never seen a man before.
The inviting smirk on her lips as she turned around to face the front of the elevator almost made Darcy sick. She was definitely glad that she wasn’t staying right next door to Sean now. That blond piranha would probably sniff him out by the end of the evening and be in his bed with her legs open before Darcy could put her pillow over her head to block out the sounds.
Even though she’d seen Sean date countless women like this in the past, it still got under her skin. And it was just another reminder of why that night in her apartment was a crazy anomaly that should never have been allowed to happen by the laws of the universe.
Darcy wasn’t anything like this woman, and the blonde had Sean’s type written all over her. She was tall, lean, and polished where Darcy was shorter, curvy, and rough around the edges. Sure, she could clean up well, but there was nothing regal or serene about Darcy and there never would be.
The elevator stopped at the third floor with a chime. As Darcy opened her mouth to say good night to Sean, she heard him say, “Excuse us,” to the people around him. Before Darcy knew what he was doing, he’d reached down and grabbed her hand and began pulling her out of the elevator.
His big hand wrapped snuggly around her smaller one. His palm felt hot and Darcy’s heartbeat was suddenly thumping in her throat. As they exited the elevator car, she heard the disgruntled huff of the blonde behind her. The silent satisfaction Darcy felt in the woman’s agitation was better than the piece of lemon tart she’d had for dessert earlier with the Wellingtons. But as they continued toward the hallway and Sean made no move to drop her hand, her satisfaction faded to unease.
Not In My Wildest Dreams (McKenna Series Book 2) Page 20