by Lily Zante
“But she’s missing you, isn’t she, dear?” his Grandma asked.
Jacob nodded. “But I told her not to worry. I told her Xavier had taken us all out to lunch, and that made her really happy.”
Her gaze flew to Stone’s face as she watched him take the credit for it. It made her stomach churn to see him lapping up the praise. “It was so thoughtful of you to ask everybody,” she said, calling him out, and letting him know that she knew.
“I told mommy we were going to the park next, but I don’t have my scooter.”
“Don’t worry, kid,” said Xavier. “We can go back home to get it.” He turned to Jacob’s grandparents, and said, “I can drop you back if you’re tired.”
She was so embarrassed for Jacob’s grandparents that she had to step in. “Or you’re more than welcome to come with us.” She glared at Xavier. “You’re probably bored,” she said. “You could take off now and enjoy the rest of your weekend. The rest of us can make our own way to Central Park.”
“Are you bored?” Jacob asked.
Xavier gave them another shit-eating grin. So false, so hard to digest that it made Izzy’s gut harden.
“I’m not bored, kid, and I have the whole day free.”
“Wouldn’t you rather hang out with your friends, or your girlfriends?” she asked, purposely making the latter plural. She wondered, at the same time, if he had hooked up with Kay ever since they had returned from the wedding. She was eager to ditch him now from the group and get back to it being only her and Jacob.
“My friends are night people,” he said, staring at her intently, “and I don’t have a girlfriend.”
“Night people? You mean like vampires?” Jacob giggled; his lips and outer edges of his mouth were covered in runny chocolate syrup. She handed him a napkin.
“That’s funny, kid,” he said, messing up the boy’s flopping hair.
“If you don’t mind,” said Dale, lifting out a piece of pecan pie that he and his wife were sharing, “We’d like to look around the Museum. What do you say, Jean? Shall we?”
“Now that we’re here, I suppose we ought to do something cultural.” Jean turned to her grandson. “Would you like to come with us, Jacob?”
He shook his head, and shoveled another spoonful of sundae into his mouth.
“You should definitely go to the museum,” Xavier said. “And don’t worry about Jacob. We’ll show him a good time.”
“Are you sure?” Dale asked.
“Completely.” Xavier gave her a grin.
“You must be starving, dear?” Jean asked her. “You’ve barely eaten a thing.”
She wasn’t that hungry, but because she’d been checking out the menu in a bid to avoid looking at Xavier, she was starting to get hungry. The chocolate muffin she’d bought on the way here hadn’t plugged as much of a hole into her ravenous belly. How she missed home cooked meals. She and Cara got by as best as they could which meant not eating out a lot, or living on home-made stew, and soups and wraps. Cara wasn’t a vegetarian, so it made things a little tricky, and she was trying to convince her friend that money would last longer if they avoided eating meat.
“I had something along the way,” she told Jean, hoping to placate her.
“Like what?” It was another stupid question from a stupid man. She turned her head towards him and found herself unable to give him an answer.
“What did you eat along the way?” Xavier asked.
“A—A— a muffin.” Like it was any of his business. He looked as if he didn’t believe her and she didn’t care. But sitting here, with the warm BBQ flavored aroma wafting around everywhere, it was impossible to suppress her hunger.
Yet she didn’t dare order anything here. Not now that they had all finished, and Xavier had asked for the bill. The prices in this place were ridiculous.
When they had all finished, and the bill was settled, they started to leave. She could feel people turn heads, and stare. It surprised her that anyone knew who Xavier was. But maybe with the recent wedding, she assumed that Jacob had suddenly become a person of interest.
They filed into the black SUV.
“Here,” Xavier shoved a small brown package her way.
“What’s this?” she asked, not taking it immediately.
“Food.”
She shrank away at first, thinking he had asked for his leftovers to be boxed up. “Your left-overs?”
“No,” he said, looking genuinely hurt by her accusation. “You looked hungry to me back there.” He held the package up to her again. “Take it. I didn’t buy the bullsh—,” he cleared his throat, “the story that you weren’t hungry.”
Curious, she took it and opened the lip of the brown paper bag and peeked inside. Something was sealed in a foil wrapper, and it was still warm to touch.
“It’s some sort of bean and halloumi mashup,” he said, wrinkling his nose as if he wouldn’t be caught dead sniffing something like this let alone eating it. “It was the first thing on the menu.”
“You didn’t have to,” she said, not liking that his gesture made her feel indebted, in some way, to him.
“You had that hungry look about you,” he said, his voice sexy-sweet, a come-on for most girls. But not her.
She knew what he was doing, and she wasn't about to fall for it.
“Thanks.”
She was quiet as Morris drove Jacob’s grandparents to the Museum of Modern Art, and then back to the apartment so that they could get Jacob’s scooter. Xavier gave Morris the rest of the day off, and decided to take Tobias’s Merc. There would be no point in Morris waiting around for them while they were at the park.
“Central Park?” Xavier asked her, sliding into the driver’s seat. He seemed more relaxed now that Jacob’s grandparents had left.
“That’s where you want to go, isn’t it?” she asked Jacob.
“Yeah. Can we spend 6 hours there?”
