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‘Why not confirm it’s Falcone?’
Because it’s none of your goddamn business.
His heart lurched in his chest. He dragged Ruby past the micro-celebrity – whose posing had finally drawn some of the attention off them.
You’re welcome to it, sweetheart.
But then a logjam of guests going through the bag check at the entrance halted their progress again.
His lungs constricted and his palms started to sweat as they were trapped in the glare of the camera lights.
Ruby’s fingers tightened on his hand. ‘Luke, it’s okay,’ she whispered, rising on tiptoes to speak in his ear. ‘They can’t get past the rope.’
He stared at her, the new barrage of noise and light fading as his gaze locked on her face.
How did she know? That he was about to freak out?
But even as the humiliating question echoed through his consciousness, he knew it didn’t matter. All that mattered was holding on to her dry fingers like a lifebelt and getting into the damn theatre.
Two seconds later – that actually felt like several lifetimes – they stepped into the lobby area and the cacophony outside was reduced to the hum of guests and critics chatting and the clink of glasses.
His lungs finally released the breath trapped under his breastbone, making him light-headed as Ruby led him to a concrete staircase.
The preview’s invited audience mingled on the roped off mezzanine, sipping expensive bubbles and eating fancy appetizers on silver trays like entitled peacocks. Ruby let go of his hand to snag them both a glass.
‘Drink this,’ she said, her concerned gaze searching his face as she passed him the champagne. The humiliation came back for an encore but then she smiled and took a sip. ‘Mmm.’ She smacked her lips. ‘Just as I thought, free fizz always makes things better.’
A rough chuckle burst out – part relief, part who gives a shit – as he took a long gulp of his own free fizz.
He shouldn’t have come. He hated these things, especially if they had anything to do with his mom because it dragged him right back to being a kid again and having cameras shoved in his face asking him questions he didn’t know how to answer.
He certainly hadn’t intended to come to the show when the tickets had arrived at the house that afternoon by courier, followed by a ton of texts from his mom, which he’d deflected easily enough.
He’d had other plans for tonight, more important plans, which involved finally breaking the news to Ruby that he only had a couple more days of snag work to do at The Royale and he had a flight to JFK booked for Saturday night.
It was a good plan, a smart plan, a plan he’d been working on ever since the long night he’d spent contemplating the crack on her ceiling – the first night he’d stayed over, and all the nights since – and eventually come to the conclusion that the reason he hadn’t been able to walk away sooner was because he’d needed her.
For sex, for friendship, to appease his guilty conscience over what his mom and dad had done to Matty and for a whole host of other reasons he would probably need a shrink to unravel. That’s why he hadn’t been able to say goodbye. But he was free and clear again – or he would be in a couple of nights, after he’d finally returned The Royale to its former glory.
He owed it to Ruby, and to his uncle.
His grand plan to finish the work so he could walk away without regrets had all made perfect sense when he’d sent Ruby the text that afternoon.
But everything had changed when Ruby had appeared in Brynn’s wearing that emerald dress clinging to every curve, with a look in her eyes that he recognized, from their first merry meeting, in Ryker’s office.
Fear. And grief.
And he’d felt the grief too. For a relationship which was never supposed to mean anything.
And in that moment. All he had been able to think was …
I don’t want to tell her tonight. I don’t want to spoil the last nights we have left together.
And the invitation to his mom’s preview had spilled out of his mouth before he could stop it. Kind of like a stealth bomber – wreaking havoc one bad decision at a time.
But he hadn’t really factored in the true fallout from that decision until they’d stepped out of the taxi and walked into one of his worst nightmares.
Weirdly though, even getting ambushed by tabloid hacks and paparazzi hadn’t been as bad as it could be. Because nothing ever was with Ruby there.
