Page 19 of Mine This Time
When we crossed the street and turned onto the block where my office building was located, I looked ahead to see the silhouette of a man leaning against the building. That, in itself, wasn’t anything unusual. However, awareness jolted me as we approached. I might have only met him once, but I knew it was Brett.
I felt the instant Mari recognized him. Her hand tightened incrementally inside mine before her footsteps slowed and then stopped.
“What the hell is he doing here?” she muttered under her breath before looking up at me. “That’s?—“
“Brett. I know. Has he tried to reach out to you?”
She shook her head, her glossy tousled curls swinging lightly around her shoulders. “No. I haven’t gotten any unknown calls. The last time I tried his number, it wasn’t in service. Ugh! I do not want to deal with him. We had a good night.”
I loved that she said we, but now wasn’t the time to dwell on that. “I don’t see any way around it. Avoiding him will only prolong the inevitable. I’m with you. I sure as hell don’t mind giving him a piece of my mind. Come on.”
Mari held still on the sidewalk for a moment before she shrugged. “Fine. Let’s get it over with.”
She began tugging me along. Once she’d made up her mind to face him, she appeared to relish the opportunity. With her skirt swirling around her knees, the low heels of her sandals clicked on the sidewalk as she strode briskly toward Brett where he waited right outside the entrance to her building, or rather, my building.
I filed that little detail away. Unless he was tracking her, he shouldn’t have known where she was. Mari stopped several feet away from him, keeping her fingers laced with mine as she rested her other hand on her hip.
“What the hell are you doing here, Brett?” she demanded.
I didn’t miss Brett looking down at our joined hands and up to my face before he looked back at Mari. He affected a sheepish expression. “Hey, Mari. I’m glad I tracked you down. I’m sure you’ve been wondering where I was, but it’s all a big misunderstanding.”
“Misunderstanding?” Mari practically spat out. “Brett, you totally screwed me over. You left in the middle of the night, you broke my lease and stole my deposit, you left me with the bill at Creek’s End Inn and ran up all of my fucking credit cards. That’s not a misunderstanding.”
Brett shifted on his feet, anger flashing in his eyes. He looked toward me. “How do you know each other?”
I waited in simmering silence. Much as I wanted to grab Brett by the scruff of the shirt and slam him against the brick wall directly behind him, I sensed it was important for Mari to handle this, so I hung back.
Mari laughed, the bitter tension in her laughter twisting my heart slightly. She didn’t deserve to be bitter, and it made me sick that an asshole like Brett had ever even had a shot with her.
“I’m sure you can figure it out. You were logged into your work calendar on my phone, so when I was trying to find you, I saw that you had noted a meeting with Nash here. