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He nodded. “Okay.”
“Just like that?”
Gage grabbed a glass from under the counter and twisted a rag inside it. “Why did you lie in Wendover?”
Not an answer, but a reasonable question. There was the reason I’d given myself since I did it—I was here to conduct business and that had the potential to give me an advantage.
That wasn’t the real reason, and now that I’d pushed aside so many of the lies I’d told myself, the answer was clear. “The two of you spark. Fireworks on the Fourth, even when you’re just having breakfast.” I vividly remembered them together.
“I was jealous,” I said. “What the two of you have, it reminded me so much of what I had with Tony, and you were blissfully unaware. I saw it when I saw you, and something inside me clicked. I didn’t think it so much as feel it—that sensation of fuck you both for ignoring something most people would give anything to experience just once.”
Gage was going to rub a hole in that glass, or crack it, with as white as his knuckles were. “Did you know about the bank?”
“Not until a few days ago. It didn’t occur to me to share, because it didn’t matter anymore. I should’ve said something, but I didn’t keep it from Evie to trick her. I promise you. I’ve been honest with her and with you. Why would I—” Go through so much trouble if they didn’t matter?
“I keep asking myself the same thing.” Gage answered the question despite me not answering it.
“I’m sorry. I want to tell Evie the same thing, but I won’t ask you to be my go-between.”
Gage finally set the cleanest glass in history on the counter. “Evie’s mad because she’s scared and because she cares. Anything else, she should tell you herself.”
I agreed, and I understood where she was coming from. I’d pushed away a lot of people after Tony, though none of them as wonderful as Evie.
“We’re heading to a private garage in a few hours, to run some tests on the bot,” Gage said. “I’ll tell her what you said. I don’t know what will happen after that.”
I should be going with them, but I understood why I wasn’t invited. This wasn’t the final test drive anyway, based on the schedule we’d laid out. “I’m not doing much of anything, so…” I stepped on the rail running around my side of the counter, leaned across, and brushed my lips over Gage’s. “Call me.”
“I will. Evie will.” He said it with so much certainty I couldn’t argue.
As I left, the clawing inside shifted. I still felt high-strung, but the I can’t lose them feeling was more hopeful. I wouldn’t lose them. I didn’t know how it had happened, but somewhere along the way during the last few weeks. I’d fallen for Evie. And Gage.
There was no reason to fight that pull. Not a good reason, anyway. I could take my time and let myself feel it.
That was both terrifying and a relief. It’d been so long since I let myself care, and this went beyond the basic idea of giving a shit. I wanted them in my life. Needed them.
And the instant they got back this afternoon, I was going to tell each of them.
The next few hours of waiting were torture, but not as much as the last couple of days.
Regardless of what came next, I wasn’t continuing to work for my father. I saw now why Hudson was pulling away from the family business. I dove into wrapping up more of my accounts, so I could walk away.
Forty-eight and starting over. Again.
When I lost Tony, the idea made me ill. Now it was a relief. Almost exciting.
It had been a couple of hours, and I was fully immersed in my work, when I received an email alert. I had one for every property I was working with.
This was for Evie’s, and it had just gone up for sale.
What the fuck?
It was a quick auction that ended at the end of the day. Eastern time. That meant in about three hours, someone besides Evie would own her property.
I doubted she knew, given how quickly and quietly this had happened. Whether or not it was a legal move didn’t matter. It would be far harder to fight if a sale went through, and there was already a bidder.
I called Evie.
No answer.
