Page 178 of The Bet
He didn’t smile, and neither did she.
She gripped the shoulder strap of her knapsack tightly. “It was cool, what you did, taking the blame for Jacob like that.”
“Why did you tell Savannah?”
“It wasn’t right, you taking the blame like that.”
“It wasn’t a big deal. Tobias gets into a rage over his privacy, and he hates the media. I couldn’t have Jacob take the heat.”
“Tobias wouldn’t have said anything to Jacob.”
“In case you hadn’t noticed, he doesn’t have to say anything to scare the hell out of anyone.” He shrugged. “It was no biggie.”
“I told Savannah because I wanted her to explain to Jacob, because he’s got to be even more careful now. He’s not in a normal family… being so rich, being in the limelight. He’s going to have to watch what he says, more than most young kids ever will.”
“You did the right thing.” He smiled at her. “You always do the right thing, Izzy. That’s why you were so good for me.”
Don’t. Don’t. Don’t listen.
“One more thing,” he said, lifting his head, fixing her with his gaze. “I want you to know that I never intended for Savannah to take away your hours, that time after they came back from the honeymoon. I only told her what you had told me, about Jacob feeling left out, because I saw with my own eyes how much Tobias loves that kid. But I also know, because I’ve experienced it first hand, what my brother can be like. He’s had to harden, to deal with the stuff that happened to him before, but his hardness is the thing that makes others think he doesn’t care. I don’t want Jacob to experience that. And, I really did think you had already told Savannah. I never intended on being the one to break that news to her.”
“But it worked out so well, didn’t it? Her laying me off, and you conveniently stepping in to offer me work?”
“I use a lot of virtual assistants, I told you. I didn’t lie about any of that.”
What did it matter. It was too late now. “I heard you threw a glass of wine at Shoemoney.”
He nodded but said nothing.
“Thank you.”
“You don’t have to thank me for standing up for you. I met a girl once who told me that it’s worth standing up for something you believe in. She told me that it was worth speaking out when something is wrong.”
She was touched that he had remembered. It might have been the way his eyes turned shiny, or the way his mouth twisted before he said, “I can’t get it out of my head, what he did to you.”
It made her heart stop. She hadn’t realized until now how much it had eaten into him. “It’s done. It’s over.”It doesn’t affect you.
“I swear I wanted to kill him.”
“Please don’t. I’d hate to feel responsible for his death.”
They were jesting; playing with words, but neither one of them was smiling.
“It was probably childish of me to throw the wine at him. I would have gladly used my fist, but they might have thrown me out, and I didn’t want to cause too big a scene, not with all my family sitting there. The press would have a field day.”
She swallowed.
The more she stared into his eyes, the more she was near him, the more it made her want to believe he had changed. But she couldn’t trust him again. She couldn’t.
“I should go,” she told him.
“Rushing for your double date?”
She looked up to find his dark blue irises pinned on her. “Something like that. ’Bye, Stone.” She forced herself to forget, as she walked away. There was no need to remember what had once passed between them.
~ ~ ~
When a girl like that walked away, and it was his heart that twitched and not his dick, he knew he had let a good thing go. This had to be a monumental fuck up compared to all the other fuck ups he’d ever made in his life.
A girl like Izzy was rare.
He wouldn’t have found her in a place like The Oasis.
And even though he didn’t want to go looking all over again, he had to accept that she was gone.
