That was not a subject he wished to return to, either, so he chewed one of his crispy French fries without answering.
His brother laughed. “Good for her. You deserve it.”
Yeah, in hindsight, he did.
After he washed his food down with a drink of water, he asked, “Do you really think she’s psychic?”
Merit shrugged. “I’ve never had her give me an official reading, but Celia did, and she said the stuff she told her was spot on.”
“She probably got information from Asher.”
“Nope. Cece said it was stuff no one knew. And there’s the fact we’ve all seen Rox read Asher to a tee.”
“They do call themselves best friends,” he pointed out before taking a bite of his burger.
“She had Honor pegged with the whole not believing in love thing.”
Loyal scoffed and swallowed. “Which is why she’s now engaged to our brother.”
“It was Asher who taught her to believe,” Merit countered.
“You believe in that soulmate crap, too?”
His brother shrugged. “Yeah, why not?”
“That’s rich coming from the guy who has a different woman every week.”
“You telling me you’ve been celibate since your last engagement ended?”
Loyal’s turn to shrug as he continued eating.
“Yeah, didn’t think so. We’re all searching, aren’t we? Some of us just look at more options than others.”
He laughed and shook his head.
“Listen, you asked what I thought about Roxanna and I told you. If you want proof one way or the other, have her do a reading for you.”
“Who’s to say she won’t just make shit up? That’s exactly what they do on those hotlines.”
“You say. You’ll know. She’s not a hotline, and you’d be face to face.”
Yeah, which is why she told me she can’t read me. She knows I’ll know it’s bullshit.
“Look, I know you got majorly screwed over with Lisa, but she was definitely not the woman for you. She was way too self-centered.”
Loyal pondered that truth as he munched more fries.
“What?” Merit feigned surprise. “No smartass takes one to know one comment?”
“Nope. I’m letting that one slide. Especially since I know you’re right about Lisa. Last I heard, she married Jeff Richmond. I don’t know who I feel more sorry for.”
“I heard about that, too. They’re actually quite perfect for each other. Richmond got his trophy wife, and she’ll get to do whatever she wants while he screws around on the side.”
Loyal dropped the last bite of his burger down into the basket, his appetite suddenly gone. “How the fuck did I end up engaged to her?”
“You were climbing the ladder of success.” Merit gave him a grim grin around another mouthful of burger. “Workin’ on The Plan.”
“I guess I was.” He’d reworked his plan the day he hadn’t gotten married, only right now, he wasn’t so sure he liked where burying himself in work had gotten him. Burned out. Missing family. Taking out his unhappiness on people who may or may not deserve it.
Well, he was home now, and he could change some of what he didn’t like about the past six years.
Roxanna was a whole other matter. He wanted her out of his head, but he couldn’t help returning to her words last night. It bothered him that he may have hurt her over the years, and yet with his next breath, he’d remind himself of her drunken dig about his fiancés, him not being worthy, and her sober punch to the gut this morning about Grayson.
Most disturbing was the urge to find her and kiss any thoughts of his half-brother right out of her head. When he was done, his name would be the only one she spoke from those wine-flavored lips of hers.
His pulse picked up, and he grimaced while grabbing a napkin to wipe his mouth and hands as Merit finished his food. He paid their bill with a generous tip, then Loyal followed his brother out the door as he pulled his keys from his pocket.
“Hey. You and Bells want help at headquarters this afternoon?”
“We’ll be making personal phone calls to connect with the base, so do you really have to ask?”
“Apparently, you like to be asked.”
Merit shot him a sideways glance. “I bare my soul to you and you mock me. Fuck you, man.”
“What time?” When his brother’s face screwed up into an exaggerated expression of horror, Loyal backhanded him on the arm. “Gross. What time are you meeting Bells, dipshit.”
Merit chuckled as he headed for his vehicle. “One-forty-five.”
“I’ll see you there.”
