Page 52 of The Beat Match

Whoa there, cowboy. Man was getting too big for his designer britches.

Annie: You had your chance at everything and you walked away. You may be fake-dating, but I’m not. I like Duncan and he likes me.

The lie was petty. She should regret it, but she didn’t. Dots bounced as he replied. They appeared and disappeared. Annoyed, she sat on the lounge chair in the bathroom’s alcove and stared at those dots like she was about to be told winning lottery numbers. She should shut her phone down, swipe on some lipstick, and get back to Duncan. Resuscitate their fun banter. Quit letting Wes pull her emotional strings.

Then Wes’s reply came.

Wes: I lied at your apartment. You’re all I think about. Get rid of Duncan as early as possible. I’m coming over to your place tonight.

A toilet flushed. A faucet ran. She clutched her phone so tightly it pinched her skin as she read the message again, the words slowly sinking in.

He lied. He couldn’t stop thinking about her.

Did he actually want to be with her?

A woman walked in and smiled at Annie. Annie’s answering grin probably looked clownish, exaggerated and shocked. Weston wants to be with me. He might be reacting to Duncan, assuming his controlling persona, feeling possessive. But, no. That didn’t jive with all his signals and signs the past months. That kiss. His body’s reaction. That dream. And Rosanna had said he’d spoken about her…

Wes wanted Annie as much as she wanted him.

She stood and pressed her hand to the wall, tried to clear the giddy fuzz from her head.

A woman applying lipstick at the mirror frowned. “You all right?”

Annie touched her breastbone, felt the proclamation of her pounding heart. “I think I’m perfect.”

She’d have to end her night with Duncan early. Assuming he’d been honest about their friend status, he wouldn’t be offended, and she wouldn’t have to explain why. She wouldn’t do it right away, though. Not before Weston Aldrich experienced a fraction of the hurt and dejection he’d caused her the past week. If he understood that pain, he might think twice before four-wheeling over her heart again. She wouldn’t be able to hold out for long. That much was obvious. Even for a few hours, it was her turn to be in charge.

* * *

“If you keep ignoring me and staring at Annie, people will think our fake relationship is on the rocks. And quit looking at your phone.”

“That’s rich coming from you, considering our first date.”

Rosanna nudged Weston’s foot under the table. “I didn’t like you then.”

“I didn’t like you much, either.” He was equally as frustrated with her tonight. This texting disaster was all Rosanna’s fault. He watched Annie as she tilted her head and sipped her wine, her neck elongating, all that soft hair falling behind her shoulders. He swallowed a groan.

“You told me to be honest with her,” he said, terse. “I was honest. Why hasn’t she replied to my text?”

“Give me your phone.”

He shoved it at her, agitated. Annie hadn’t glanced at him once since returning from the bathroom. She’d looked at Duncan plenty, though. She’d leaned forward on her elbows, giving him a nice view of that slinky dress, her breasts practically visible through the elaborate lace, while he was stuck here, hands tied, on an infuriating fake date.

He shouldn’t have told Annie how he felt. He shouldn’t have confided the depths of those feelings to Rosanna, either. She’d been relentless since they’d sat down, all up in his face about Annie. She’s beautiful. Like really beautiful. She definitely likes you. She was jealous of me. You need to ask her out.

A more detailed confession later about the scrapbooking disaster and his wretchedness this week, Rosanna had been coaching him, infecting his mind, making him think he could be with Annie and not fuck everything up. Fear of loving and losing had done a number on him, and if the gradual caving of his chest the past week had taught him anything, it was that he already loved Annie. As a friend. A confidant. An integral person in his life. Missing her had flattened him. Seeing her with Duncan had sucked the air from his lungs.

If she and Weston added lovers to their relationship, losing her would be the dirt on his stone-cold grave. And he couldn’t do any of it without telling her the truth about Leo.

Rosanna read the message and made a face. “I said be honest about your feelings. Not boss her around.”

“I wasn’t bossy.”

Rosanna cleared her throat and deepened her voice. “Get rid of Duncan as early as possible. I’m coming over to your place tonight. You may as well have added woman at the end of that, all caveman style.”

“That was direct, which is the same as being honest. Now she’s ignoring me.”

“Are you this dense in your business dealings?”