Page 163 of The Bet
“So, what’s the problem?”
“Things changed.”
“Things changed?”
“I like her.”
“So what’s the problem?”
“I meant to tell her, but she found out.”
Luke's face was a mixture of many things, confusion, surprise, shock and disbelief. “Why did you need to tell her? I wasn’t going to tell her. She’d never have known.”
“She knows now. It’s all blown up.”
“I’ve never known you to not like pretty and sexy, and Izzy seems to be the perfect combination. What made her warm towards you?”
“Stuff,” he said, “Maybe she saw my better side.” Or maybe, he’d finally met someone he could the drop the façade with.
“You must have done your best to charm her?” Luke suggested, with a grin, that told him his friend knew all about him.
“I didn’t play her,” he answered, remembering all the times he had tried to hold back. “And what we had wasn’t based on trying to get her into bed.” A sad smile touched his lips. With Izzy it hadn’t been about sex, because they hadn’t gone that far, it wasn’t about lust, and getting dirty—even though he’d loved doing the things he’d done to her.
“Why are you smiling?” Luke asked, looking confused. “Is this still a game to you?”
“No. No.” Fuck, no. That’s exactly why he was in this serious shit. He was starting to fall for this girl, and for once it wasn’t because of the number of orgasms they’d shared.
He loved her for her heart, and mind, and soul. For her fighting spirit and all the things she believed in. For the things she’d made him see. “I’m crazy about that girl.”
“How crazy, exactly?”
“The kind of crazy I’ve never been.”
Luke whistled. “Shit.”
“You see my problem? She found out, about everything. About the bet, about the money, and that it was you and me who talked about it.”
“She knows I’m implicated?” Luke didn’t seem to like that.
His friend’s apparent unease gnawed at him. “Tell me you don’t have any designs on her?” Because it jolted him, pricked him like a thorn, that it could have been Luke who told Izzy. His newfound suspicion burrowed a hole in his gut, especially when he thought back to all the conversations he’d had with Luke, lately, about who he was seeing.
“You idiot,” Luke growled. “I’m not interested in your girl.” Xavier looked at him as if he didn’t quite believe him. He’d seen them laughing and talking a couple of times, especially early on, when he’d been trying to win Kay over with those cheesy magic tricks.
“You sure?”
“Calm your shit,” Luke said, looking annoyed. “I’m not interested in your girl.
Xavier’s jaw loosened. “Okay.”
“The bet wasn’t my idea, pal.” Luke reminded him.
He knew. “It wasmyfucking stupid idea. So now, tell me. How do I get out of this mess?”
“You’ve tried to explain to her?”
“Yes, I’ve tried. I’ve texted and emailed and left long messages on her phone. She won’t talk to me.”
Luke covered his face with his hand. “I can see why. You were an idiot. It was a crazy thing to do.”