“6?” Xavier laughed. “Why 6? Why not 7 or 8?”
Jacob giggled, and even she found herself smiling.
Chapter 14
Holy shit, it was freezing.
Maybe he should have worn his jacket. He could feel the goosebumps under his long-sleeved t-shirt.
“Aren’t you cold, Jacob?” he shouted as the kid scooted past at breakneck speed.
“Nahhhhhhhhhhhh!” Jacob squealed as he raced past.
He rubbed his hands together. “How the fuck’s he not feeling the cold?”
“You can’t swear in front of children.”
Izzy seemed to be chattier ever since he’d given her the wrap. He sensed a thawing of her one ice-cold temperament. It brought a smile to his lips to know he was going to slowly melt every piece of hardness inside her.
“He didn’t hear,” he shot back, defensively. “Jeez. It’s cold enough to freeze my nuts off.”
She looked at him in disgust.
He was going to have to try different tactics with her. A bottle of the finest champagne wasn’t going to do it. “Sorry, Laronde. I didn’t mean to offend you.”
“You’re not.”
“Good, because I aim to please.”
“Sick.” He thought he heard her mutter under her breath. “Do you always behave like this?”
“Like what?”
“You mean you don’t even know when you’re being a jerk?”
“I’m not being a jerk.”
“Is this how you are? Or is this a façade?”
“This is me. I don’t understand what you’ve got a problem with. I could say you’re tight-assed.”
She scowled. “Tight-assed?”
“Or frigid.”
“Oh, no,” she said. “No. We’re not going there.”
“I’m not going anywhere, I’m making an observation, that’s all.”
They were standing face to face now. Her expression was one of pure revulsion. No woman had ever looked at him like that before, unless she was play acting and they were about to get dirty. But Laronde didn’t look lik
e she was acting. That sneer was genuine, and she looked like she hated him.
She threw her head back, tilting her chin defiantly, doing that thing she did, when she thought she had one-upped him. She stared at him with cold, flint-like eyes. “You’re so different to Tobias.”
What was that supposed to mean? Women who wanted serious and intense men went for Tobias, but women who wanted a good time, and lots of sexy times, went for him. They were different, and Laronde comparing them, the way he was used to people comparing his and Tobias in business, angered him. He didn’t like that she seemed to know exactly which buttons to press, intentionally or not.
“You’re not interested in him, are you? Because he’s married and you need to be careful.”
She threw her arms up in the air as if in total disbelief. “You asshole. How do you manage to get everything so wrong?”
“What the fuck has Tobias got to do with anything?”
His insides started to relax as it suddenly dawned on him. She was playing him like he was playing her. He riled her, and she had discovered the best way to rile him. It hadn’t been enough pulling that number before lunch, this time she’d worked out what really did it.
“I’m nothing like my brother, and I thank my fucking stars for it.”
“Will you stop swearing?”
He turned away, clenching his teeth. He didn’t know how to win her over. She was frigid. Or a lesbian. And if that was the case, then he had no hope in hell.
He was starting to feel that the bet had been a huge mistake. A drunken proposal made in the heat of a sultry evening, after a good too many tequila shots. He had started to think that the moment he had landed back in New York and listened to the messages on his answering machine. Lots of messages, from lots of interested women. A lot of people knew he had been to his brother’s wedding, and many wanted the low down, he was sure. He’d had to turn down multiple offers of lunch and brunch and drinks with gorgeous girls, for this? For a Saturday in a fucking park with a girl who had no interest in giving him the time of day.
Screw it.
Playing along with this bet was a waste of his time and frankly, he didn’t have months to waste, or wait, until he got some pussy again.
As tempted as he was to tell Jacob that it was time to go home, the look on that kid’s face made him wait. The boy was having a good time. But once Jacob was ready to leave, he was going to drop them home, and then hit The Oasis.
It was time to let Luke know.
He’d had enough.
~ ~ ~
She rubbed her hands together and watched Jacob whizzing down the path gleefully. He wasn’t feeling the cold one bit, even though there was a chill in the air, and as the afternoon drew on, she started to feel the cold even more.
She glanced over at Xavier who looked to be freezing.
Pathetic.
He was so full of hot air she couldn’t imagine him ever feeling cold, and were it not for the way he was walking around rubbing his arms, she wouldn’t have been able to tell.
Okay, so, maybe she could make out the faint outline of his muscles in that fancy designer t-shirt of his. The one with the logo, the one that clung to him and showed off his lean build. They weren’t huge, his biceps, but they were definitely toned, she could see, because he wore the type of t-shirt that made it impossible not to see. She looked away and swallowed. The guy could be a jerk, even if he’d been thoughtful enough to buy her something to eat.
She would have to watch what she said now because he hadn’t liked the comparison she’d made to Tobias. What she had so far seen of Tobias made her see him in a different light. Tobias was a good guy, decent, honorable, and he treated women with respect.
But Xavier?
He was like the frat boys at college—only older. Too old to go to college. If Tobias had just turned 30, she estimated that his brother was probably a few years younger. Cara had said he was around 27 or 28.
