“I would have thought what we’ve shared gave me that right.”
The reminder made her cheeks burn. “No, because it wasn’t real.”
He swore under his breath. “How much more damn real could it get? You know it was real.”
“How am I supposed to know?”
“What do your instincts tell you?”
“Thanks to you, I no longer trust my instincts. Turns out I’m a bad judge of character.”
He inhaled deeply. “I haven’t been to bed with a woman since Sallyanne. I haven’t wanted to. That has to tell you something. And it had nothing to do with the book. Read it, and you’ll see that you’re wrong.”
“You don’t let anyone read your work before it is finished.”
“Normally that’s true, but if that’s what it takes to convince you that this character is not you, then I’m willing to make an exception. We’ll go back right now and you can read every damn word.”
She thought about the number of people, including Frankie, who would do anything to be given an early glimpse of his book. “No,” she said, “but the fact that you offered means a lot.”
“Why don’t you want to read it?”
“Because the bit I read is likely to give me bad dreams. I can’t imagine what the rest of it would do.”
He gave a soft laugh. “Come back to the apartment, Eva.”
“I haven’t finished building my snowman. And I never walk away from a man until I’ve finished with him.” And she didn’t trust herself to go back
with Lucas yet. She wasn’t quite ready to forgive him.
“Then I’ll help you finish him.”
* * *
Lucas hadn’t built a snowman since he was a kid living in Upstate New York with his parents. “I’m not even sure I know how to do this.” But he was willing to do pretty much anything to fix the problem he’d created.
She rocked back on her heels. “You’re telling me you’ve never built a snowman?”
“Once or twice, but my brother and I were more into destruction than construction. We had plenty of fights involving snow, but normally the only thing we created was mayhem.”
“This is the first time you’ve mentioned your brother.” She gathered another heap of snow and patted it into her snowman. “You’re not close?”
It was a relief that she was willing to talk about something other than her role in his book.
“We’re close enough. But we’re both busy. He’s a banker.”
“I know. Mitzy told me. I met him once and gave him our business card.”
It was news to him. “Urban Genie does work for my brother?”
“No. I was going to contact him, but then we had an explosion of work and I didn’t need to. But it was kind of your grandmother to give me his card.”
“I went to see her.”
“You did? When?”
“Before I visited your offices. I tried to get her to give me your home address. She wouldn’t.”
“So now she knows you weren’t in Vermont.”