She wasn’t wrong, but I’d try. “It was like time out of time, you know. We left real life for a week, and now we’re back.”
She studied me. “And you can do that?” Why did she keep asking that? “There’s no part of you that fell for him? Or would like to see the relationship continue.”
Every part of me fell for him. Yes, I wanted to see the relationship continue. “No. It was just a fun thing while we were away, and now we’re back and that’s all done.”
She pursed her lips like she didn’t believe me. I could feel tears pooling in my eyes.
She must have noticed. “Oh Kel. Why are you lying to me? You can trust me.”
I sniffed. “I know. I’m just…that’s what we decided and at the time, it seemed like a fun idea.”
“But now you like him.”
I looked at her. “It’s worse than that, Nat.”
Her expression was pained. “You love him.”
I nodded.
“But he doesn’t love you? He just got his rocks off and now you’re supposed to forget that.”
“That’s what we agreed to. And I don’t know that he’s capable of love. Not romantic love anyway. His life is the business. I knew that going in.”
“I’m sorry, Kel. How about I get us ice cream and we can watch some sort of non-rom-com movie. Maybe a horror flick or something.”
I laughed. “Distraction. Yes, that might work.”
Of course, it didn’t work. When I walked into the office on Monday, Natalie was right. I couldn’t look at Ryan and only think about spreadsheets.
23
Ryan
I spent the next few days re-immersing myself in my work. It was the best distraction over the emptiness in my chest
when I left Kellie upon our return to San Diego. By Monday morning, I was sure I was back to normal. Yes, the trip was fun, and it was nice to get laid, but now that I was home, I was ready to get back to work.
First thing Monday morning, I met my brothers in the conference room to go over the distribution deal.
“So, what was that whole week honeymoon thing about?” Noah asked, once again putting his boots on the table. I was surprised he was there, but apparently whatever my gran was doing to get him involved in the business was working. Sort of.
“Christian arranged it and we determined that it would look suspicious if we didn’t accept the gift,” I explained, hoping I kept my face impassive. If I wasn’t blushing then I might have looked pained. I didn’t need my brothers seeing any of that. To them, they needed to think I was just completing a business deal.
“That whole situation was ridiculous,” Carter scoffed.
“But it’s done and we can move forward,” Hunter said.
“Did you fuck her?” Noah asked.
“Jesus, Noah,” both Hunter and Carter said.
“What? He spent a week in Europe on a honeymoon.” Noah said “honeymoon” with air quotes.
“She’s his assistant,” Carter said, but he was looking at me with a ‘you better not have fucked her’ sort of stare.
“No,” I lied. I hated lying to them, but Carter was right, sleeping with Kellie was wrong, even if it felt so fantastically right at the time.
Noah scoffed. “Do you have a dick?”