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“Right.” Ryan half-smiled.
Enzo turned his attention to me. “You sure you’re good?”
“Yeah. We’ll be behind you soon,” I promised.
Enzo nodded, gave one hesitant look at Ryan, and then hopped into his Porsche.
Once they were gone, Ryan strode before me. I looked up over his shoulder to see the moon tipped on its side in the starlit sky. It was a lot cooler out now than it’d been earlier when I had on that sundress. “You didn’t need to pay for the wine, but thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
“You wanted to talk to me alone?”
“Yeah.” Ryan shoved his hands in his pockets, and I couldn’t help but study his strong forearms.
“I’m not sure if I should fake date Calista. I think I should find someone else.”
I set a hand to my stomach—a weird, hollow-like pain there. “Why?”
He bowed his head. “Because I’m fairly certain she lied to you,” he began, then confirmed what I also suspected, “And she more than likely slept with Anthony.”
CHAPTER TEN
RYAN
“Oh.” Natalia’s lackluster response wasn’t what I’d expected from her. Wasn’t she disappointed that her friend hooked up with her ex and then lied about it?
I didn’t need my fancy government training to be able to read Calista, to see through the lies she’d peddled over drinks about her “friendship” with my brother.
“How do you know?” Natalia asked.
I did my best to keep some distance between us, worried I’d lose my mind again and get too damn close. I didn’t need a repeat of what almost happened when we were alone in her office. “Trust me, I know. Plus, she’s Anthony’s type.”
“I’m nothing like Calista, though.”
I lifted my brows, not sure what she wanted me to say to that.
“Of course, you never thought we should be together. Maybe because you knew I wasn’t his type.” She frowned. “I know you didn’t convince Anthony to break up with me, but regardless, you still believed we shouldn’t be together, right?” She dragged a hand down the column of her throat, her lip going between her teeth.
Maybe having this conversation while she was intoxicated was a bad idea? “You can’t compare yourself to Calista.” I angled my head, studying her, wishing she’d free her lip.
“Right. She’s a model.” I heard the defeat in her tone. I knew she was confident, so that had to be the alcohol talking. And I’d just stumbled into a conversation I wasn’t prepared to have.
“You can’t compare yourself to Calista because it wouldn’t be fair to her,” I admitted.
Her brows slanted, and she pushed away from the truck, surprisingly keeping her balance as she closed the space between us. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“You know exactly what I mean.” I’d get myself into a lot more trouble if I went so far as to spell it out for her. I was already having a hard enough time being around her without my control snapping.
I kept my hands in my pockets for safekeeping, hoping she didn’t need me to catch her again.
“So, just to be clear, you don’t want to date Calista because you think she had sex with your brother? And you wouldn’t want to be with a woman he’s already been with?” There was a sad undertone to her voice that I was pretty sure she would’ve done her best to hide if it weren’t for the Chianti. “That’s why you asked me if they had a thing back in my office, right?”
“No.” I huffed out a deep breath. “I don’t think I should date her out of respect for you. Because she’s supposed to be your friend, and she screwed your ex, so that pisses me off on your behalf,” I explained as calmly as possible.
She quietly processed my words before asking, “Why’d you make her the offer, then?”
“That was before I caught her in a few lies during my interrogation.”
