The Winner Takes It All

by Jennifer Dawson

  “Why?” The word held more bark than he’d intended.

  “Because I didn’t think about it!” She threw up her hands and flopped down into an armchair across from him. “I was busy coming to terms with the fact that everything I believed was a lie. I’m not special. My father doesn’t care about me, Shane. He thought nothing about marrying me off because Miles would be a good ally. I am a pawn.”

  She was hurt, deeply. But he couldn’t help asking the question. “Then why are you playing by his rules?”

  She looked at him, her expression hollow, her eyes distant and remote. “Just because he’s a shitty father doesn’t mean he’s not right. Now I’ve got something to prove and I’m not giving up, so don’t even ask me.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Cecilia put on a bright face and stepped into the kitchen, where Maddie, her two friends, and Charlotte sat around the kitchen table. “Good morning.”

  Four heads swiveled in her direction. Sophie grinned. “Well, well, well, and how do you feel today?”

  “Great, actually.” Cecilia pushed her hair from her cheeks, realizing she’d forgotten to clip it back.

  “Lucky you,” Sophie said. “Sore?”

  Cecilia’s cheeks heated at least fifteen degrees.

  Penelope slapped Sophie’s arm, shushing her.

  “Ewww!”Maddiesaid, but grinned right along with her friend.

  Her mom’s gaze narrowed as she took a sip from one of her grandma’s teacups decorated with little roses and gold trim. “What happened last night?”

  “Nothing,” Cecilia said quickly. “Nothing at all.” She cleared her throat. “So what’s on the agenda today? And how can I help?”

  Maddie straightened the piles of papers in front of her and flipped over a page in a spiral notebook. “Well, let’s see . . .”

  Penelope sighed and picked up her coffee. “On that note, I’ve got to run to a conference call.”

  Maddie frowned. “Why?”

  “We’re having some issues with the city contract deal, and I’m sorry, but they don’t wait for anyone, not even your wedding.”

  That must be the deal Shane mentioned. Cecilia made a mental note to ask him about it. She knew people, including the mayor, so maybe she could help. Not that it was any of her business, but still, it couldn’t hurt.

  “You’re supposed to be on vacation,” Maddie said, huffing.

  Penelope patted her friend on the shoulder. “I love you like a sister, but being ordered about by you and your never-ending list is not a vacation.”

  Maddie’s lower lip puffed out in a pout. “I know, I’m terrible, aren’t I?”

  Sophie threw her head back and laughed. “The worst! I almost miss the old days, when anything wedding-related was a four-letter word.”

  “I know,” Maddie said, worrying her hands. “I’m so nervous this time. I want everything to be perfect.”

  “It will be, dear,” Charlotte said, the affection so clear in her voice Cecilia’s heart gave a little lurch.

  She wanted her mom to sound like that when they talked. She picked up a napkin from the table and wiped at an imaginary spot.

  Penelope glanced at the clock, squinting behind her glasses. “I’ll be done in a couple of hours.”

  “Can’t Shane do without you?” Maddie asked.

  Penelope waved her hand around the room. “You’ve got three people ready to help you. Shane’s only got me.”

  A stab of jealousy knifed through Cecilia from out of nowhere and she had to fight an urge to stand and yell No, you’re wrong. He has me! She took a deep breath to quell the desire and let logic prevail. Penelope meant work.

  There was nothing between them.

  Cecilia peered more closely at the other woman.

  Her hair was a lush, mink brown, so thick and shiny she could be in a shampoo commercial. Behind those thick, black frames her eyes were a startling blue. Crystal clear and direct. And her face was pretty. Like really pretty. With the no-nonsense, capable demeanor she wore like a second skin, Cecilia hadn’t realized. Did Shane?

  Where was this coming from?

  Penelope must have sensed her heavy gaze because she frowned. “What? Do I have jelly on my chin?”

  “No, nothing like that. You’re quite pretty,” Cecilia blurted. Clearly the Jägerbombs hadn’t left her system yet.