There were plenty of guys like that at college. Rich ones, who wore designer clothes, albeit grungy designer clothes, ripped jeans, and vintage jackets then paid ridiculous amounts for it. She and Cara got their clothes from thrift shops. Vintage was in, and she was proud of it.
“I’m cold,” said Jacob. Can we get some hot chocolate, please?” he asked, coming to a stop in front of her.
“Hot chocolate?” She saw the kiosks in the distance. Central Park kiosks charged jacked up tourist prices. Savannah had told her to make a note of all her expenses when she was out with Jacob, and ordinarily this wouldn’t have been a problem, but today she only had a few dollars on her.
Yet it wasn’t often that Jacob asked for anything.
“Sure. Uh—” She looked over her shoulder. Xavier was on his cell phone and, with a pinch of anger, she wondered why he had come along with them. He should have left after lunch. Why had he insisted on coming to the park in order to spend time with Jacob, when clearly he wasn’t spending any time at all with him?
“Shall we go get some now?” She had just enough to buy Jacob something. “And then maybe we should go home afterwards?” She hoped he would agree.
“Okay.”
She headed for the kiosks, when Jacob, scooting beside her, asked. “What about Xavier?”
“He looks busy,” she said, breezily. “He’ll know to follow us.”
When they reached the kiosks, she saw that she could only afford a $5 hot chocolate, and hoped Jacob wouldn’t ask for anything else.
“Aren’t you having any?” Jacob asked, when she paid for it with the last of her cash.
“No.” She was on a tight budget, always, and tried to pay with cash as often as she could.
“But your nose is red. You look cold.”
“I’m fine.”
They sat down on some benches nearby.
“Thanks for walking off without letting me know,” Xavier snapped.
“You were busy on your phone,” she snapped back.
“Where’s mine?” he asked, looking at Jacob’s hot drink.
“Do you want some?” Jacob offered his plastic cup to him.
“No, thanks, kid. You drink up. I’ll go and get my own.”
“Nice?” Izzy asked, rubbing her hands together and wishing she had worn her winter clothes.
“Mmmmmm,” was Jacob’s appreciative response. “Thanks for taking me,” he said, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.
“You’re welcome.”
“Mommy said you’re going to be around more now, and we can do things at the weekend, even when she comes back.”
“Yes. I had such a good time with you on the island, that I told your mommy I would be happy to spend more time with you.”
“Cool.”
“Here.” Xavier appeared in front of her and shoved a cup of hot chocolate towards her. “I told them no marshmallows, on account of you being a vegetarian, and no whipped cream on account of you counting calories.”
And for you, kid.” He handed Jacob a chocolate donut.
“Awesome! Thank you.”
She looked up, not sure whether to be surprised or insulted. Was he being considerate, and trying too hard? Or was he just reverting to type and being an asshole because it was hard-wired into his DNA?
“Who said I was counting calories?”
He seemed to pause in shock. “Okay. That was my mistake. I assumed most girls counted calories.”
“Maybe the types of girls you hang around with.”
He was like a chameleon, changeable, shifting. One minute she wanted to slap him, and the next she wanted to like him. And as a starving student trying to survive on a tight budget, if Xavier wanted to be her knight in shining armor, she would let him.
“Thank you,” she said, taking the cup of hot chocolate and letting its warmth heat her hands.
“Move over, would you?” Xavier asked, and she scooted along the bench, deciding not to question why he couldn’t sit next to Jacob because there was plenty of space on his side.
“We’re going home after this,” she announced.
“Aaaawwww,” Jacob wailed, his lips covered in sugar.
“Are you sure you want to go home so soon, kid?” Xavier asked Jacob. “We only just got here.”
“Your grandparents might be back soon.” If she mentioned them, there might be less chance of Xavier inviting himself back home.
“I’ll drop you guys off.”
“Are you coming back with us?” Jacob asked, a hint of pleading in his voice. It made her wonder why he seemed to be so drawn to Xavier.
“I can keep you company, Jacob,” she offered.
“You said you had too much homework to do.”
He must have overheard her talking to Cara on the phone earlier. “It’s true. But it is the weekend, and I can stay longer. I’m sure your grandparents will be tired after their day out.”
“Some other time, kid.”
Something was up with Xavier as he drove them back. He didn’t seem as friendly, and didn’t say much. And he couldn’t get out of the Merc and hop into his Ferrari fast enough. He raced off, with Jacob staring at the car in awe.
Xavier and his bright red supposedly sexy babe magnet. Trust him to drive something like that. It was so him.
Chapter 15
He had to wait until the following evening to see Luke because his friend had been busy.
“Busy doing what?” he asked.
“Busy being busy,” Luke drawled. They sat across one of the tables on the rooftop terrace, in a far secluded corner. The tinkle of glasses and bottles rippled in the background.
Xavier waited for his friend to elaborate, and prompted him when he got nothing. “Busy being busy with what, or whom?”
“Nothing exciting. Just looking at more premises.”
“Where?” Xavier asked, directing the conversation back to his friend while he worked out how he was going to say what he needed to.
“I’m looking at some sites in Tribeca. I’m thinking it’s about time I opened another bar.”
“We’ll be practically neighbors.”
“Yeah.”