“If you don’t confront the dark, you can’t ever get to the light.”
“Now that, Phantom, is the most profound thing you’ve ever said to me.”
“Yeah, well, I have to come at you from different angles.”
“Come at me straight on and you’ll probably get me naked in that bed over there.”
She was avoiding the tough questions. She was still hiding her hand. But I’d worked a one-in-a-million deal before. I knew how to play the long game, and as I looked at her, I knew I wanted to play.
I wanted to win.
And I would.
29
Vick
“I need a drink,”I admitted to Brey as we had lunch together before Jett and I would head off to the Stonewood home.
“I can’t believe you are telling me this now, hours before you leave. On a work lunch.” Her green eyes practically bugged out of her head.
“Well, when did you want me to tell you?”
“Probably right when it happened.” She shifted in the cafe’s white chair. “Or the next day. Or even a call this morning would have been nice. A text with a brief summary that you would see me at my husband’s family’s Thanksgiving dinner because you are dating his brother.” She paused to glare. “I’m honestly too shocked to go back to work I think.”
I ignored most of what she’d said. “You could probably tell your brother-in-law you’re feeling sick.”
“Jett doesn’t care if anyone is sick because he would work through it and expects us to do so as well,” she seethed.
“Truth,” I agreed and took a bite of my salad. “In his defense, we all love the work almost as much as he does.”
Brey nodded. “We’re killing it at the Tower lately.”
“I completely agree. I feel everyone’s energy, and it just rubs off on me. I so enjoy our team.”
She smiled. “I’m not dropping this topic, Vick. You might be enjoying the team but you’re definitely enjoying the boss.”
“Really?” Brey surprised me with how much she’d grown over the past year. She never would have blurted that out before. Now she did it with a smile on her face. “You know I don’t kiss and tell.”
“You always kiss and tell,” she retorted.
“So! I’m not doing it this time.”
“No need.” She pursed her lips and looked away. “I’m very aware you two are kissing. I feel it every time he glances your way. And he does, Vick. A lot.” She waggled her eyebrows at me and sipped some of her water.
“Fine.” I sighed and then admitted, “I want to believe he could be this committed guy who can put me before work. I want to be married and have what you have.”
Her smile immediately died. She knew just as well as I did it wasn’t plausible.
“I know it sounds stupid. But I want it so bad. I always have.”
She took my hand. “I know you want those things and you deserve them, Vick. I just don’t know if …”
“If Jett’s the one for that? If he’s just having fun?” I finished her thought, and she frowned and squeezed my hand like she didn’t want to agree but knew she couldn’t disagree. “Lately, there are so many moments where he says just the right thing and acts just the right way that I think he might want it too. And I believe him.”
“He probably does want those things. It’s just …”
“You aren’t sure he’s capable of getting them with how invested he is in the company?”