  The other woman twitched, as though the statement surprised her. “Oh. Um, thank you.”

  Sophie pressed her finger to her lips. “Shhh, don’t say anything nice. Penelope hates to be complimented.”

  Cecilia’s chest gave another squeeze.

  How wonderful would it be to have friends like this? Friends who understood your idiosyncrasies and patterns? Your strengths and weaknesses? She couldn’t even imagine. Was that bad? To be removed from life? From connections? The song lyrics from that old Simon and Garfunkel song filled her mind. She was an island.

  Was that going to be her? What had Shane called her last night when she’d been drifting in and out of consciousness? Summer Cecilia? That when she returned to Chicago she’d go back to being the woman she’d always been?

  Was that true? Could she be summer Cecilia back home?

  She didn’t think so. Not in the world she lived in, where one had to keep one’s friends close and enemies closer. Not where one wrong move could be her undoing.

  Sitting in the kitchen, Shane pinched the bridge of his nose and popped another two Advil, thankful for the five minutes of quiet in a house that was bursting with people. Miraculously, everyone was gone and he was finally alone, and his fucking cell phone was quiet. He’d given up on e-mail, asking Penelope to go through the hundreds of messages, answer what she could, and mark the ones he needed to deal with. Not a task he asked of her often, but with this current shit storm with the mayor’s office, he had to delegate something so he could focus.

  The deal was starting to unravel and he only hoped he could recover when he met with the mayor. Politics was a fine line, and the city planner seemed intent on sabotage, which infuriated Shane. The guy didn’t have to like him, but he was fucking with people’s lives. If the guy found a way to kill the deal, Shane would be forced to cut staff. Those people depended on him and construction was still a recovering business.

  Where would they find jobs? His skull throbbed.

  The back door opened and he had to stop himself from slamming his fist on the table and growling at the person to get the hell out. He glanced up to see Mitch walk through the door. He gritted his teeth to keep from snapping. He’d heard it was impolite to kick someone out of their own house.

  Mitch threw his computer case on the bench of the built-in hall tree next to the back door. “Hey, where is everyone?”

  “Out.” The word more terse than it should be.

  Mitch raised a brow. “Tough day?”

  Shane shrugged. “I’ve had better. This negotiation with the city is in the crapper.”

  “Can’t say I miss Chicago politics.” Mitch tossed his keys into the bowl on the counter and strolled to the fridge, opening the door. He held up a beer. “Want one?”

  Recovered from his love affair with the bottle of scotch from a couple of nights ago, he nodded.

  Mitch pulled another bottle from the refrigerator and slammed the door shut. He slid a bottle across the table, and it landed in front of Shane. Mitch took a seat. “Want to talk about it?”

  “Terms and conditions stuff. I have a great relationship with the mayor, but this new guy in charge of city planning is an asshole. He’s angling to pull the contract and fighting me on every single point. On shit that I would have hammered out over a steak dinner and drinks with the old guy without even breaking a sweat.” And he was trying not to worry about the ramifications if the negotiations failed. He’d fight tooth and nail for his people, but if David Jackson got his way, Shane wouldn’t have a lot of options.

  Mitch scoffed. “One of those, huh?”

  “Yeah, and I’m not his favorite per
son. We had a run-in about five years ago. He lost. Now he’s got it in his head to make my life a living hell.” Shane shook his head.

  Mitch took a drag off his bottle. “When will it be done?”

  “Don’t know.” The worry sat heavy in his stomach. “We meet again the Monday after the wedding.”

  Mitch grinned. “At least you’ll be back home instead of this madhouse.”

  Shane raised his gaze to the ceiling and said, “God, deliver me from all these women.”

  Mitch chuckled. “I’ll be happy when this is over and I’m not banging into someone every time I turn a corner.”

  Happy to be distracted from his current trouble, Shane asked, “What kind of a guy has a household full of people invading his space before he gets married? You should be off in Vegas.”

  Mitch sighed. “The kind of guy that wants to make your sister happy.”

