Page 164 of The Bet
“Who’s side are you on?”
“On yours, you idiot. I’m just trying to think it through.”
“I was drunk. I thought I had something to prove, and I believed she was acting all not interested, and that it was going to be easy to make her see.”
“Make her see how awesome you were?”
He cringed inside, and hated his friend for stating the obvious. “I hate hearing you describe me like that.”
“Luke?” One of the builders called him over.
Luke put his hand up and spread out five fingers, before turning to him again. “I can’t talk. My men need me. But, look. Here’s the thing, pal. You have to give her time. You have to stop pestering her. You’re going to have to wait for her to come to you, but it depends.”
Xavier looked up. “On what?”
“If she was really into you.”
“She was.”
She had been. He was certain of it. Izzy Laronde wasn’t the type of girl to give any guy—no matter how interested he was in her—the time of day.
He should know.
It was what had made him place the bet in the first place. But once he got to know her, once they started to click, once he started to fall for her, she had started to feel something for him. She wasn’t the type of girl to let a guy like him into her deepest and innermost places, but she had.
Something had changed between them.
“Then you have to give her time to find her way back.”
One of his guys came up to him again. “We need you to take a look at this wall now.”
“I’m coming.” Luke turned to him. “Sorry. I need to go. Now’s not a good time.”
“I appreciate it.”
“We’ll get together, sometime.”
“Yeah. You call me. I’m not as busy as you.”
He walked back to his car and climbed in, pinching the bridge of his nose hard. He’d gotten himself into this mess, and he was going to get himself out of it.
It all depended on what stage of hating him Izzy was at.
Time, Luke had said.
Give her time.
Knowing how long it had taken him to get her to trust him, he was prepared for the long haul, because he understood how much he’d hurt her. With all he knew about her and her family, and the things she had been through, what he had done must have crushed her to pieces. The thought killed him, and he decided to do what it took to win her back.
His phone rang, just then, and his heart leapt, as it did each time, in case it was Izzy.
Fuck.
It was Tobias.
“Why the fuck has Matthias left me a message congratulating me on the twins? How the hell would he know?”
His first reaction was denial, quickly followed by anger. “I don’t know. Why the fuck are you asking me?”
