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When he saw her parents mingling without her, his breath stuttered and the truth settled in. She wasn’t coming.
Jason walked up to him with two flutes of champagne. “Here. We need to toast.”
“Toast?”
“Our success today. With that game going to beta testers a week early, I think we proved we’re everything we said we were.”
Dean laughed in spite of himself. “I guess we did.”
“I thought I’d lost you to the pretty blonde, but in the end you came back stronger, if that’s possible.”
Dean’s brow furrowed. “Wait. What?”
“You and Kristen. The thing between you was pulling you away. I had to put a wedge between you.”
Dean just stared at him for a second. “First, you didn’t put a wedge between us. You said some things that made me realize I might not be good for her. But in the end it was my choice.” Not that he was proud of it, but he didn’t like the idea that Jason seemed to think he controlled him. “Second, if you ever do anything like that again, you’ll be fired so fast your head will spin.” Even as he said that, he wondered what he was still doing at this party. He handed the champagne glass back to Jason. “Now, I’m going to go find her and fix this.”
Oddly, Jason trying to take credit for breaking him and Kristen up only made Dean stronger. Maybe he’d needed to think through everything he had in the past week before he could make a real commitment. Maybe he’d needed to run back to his fortress of work to realize it was a cold, empty place without the woman he loved. Whatever the reason, he was back now. Stronger. Smarter. He would win her back.
Just when he was ready to get his coat and call a cab to go to the Anderson farmhouse, the ballroom doors opened and Dean’s head snapped toward them.
Wearing the black dress she’d worn in New York, the one Dean had bought her, Kristen stepped into the ballroom. All the feelings from that night came tumbling back to Dean. How she’d fit with his crowd of friends. How she’d relaxed him enough that he could mingle and enjoy the party he’d been dreading. How he’d known from the second he’d taken her into his arms to dance with her that she was his other half. The woman of his dreams. His perfect partner.
He didn’t let two seconds pass. He raced over to her. “Kristen.”
She turned slowly but didn’t say anything. Her green eyes caught his gaze. But there was no sparkle in them. No warmth for him. No welcome.
“I’m sorry.”
“Sorry things didn’t turn out better for you? I can’t imagine how since you seem to have gotten everything you want. Your game went to the beta testers today. A week ahead of schedule. Rumor has it you’re not worried about a new set of comments because this time the team got it right. You don’t have to move to Grennady... Though you have a free pass to return for corporate retreats anytime you want. You have access to our labor pool. You’re basically giving us nothing and getting everything...and all it took was making a fool of me to get it.” She raised her chin. Her dull green eyes filled with hurt. “If you’ll excuse me.”
She took a step away from him but he caught her hand. “I know this looks bad.”
She laughed. “Looks bad?” She shook her head as if his audacity amazed her. “Get lost.”
She wrangled her hand out of his and slid into the crowd. Sidling up to an American couple, she accepted their warm greeting and began to talk animatedly, probably about her charity.
Remorse tightened his chest. Not that she didn’t need him, but that he’d needed time to think this through, to realize not just what he wanted but that he could be what Kristen wanted. In the moment, he’d felt he was being noble. Now he realized he hadn’t had the right to make the decision to end their relationship by himself.
And even if he couldn’t win her back, he couldn’t let her go through life thinking any part of this was her fault.
He marched over to her. “Excuse me,” he said to the Americans, who smiled politely. “But Kristen owes me this dance.”
She said, “I don’t—”
But he didn’t give her a chance to finish. He tugged her along to the dance floor where he took her into his arms.