  Shane drained the rest of his beer, standing to grab another one. He tilted the bottle in Mitch’s direction. He nodded.

  Shane grabbed two more from the fridge. “Did you ever think you’d be this whipped?”

  Mitch laughed, the sound good-natured. “Nope, not in a million years.” Then he shrugged, almost chagrined. “But she’s worth it. This is important to her and I’m smart enough to know it’s temporary. Soon everyone will leave and it will just be the two of us again.”

  As he sat back down at the table, Shane experienced a squeeze of envy that surprised him.

  As much as it annoyed him to be surrounded by a bunch of people all the time, there was a comfort in it too. He found he didn’t relish the idea of going back to his empty house. Decorated by some professional, it was nice, but not lived-in. A house but not a home.

  Not at all how he grew up. Their three-bedroom brick bungalow had been messy, run-down, overcrowded, and full of family.

  Mitch stretched back, resting the bottle with a loose grip on his stomach. “So do I have to bring it up?”

  Shane scrubbed a hand over his jaw, instantly wary. “What do you want to know? Not that it’s any of your business.”

  “True,” Mitch said, nodding slowly. “While I’m surprised at your involvement with my sister, it’s not what I’m curious about.”

  Shane’s gaze narrowed. “Then what is it?”

  “Do you know what’s going on that’s got everyone all upset? I’ve been thinking it through and I’m positive it has something to do with this farce of an engagement, but I haven’t been able to piece through all the details.”

  “What makes you think the engagement’s not real?” Shane asked, diverting the question back to him.

  “Please, my sister might not be perfect, but she’s pretty much walked the straight and narrow her whole life. There’s no way she’d hook up with you if that marriage was the real deal.”

  Shane shrugged, not about to divulge Cecilia’s secrets. It would be her choice, not his. “Have you tried asking her?”

  “Yeah, you were there that first day and she stonewalled me.”

  “You cross-examined her in front of a bunch of strangers.” Sometimes he wondered how these Rileys could be so smart in some ways and so stupid in others. “What did you expect? For her to spill her guts right then and there?”

  Two lines formed over his brow, and the corners of Mitch’s mouth dipped. “I hadn’t thought of that.”

  “Because you’re a dumb-ass.”

  Mitch raised a brow. “So you know but aren’t going to tell me.”

  “You’re just proving my point here.”

  Mitch nodded and took a slug of beer. “Interesting.”

  Shane gave him a level-eyed look and kept his mouth shut.

  “So where are the girls?”

  “I think they went over to Gracie’s.”

  Mitch grinned. “Wanna call Sam and Charlie for a game of pickup?”

  Off and on, Shane had thought about what to do about Cecilia and her insistence that she only had one option. Something was off about the whole thing, but he couldn’t figure it out and it was making him twitchy. A game was just what he needed. “Make the call.”

  After the day Cecilia had spent with the girls, she felt like a whole new woman. All these years she’d underestimated the importance of belonging, of having women to talk to. She thought about her “friends” back in Chicago. All those polite lunches where nobody laughed; they smirked. The last thing she’d do was tell them her secrets. Even the women she’d known almost all her life. She didn’t trust any of them. But she trusted the women she’d spent the afternoon with.

  Even if she couldn’t reveal her secrets.

  She liked them. Liked their easy affection with each other. Liked their not-so-gentle prying into what was going on between her and Shane. It made her feel . . . accepted.

  Not something she was used to.

  She refilled her glass of iced tea from the pitcher on Gracie’s counter and turned just as Maddie entered the room.

  Over the course of the afternoon, she’d helped Maddie organize and prioritize the rest of her wedding list. Then she’d divided the list of responsibilities among the women by what she perceived as their areas of strength. Gracie took care of the caterer and related food items, Sophie got decorating, she gave her mom vendor confirmations, Maddie took actions that couldn’t be delegated, and she took the leftovers. They’d been done in no time flat.

  She’d had fun doing it. It was such a relief. Her mind had turned off and she hadn’t thought about her engagement, her family, or her campaign.

