had just been ripped in two.
Having felt that feeling before, he braced for the cold iciness to descend. Waited to feel…nothing.
It didn’t happen.
Instead, he felt a bone-deep certainty that this time, if it went bad, he had no one to blame but himself.
He raced for the doors.
“Mr. Ledger?”
“Take the day off, Marge.”
“Mr. Ledger!”
He waved, and even added a smile. “Go ahead, take it off on me. Go do something you normally wouldn’t.”
“Well,” she said, blinking. Then for the first time in his presence, she smiled back. “You do the same, Mr. Ledger.”
He planned on it.
18
TESSA WAS HALFWAY to her car, halfway to a nice pity-party meltdown, when someone grabbed her arm and whirled her around. She knew who it was before she turned, of course. And though her throat was already far too tight, her heart jerked hard at the sight of Reilly standing there, a little out of breath, his eyes unreadable, his mouth closed in a firm, unhappy line.
When he saw her face, he made a rough sound of regret and brought his other hand up to take her other arm, bringing her close. “You’re crying.”
“A little,” she admitted, and tried to step back from the body she’d grown to love so much.
He held tight. “Don’t go.”
And her heart broke all the more. “I have to,” she said.
“I don’t understand,” he said. He looked so confused. “Make me understand.”
“It’s simple, really. Eddie-”
“This isn’t about work. I don’t give a shit about work. What I do give a shit about is that you’re not just walking away from my office, you’re walking away from me, aren’t you?”
“Actually, it has nothing to do with you.” She blinked and another tear fell.
“Yes.”
“His ad promised one.” She gave him a watery smile. “It appealed to me because I’ve lived…well, let’s just say conservatively. Part of it is my family and their assumption I can’t do anything on my own, but part of it is just me falling into that trap, you know?” But he wouldn’t know because Reilly was and always had been his own man. He’d never run his life by the dictates of anyone else. “I wanted more,” she said. “And Eddie promised it.”
“Well, I’d say you got more than you bargained for on that score,” he said softly and skimmed a thumb over her throat.
“I did.” So much more. She’d fallen in love. “But now he’s offered me this job in the Greek Islands, on a yacht-”
“For how long?”
“It’s not that big of a deal, I’ll just be doing the books, and-”
“Three months,” she replied. She held her breath. “A perfect adventure, don’t you think?”
He stared at her for a long moment during which she waited for him to say that a better adventure would be for her to stay, to be with him.
Instead, he slowly nodded. He took his hands from her and slid them into his pockets. “I hope it’s everything you wanted.”
No, everything she ever wanted was right here in front of her. But sometimes people had to go for their second choices. “Thank you.”
“When do you leave?”
“Monday.”
“That’s still several days away.”
No doubt, he was thinking they could have several more wild nights together, nights that would be the most heaven-sent she’d ever had. She was quite certain he’d see to it-the earthy, sensual, incredibly passionate man was made for such nights.
But then Monday would come and it would be even harder to walk away. She opened her car door. Slid into the driver’s seat.
And wondered why she was still waiting for him to stop her.
He wasn’t going to do that. He wasn’t going to say he wanted those few nights they had left. That he’d love to see her when she got back.
In fact, he said nothing.
She put on her seat belt, put the key in the ignition and tried to convince herself she’d done the right thing.
A sleek red BMW convertible pulled up beside her and honked. Eddie, of course. He took down his sunglasses and winked at her over the top of them. Then, with an ease that made him seem twenty-nine instead of forty-nine, he hopped over the door of his car and walked toward Cheri, who was coming out of the building.
Still standing next to her car, his hands in his pockets, Reilly took this in with a muttered oath beneath his breath.
Tessa appreciated the sentiment. She always enjoyed both Eddie’s and Cheri’s company, but their timing couldn’t have been worse. She just wanted to drive away. She wanted to go home and lick her wounds with a gallon of ice cream and maybe some Ding Dongs as well. She had an emergency stash in the freezer.
Eddie took Cheri’s hand and turned to Reilly. “I fired Cheri this morning,” he said.
Reilly shook his head and looked at Cheri. “He fired you? But…I thought you worked for me.”
“You poor confused thing.” Cheri hugged him then pulled back. “Remember when I told you I was going to start dating him because he was cute?”
“You said I was cute?” Eddie said, grinning. “I was thinking handsome and magnificent, but I can live with cute.”
“Shh,” Cheri said gently to him and turned back to Reilly. “Actually, I’m going to marry him. I’m going to make it official.”
Reilly looked like a feather could knock him over. “Make what official?” he asked.
“The fact that I’m sleeping with him, of course.” Cheri laughed. “Be happy for me, honey. Can you do that?”
“Of course he can do that,” Eddie said, breaking in. “Right, son?”
“And what makes you think she’s not going to dump you again?” Reilly asked him.
Eddie clasped him on the shoulder. “Son, sometimes you just have to take a risk and go with your heart.”
Reilly looked at Tessa with such intensity and blazing emotion in his light eyes that it took her breath away.
“There’s nothing like a good risk to jump-start your heart,” Eddie ruffled his own dark hair, barely speckled at the temples. “It causes gray hairs, of course, but that’s what beauticians are for.”
Tessa held her breath. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to see what Reilly’s father was trying to tell him. Take a risk. Love again. Feel.
But was he hearing it? She searched his inscrutable expression and didn’t have a clue.
“Beat it,” Reilly suddenly said to his parents, his eyes still on Tessa.
“Sure.” Eddie turned to Cheri. “Let’s go make out.”
Reilly winced. “What in our history together suggests to you that I’d want to hear that?”