If he was lucky, talking to potential voters for his dad’s campaign would keep his mind off his simmering resentment about Roxanna using him as a stand-in for the half-brother he hated.
Chapter 10
“Honor and Mae are here,” Tessa called from the register on Thursday afternoon.
Roxanna slammed the file cabinet with a frustrated huff and walked over to her already messy desk to swipe up her new purse. It had been a shitty week, and not just because of the fire. Ever since she’d lied to Loyal about why she’d asked him to kiss her drunk self, she’d felt sick to her stomach. She still couldn’t get her accounts to balance out, and the check she’d found on Sunday night had gone missing.
Karma was seriously pissed off at her, and her gut told her it was all because of her mean-spirited lie. She’d wanted to throw him completely off track, and considering she hadn’t seen him since Monday morning, it appeared to have worked. Too bad she couldn’t enjoy the peace and quiet.
When she turned around, the redheaded cake baker engaged to her best friend stood in the doorway, her blond bestie beside her still wearing her red Lockhart Construction logo shirt, jeans, and tan work boots.
“What’s got you all riled up?” Honor asked.
“I’m missing a check. I think it got mixed in with the mountains of paperwork I filed Sunday night, but I haven’t been able to find it.”
“Need some help?” Mae offered.
“Thanks, but I’ve had enough of the file cabinets today. I’ll look again tomorrow.”
“Any word on your apartment?”
That was another thing. She answered Honor’s question with a shake of her head as they headed out. “They’re still investigating what started the fire. No one’s cleared to enter the building until that’s finalized.”
She switched the subject to Honor and Asher’s trip as they got in the car, and on the way to the costume shop it morphed to their wedding set for May. Loyal would be the best man, and Mae the matron of honor. Roxanna was to be paired with Merit, and Honor’s sister Glory would’ve been with Grayson, but the Diamond’s new sibling had firmly declined the request to be a groomsman, so they were looking for someone else.
“But it’s months away,” Mae said. “Surely he’ll be more comfortable with the family by then?”
“Asher didn’t want to push it.” Honor turned into the store lot and parked her car. “We’re just hoping he comes.”
“You really think he’d skip the wedding?”
“Maybe. There’s still a lot of tension with the way he and Loyal seem hell bent on hating each other.”
And you knew that when you threw Grayson’s name in his face.
Roxanna winced in shame as they started inside.
“Asher said something about seeing if his friend Dev can stand up.”
Dev Torrez. Now there was another guy she could’ve decided to like besides Loyal. Tall, devilishly handsome, muscled, and nice. If only the oldest son of the Diamond’s housekeeper wasn’t gone on classified missions for the military ninety-nine percent of the time. Well, that and the one time she’d met him five years ago, she’d noticed young Shelby mooning over him from the wings.
“I’m really going to need to meet all these guys soon,” Mae said.
“You haven’t met them yet?” Roxanna asked with surprise.
“Only Asher
. Ian had a busy summer with soccer, and everyone and their brother seems to be remodeling these days. I’ve been so busy, it’s crazy. I was supposed to meet Merit at that cookout a couple weeks ago, but Ian was sick.”
And for Mae, her six-year-old son came first—as he should.
“Now that Loyal’s back, we should plan a dinner for the wedding party,” Honor mused. “Sometime after the election is over.”
Mae nodded. “Sounds good.”
A whole evening in the same room as Loyal sounded like hell to Roxanna, but she kept quiet as they paused at the register for Honor to give the sales lady the name for their reserved costumes.
“I’m going to go start looking,” she said a moment later. It would be a miracle if she found something decent a mere two days before Halloween. With the way her week was going, if the party wasn’t also a fundraiser for the children’s hospital, she’d be tempted to skip it altogether.
Mae walked with her and commented, “I think I need to book a reading with you. I need to know if love like Honor and Asher’s is in my future. Things are looking pretty bleak these days.”