  The sense of accomplishment warmed her all over, reminding her why she’d always loved working in the first place. An idea niggled in her mind, something important but elusive that hovered in the corners of her subconscious.

  Maddie beamed, and the thought evaporated into thin air. “I’m officially in love with you. Thank you so much.”

  “It was my pleasure,” Cecilia said, feeling a swell of pride that she’d actually managed to connect with her soon-to-be sister-in-law.

  “I’m ahead of schedule now.” Maddie glanced around the kitchen then lowered her voice. “Don’t tell Penelope, but I think you could give her a run for her money.”

  Cecilia laughed. “Your secret is safe with me.”

  Maddie tucked a lock of hair behind her ear and did another paranoid visual sweep. “I know this is none of my business, and this is a bit forward, but I need you to do me a favor.”

  Shoulders stiffening, Cecilia was instantly alert. Knowing better than to make a promise without knowing the terms, she said cautiously, “I’ll try.”

  “Please don’t hurt my brother.” Maddie nibbled on her lower lip, gaze darting around the kitchen as though afraid someone would pop out from the cabinets. “See, the thing is, he’ll do anything for the people he cares about. And I do mean anything.”

  Cecilia nodded. “He sacrificed a lot for your family after your dad died.”

  “He did,” Maddie said, her voice impassioned. “Once he gets something in his head, he’ll move heaven and earth to make it happen. The cost, especially to himself, is irrelevant. That’s the way he is.”

  “I know,” Cecilia said softly, a trickle of unease skittering through her.

  “I understand your situation is . . . complicated, and believe me, I relate, but please, be careful with him. Because he’s falling for you. Hard.”

  Some long-repressed, girlish part of Cecilia wanted to ask what he’d said about her. An impulse she ignored, but she did want to ease Maddie’s mind as best she could. “I can’t explain anything right now. I know it looks bad. But I do care. I’m not sure he’s really falling for me. I think it’s just, well”—she waved a hand in the air looking for the appropriate words to say to Shane’s sister—“You know how he is once he decides he wants something.”

  “True, but I see the way he looks at you. And with your marital status up in the air, he’d never get involved unless he couldn’t help himself. It’s not just attraction like when you two first met. Something’
s changed.”

  Cecilia frowned. She’d been so careful back then. Not like now, where everyone, save her mother, knew something was going on between them. “You knew?”

  Maddie smiled. “Of course.”

  “But how?”

  She outright laughed now. “Let’s just say when you’ve been struck by instant lust you tend to recognize the signs.”

  Cecilia nibbled her bottom lip. “I’m doing my best here, Maddie. This wasn’t something I expected, and I’m still navigating my way.”

  The time for avoidance was coming to a close. Her actions didn’t just affect her anymore, they were affecting the people around her. If she wasn’t careful she’d hurt Shane and lose the developing relationship with this group of people who no longer seemed like strangers. The more time she spent with them, the more she started to feel like she belonged.

  “I understand,” Maddie said, picking up her glass. “All I’m asking is you remember that once he takes that final plunge, there’s nothing my brother won’t do for you. So if you’re going to marry another guy, please end it before he dives in the rest of the way.”

  “I will,” Cecilia said, that unease growing into a full-blown bad feeling.

  Maddie smiled, but her green eyes, the same shade as her brother’s, were still clouded with worry. “Just remember this about Shane: He never asks for anything in return. No matter what he’s laid on the line.”

  A band squeezed around Cecilia’s ribs. “Do you think I’m an awful person?”

  “No,” Maddie said, then came over and locked Cecilia in a hug.

  Cecilia froze for a second, once again uncomfortable with the display of affection, but then hugged her sister-in-law back, and something relaxed in her.

  She wanted to be part of them. To fit together the way they all did.

  When Maddie pulled away, she smiled. “I know better than most people that appearances are deceiving. Don’t forget, I ran out on my wedding and hooked up with your brother my first night on the lam.” She chuckled, seeming to recollect some private memory. “Not exactly my shining moment, but sometimes these things can’t be helped.”