I walked back up to the bus stop in tears. How had I lost my two best friends all at once? How had we gotten here?
Chapter 37
Lukas
When I arrived at the office that morning, the first thing I noticed was that Lisa was in the conference room with my assistant. She was standing, the lights were out, and she was pointing to the pulldown screen where a projector was blasting a chart of some sort onto it. My assistant was nodding where she sat at the table and taking notes while Lisa talked.
I made for the conference room with a determined stride. Lisa didn’t see me coming until I opened the door and joined their meeting. I took the seat across the table from my assistant, who looked back and forth between me and Lisa when my sister fell quiet.
“This is a private meeting,” Lisa said.
“With my assistant?” I asked as I crossed one leg over the other. “What meeting could you possibly have with my assistant that you couldn’t have with me?”
My sister licked her lips. “I didn’t want to waste your time.”
“No, you didn’t want to have to see or talk to me because you’re mad at me.”
Lisa’s mouth twitched. “So?”
I smiled at my assistant. “Could my sister and I have some privacy?”
I’d never seen a person leave a room quicker.
Lisa and I stared at each other in stony silence. Neither of us were willing to speak first.
Finally, I bit the bullet. “We need to talk about me and Kayla.”
Lisa rolled her eyes and started collecting her things. She had notebooks open on the table and a couple of pens. Normally, she would put everything in its spot in her bag, all separated and organized by dividers and pencil cases. This morning, she just dropped it in the open mouth of the purse carelessly.
“There is no you and Kayla,” she said flatly. “There can’t be.”
I arched an eyebrow. “Why? Because you say so?”
My sister prickled, slung her purse over her shoulder, and picked up a coffee cup with an imprint of lipstick on the lid that matched the fuchsia shade she wore this morning. “Yes.”
My sister had always been stubborn. She was used to getting her way just like I was. But I’d never seen her quite this hostile.
It pissed me off.
“You’re mistaken,” I said. “There most certainly will be a Lukas and Kayla because I intend to marry that girl, and you need to get on board.”
Lisa stared blankly at me. For a moment, I couldn’t read her expression, but when her brows drew together and her bottom lip quivered, it all started falling into place. She felt betrayed. Her anger was a deflection. “Why didn’t you tell me you were seeing her?”
“Things moved quickly,” I explained. “At first, there was nothing to tell. Kayla tried to shut things down time and time again, but every time we were thrown together for an activity to put on a good show for Rebecca Mills, sparks flew. We could only pretend there was nothing between us for so long, Lisa. Then, I don’t know. We both gave in. We stopped fighting it. We stopped letting outside sources make our choices for us.”
“You could have told me.”
“And have you react like this? Why would I?”
“I only want to protect you,” Lisa said firmly.
“Protect me? From what? I’m a thirty-year-old man. I don’t need protecting.”
“Everyone needs protecting sometimes, Lukas. I don’t want you to get hurt. You’ve never been in love before and it scares the hell out of me to think about how badly things could go. How they could end. You’ve been through so much. I don’t want someone else to hurt you.”
I got to my feet. Someone had clearly hurt my sister in the past and she’d never opened up about it with me. I intended to find out who that someone was and how they’d hurt her, but right then, I just needed to settle this.
“Kayla isn’t the type to hurt someone and you know that,” I said softly.
“She hurt me.”
“Not on purpose. She was trying to protect you. See how that bit her in the ass? Just like you trying to protect me would bite you in the ass.”
Lisa crossed her arms. “Those aren’t the same thing.”
“If you say so. Listen, Kayla is a good friend. She’s the best person you and I know. She made a mistake because she was afraid of how you’d react when you found out she was happy with me. You need to forgive her.”
Lisa didn’t say a word. She could hardly bring herself to look at me.
“And for the record,” I added, “you shouldn’t be upset. If you really want me to end up with a good woman, one we know isn’t after me for my money or any ulterior motive, then Kayla is the right choice. She’s made me a better man, Lisa. An infinitely better man. You can’t deny that.”
“Maybe that’s because you were getting laid.”
“No,” I said, irritated. “She taught me that I don’t have to sit on my pile of gold like a dragon. She showed me how to help people and how to effect real change. She’s made me vulnerable. Open. Generous. Do you know how good it feels to be this guy instead of the guy I was before her? I was so angry, Lisa. I was angry all the time. And I was so tired.”
Lisa swallowed hard. Her eyes grew glassy. “I know you were.”
“And now I’m not. Now I’m home. I’m me. Isn’t this what you wanted when you hired Kayla in the first place? Wasn’t this the whole point?”
“I did not push you two together.”
“You pushed me to grow, Lisa. That’s all. And Kayla was part of that growth. I didn’t know it at the time but she was. I’ve never met anyone like her.”
Lisa nodded slowly. “Yeah, me neither.”
“So?”
“So what?”
“Are you going to stop being mad at us and storming around the office like a furious cat,
