Page 16 of Built to Last

I feel my brows rise. “She’s married?”

“You say that like it’s shocking,” he says under his breath. He smiles at the people we pass, but it feels like a professional expression. Not the smile he’s given to me more than once tonight.

“It is. She was practically humping you in public.” I say it through my own professional smile. I’ve probably made enough scenes for the day.

“She’s had a bit to drink, and I heard her husband has a new mistress,” Reid offers. “So I’m certain she’s emotional. This is kind of the way at this level of society. Not for everyone, of course. I suspect Luca is going to be happy with Anika, but there are still a lot of marriages that are somewhat arranged. Luca, in many ways, was lucky.” He winces. “I shouldn’t use that word because I know how the flooding damaged this country.”

I get what he’s saying. “But if he hadn’t been forced to use a good deal of his personal wealth to save his people, there would have been pressure on him to find the right wife, a woman of a royal line. Because he had no money, no one expected a royal to marry him.”

“Oddly, yes. Not many of the women who will hit on him for the rest of his life would have walked into the situation Anika finds herself in now. Sometimes we lose everything and find someplace completely new. I know it seems like tragedy, but it can also take the blinders off our eyes so we value what truly matters.”

I stop and stare at him for a moment. “Do you believe that?”

“I do. I know it’s true.” He’s close, our bodies nearly brushing together. “There will always be bad things that happen in our lives. How we deal with them is what makes us who we are. Sometimes in order to change and grow, we have to let go. Even when it feels like the worst mistake we could make.”

He’s talking about the show. I don’t know why or what made him leave, but he walked away for a reason, and not because he got bored. Not because he didn’t want to do it anymore. “You’re serious about Banover Place.”

“I am very serious about Banover Place.” He steps back and takes a short sip of the whiskey. “I’m serious about finding something new for me and Jeremiah and some of the crew we worked with. This isn’t some vanity project for me. How about you? Are you simply doing it to help your friend?”

I’m not. There are many reasons this job Ani offered me feels like a lifeboat. I’ve been mired in the daily act of running a company for so long. “In college I studied business. My father pretty much made me. They wouldn’t pay for it otherwise. But I minored in architectural design. I took a ton of woodworking classes and specialized courses in restoration. All on my own dime, of course, because my parents didn’t think those things would help me build apartments.”

“But you love the work.”

I love the silence sometimes, the almost communion-like feeling I get when everyone else has gone home and I’m still working in a house. It’s not the same in a big, new building. I don’t feel the history. “Oh, I fell madly in love with it. Even in high school I loved it. My shop teacher was Mr. Hubbard, and he spent his weekends working on this old farmhouse outside the city. Sometimes a couple of students would go out, and his wife would make these big lunches and he would teach us how we could take something old and make it new again.”

“I don’t do many new home designs. They don’t make me feel the way redesigning older homes does. There’s something about the history, the knowledge that one family has already lived there.”

I nod because he understands. “I was away from it for a long time after my dad died. I had to concentrate on the company, and the company makes way more by tearing stuff down and starting over than carefully bringing back something worn and used but with great bones. And then one of my best friends ended up on a reality TV show about a king who needed a wife, and she found herself staying at Banover Place. I managed to talk my way into a job there as a kind of handy Girl Friday. I was there so Ani had someone to talk to, but I fell in love all over again. I feel centered and happy when I’m working like I am on Banover.”

He holds up his glass. “Then we can do some good together.”

I touch my glass to his. “We can.”

When we turn and join my friends, I feel more hopeful than I have in a long time.

Chapter Six

The door slams behind me but I don’t care because the only thing that matters is getting my hands on this man. “Are you going to kiss me?”

His lips kick up as he pulls his bowtie off. “I’m going to do more than kiss you, baby. Do you have any idea how much I’ve thought about this? Since the moment I saw you and made a complete idiot of myself.” He frowns suddenly. “How much did you drink?”

I set my tiny purse on the foyer table. It’s a whole big, gorgeous suite. It looks a lot like the one I’m sharing with Ivy and Heath, so I would bet there are two bedrooms in this sucker. I don’t see Jeremiah, so I have to think he’s either getting lucky himself or still enjoying the party. “Two glasses of champagne and that whiskey you brought me. I also ate way too much, and that’s a much better reason to not do this.”

There are so many reasons to not do this. So many.

I can’t think of any of them right now. If I’m drunk off anything, it’s lust. And maybe longing.

The last two hours have been a whirlwind of dancing and toasting my friends and sitting with Reid and talking about pretty much everything. We had a spirited debate about restoration methods that made all my friends leave the table. Jeremiah sat there watching us argue with wide eyes, as though it was the best tennis match ever.

It was fun to argue with Reid. Fun to dance with him. Fun to try Ralavian pastries with him. Especially since he apparently can’t stand lingonberries, and it is the national fruit. I had to eat his because Luca was walking up and he didn’t want to admit he hated it.

It was adorable.

I don’t think I’ve had a boyfriend before who I felt was a teammate. Like we’re truly in it together. Not that Reid is my boyfriend. He’s not, and I need to remember that.

“What are we doing?” He seems to slow down.

I don’t want to. “Having a brief fling at the most elegant and romantic event either of us will ever attend.” Now I do kind of wish I had some more of that whiskey he’d given me. It might give me some more courage. I’m wondering if he’s come to his senses. I can probably handle it if it’s about work. “But if you’ve changed your mind…”

---