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“Marry you? Lucian, since when are you the marrying type?”
“Since Evelyn. I love her. Why shouldn’t I marry her?”
“Because you’ve never been with anyone longer than a year.”
“I was with Monique for three years.”
Jamie rolled his eyes. “Yeah, you, her and Slade playing your twisted game of house doesn’t count. Marriage is between two people. There’s no gray area to escape to when things get tough. You know this. I remember when we were kids, every time your mother would cry because your dad ran off somewhere with Tibet, you’d swear you’d never get married.”
This was all true, but he didn’t feel that way anymore. Evelyn changed all that. “Well . . . it’s a moot point now. She doesn’t want to marry me.”
His friend’s eyes bulged. “You asked her?”
“Last week. She shot me down—about twenty times.”
“Why? Doesn’t she know you’re Folsom’s most eligible bachelor?”
“She doesn’t give a shit about any of that. She said she wasn’t ready, doesn’t know if she’ll ever be ready. The funny thing is, the more she said no, the more I realized how badly I wanted her to say yes.”
“That’s because people don’t tell you no enough. You just want it because you can’t have it and you don’t like being told something’s out of your reach.”
“No, I want her because I love her, because without her I’m incomplete. She makes me a better person. She grounds me. Being with her is nothing like being with Monique or anyone else for that matter. She’s . . . perfect.”
“Then what the fuck are you doing here? Fuck that little bellboy punk—”
“I can’t. She almost got herself killed the other day looking for him. He’d been MIA, and she was convinced he was in trouble. She had no idea he was now working and doing better than he had been in years.”
Jamie rolled his eyes. “Scout’s too good for a bellboy.”
“He quit working for me. Found a much better job, but she didn’t know any of this. She was a mess. No matter how much I despise the little shit, he’s her friend. She’s stubborn, you know? She’d keep sneaking off to find him. I knew where he was and I couldn’t take fearing she’d keep going back to the tracks looking for him where he no longer was, so I arranged a dinner.”
“Cute. You set them up on a nice little date, did ya?”
“Fuck you. I was there. She was happy. In a way it was worth it.”
“Give me a break, Lucian. You’re smarter than that.”
“You would think, but lately I’ve proven to be incredibly dumb. When I contacted him he told me he was going to be collecting, soon. I saw it in his eyes. He wanted his shot and I couldn’t let that happen—”
“Wait, wait, wait . . . You gave him a job, when? November? How the hell does someone go from absolutely nothing to bolstering their confidence into taking on the likes of Lucian Patras?”
“Slade.”
Jamie stilled. “Slade? How’s he have anything to do with this?”
“He fucked me. Somehow he ran across the kid and found out about our arrangement. I don’t know what Slade’s issue is with Evelyn. I don’t really care anymore. I’d rather take a pike up the ass than ever see him again. He found out and gave the kid a job.”
Jamie scowled. “What kind of job?”
“A good one, making about ten times what he was making at Patras.”
Jamie shook his head. “Why? Why would he—”
“The kid’s Crispin Hughes’s son.”
His friend let out a long whistle and sat back in his seat. “Fuck.”
“Yeah.” Lucian tipped his head back until his neck was resting on the back of the couch. His hand scrubbed his brow. “So I proposed, she said no, I freaked, thereby freaking her out in the process. Giving Hughes any more time would have only put the odds more in his favor. I didn’t want him to be any more comfortable. The kid’s a prodigy. I’ve looked into it. It’s in him, same as it was in his father, same as my father instilled it in me. So I told Evelyn we needed to take a break.”
“I imagine that didn’t go over too well.”
He laughed without humor. “No. She hates me. I’ve fucked things up so bad I don’t think any more damage can be done. She wanted to know why. What the hell was I supposed to tell her? That I’d loaned her out to her friend?”
“Fuck that, Luche. Screw this kid. I don’t care who his dad was—”
“I gave him my word.”
Jamie groaned. “You and your fucking word. He’s a Hughes! Do you think he’d keep his word?”
“He isn’t like his father. Smart like him, yes, but I have a feeling he’s not dishonest.”
“Aw, that’s nice. I’m sure Evelyn will appreciate his honesty when he tells her he wants to sleep with her.”