She glanced over at the pretty pixie blond in the middle of browsing a rack of costumes. “I can’t always give a definitive answer during a reading, but at the very least, we can examine your aura, and clear your energy flows of anything blocking your path to finding love.”
“Well, single motherhood is one big energy block,” she said wryly.
“Plenty of single parents find love,” Roxanna argued with a smile.
“I know. And I swear, I wouldn’t trade Ian for any guy, but someday the woman in me wants more. She wants to feel like a woman again, not just an overworked mommy CEO.”
“That same woman in me totally gets you,” she murmured while swiping past the French Maid, the Sexy Cheerleader, and the Slutty Nurse. The high end rental shop meant the costumes were top of the line, but she still needed a skirt that covered past her ass, or she’d end up feeling as exposed as she had that night she’d climbed into bed with Loyal.
Was that only a week ago?
Not even, and yet it seemed so far in the past already.
“Do you ever see stuff for yourself,” Mae asked with curiosity. “Like, would you sense if the guy of your dreams was in the same room?”
She gave a soft snort as Honor joined them.
“They’re holding our stuff at the front.” The redhead raised her eyebrows and pinned Roxanna with her green gaze. “Guy of your dreams? Do tell.”
She shrugged as she felt the soft, supple leather of a black Catwoman suit, then flipped it to the left. “There’s nothing to tell. I mean, back when I was nine, I did have a dream that the love of my life would be loyal and true, but I’ve discovered I have as much of a chance of finding a guy like that as I do finding a unicorn. He doesn’t exist for me.”
Mae’s eyes widened. “Ooh—maybe it’s Asher’s brother, Loyal. Like, literally, he’s Loyal and true. That would make perfect sense.”
Oh, man, why had she even said that out loud? She’d never told anyone about that stupid dream before. Roxanna shot a quick glance of alarm at Honor, because the last thing she needed was her telling Asher, but the cake baker’s attention was focused on the rack of costumes.
“Rox and Loyal mix like oil and water,” she contradicted while pulling the Catwoman suit off the rack. She held it up in front of Roxanna as if eyeing the fit. “But this, right here, is like cake and frosting.”
“Oh, please. No way I’m wearing that.”
“Come on, at least try it on.”
“I can’t give readings in leather,” she protested when Honor completely ignored her and headed across the store with the suit.
“Says who?” Mae tugged on her arm and dragged her along. “Catwoman can be psychic for one Halloween. I bet it’ll look great on you.”
“It’s never going to fit right off the rack.”
“Then we’ll ask the sales lady to find you the right size in the back.”
She took the costume into the dressing room, determined to show them it didn’t fit and get on with finding something more appropriate. Except when she pulled the suit on and zipped up the front, she was absolutely floored. At her five-foot-nine, the odds of it fitting off the rack were crazy astronomical, and yet it did.
Even more astonishing, the form-fitting leather was comfortable without being constricting. It felt…right—an odd sensation after everything had been so wrong for the past week.
“Let’s see it,” Honor called.
She put on the mask and opened the fitting room curtain.
“Perfect,” Mae said with a pleased grin. “Look at that. You look awesome.”
Honor was smiling, too. “Mae and I are too short to ever wear something like that, but she’s right, it’s great.”
“I don’t hate it,” she said with a casual shrug. If she was being honest, she even felt a little sexy. She wasn’t going to be honest enough to say that out loud though.
“I’ll go tell the lady to add it to my bill,” Honor said as she turned toward the front. “Asher said he’s covering yours since you always donate the readings.”
“Thanks.”
While Roxanna changed, Mae spoke through the curtain. “I kinda wish I could go, now.”
“You’re not coming?”
“Ian and I are trick-or-treating earlier with Honor, her sister, and her twin nieces, but then Ian and I have a tradition of sorting through all his candy and watching a scary movie. I can’t break that.”
“It sounds like fun.” Though it made her feel a bit lonely. Mae had her son. Honor had Asher. She was still alone.
“I wouldn’t miss it, but I’d still love to see you at the party. If your loyal and true love is there, he won’t be able to take his eyes off you. Add in the mystery of your mask and it could be a romantic evening.”
He wouldn’t be there, and yet she couldn’t deny her pulse sped up at the thought of seeing Loyal again.
Until her stomach knotted.
She ignored the guilt—or tried to.
She’d had to feed him that lie, even if it went against the very fiber of her being. She couldn’t waste her life any longer pining for someone who didn’t like or respect her and her work. Since she couldn’t avoid him completely, she needed to make sure he didn’t think he had one over on her because she was head over heels in love with him.
Head over heels?
Oh no. She was attracted to him, and she could admit—to herself—she wanted to run her hands all over his firm, sexy muscles, but love?
No.
Which was precisely why she had to find someone else to lust after, so she could move on.
Late Saturday morning, Roxanna finally pulled the missing check from her file cabinet with a shout of triumph for Darcy in the front.
“You found it?”
“Yes.” She carried it out to the register. “Take a look at the name. Does it ring a bell? I can’t find any paperwork to go with it. Did Tessa say anything about booking a weekend seminar?”
Darcy’s twin blond pigtails to go with her cheerleader costume swayed back and forth as she shook her head. “Not that I can remember, but doesn’t mean she didn’t.”
Three months pregnant Tessa forgetting to add a weekend to the calendar was the only logical explanation. “Let’s check with her when she gets here,” Roxanna said as her phone buzzed in her skirt pocket.
She pulled it out to answer as she set the check on the counter. Her pulse skipped when the caller identified himself from the police department and let her know her apartment had been cleared for her to sort through her belongings—or what was left of them.
“I would suggest you bring a couple of boxes to put things in, and be sure to wear old clothes. You’re going to get very dirty.”
Old clothes. It was a good tip, if not for the fact all she had was new clothes because everything else she owned had been burned in the fire. But, of course, the officer was only trying to
be helpful.
“Thank you for letting me know.” She stared at the screen after she hung up, a little surge of hope lighting in her chest even as she tried to caution herself there was probably nothing left.
“Everything okay?” Darcy asked with concern.
“Yeah…that was the police. I can go into my apartment.”
“Oh, good. You should go now. I’ll be fine here until Tessa comes in.”
“Are you sure? It gets really busy with the trick-or-treaters in the afternoon.”
“One hundred percent sure. Tessa and I can handle it. Go.”
“All right. Thanks.” She turned to leave, then turned back. “About the check.”
“I’ll check with Tessa and take care of it. Don’t worry about it.”
“Thank you,” she said, her mind already back to the apartment.
As she grabbed a box and looked to see what she could use for old clothes, her chest tightened at the thought of having to go alone. Asher would go if she asked, but she knew he was at his parents’ house, helping his mom direct their hired crew with last minute party setup, and she didn’t want to take him away from his family.
Out of the blue, Loyal’s surprisingly concerned “Are you okay?” the morning after the fire popped into her head. It had been her first non-hostile experience with him, and shortly after, he’d offered her a ride to her building so she didn’t have to walk. She had a fleeting urge to ask for his support now, but it was quickly doused with the memory of his expression when she’d thrown his half-brother in his face.
If she called Loyal—which she couldn’t because she didn’t even have his number—he’d probably tell her to go to hell. And justifiably so.
She was well and truly on her own.
Roxanna found an old smock she’d used for painting a year or so ago, grabbed a medium sized box for whatever she could salvage, threw in a couple garbage bags for good measure, and headed out.
When she parked her old Jeep behind the blackened building, she saw a couple of her fellow tenants milling about. Her heart thumped hard as she gathered her things from the passenger seat, checked in with the building manager, and cautiously made her way inside. The smoke smell lingering in the air outside was twenty-times stronger inside, and she pressed the back of her hand up to her nose as her stomach churned.
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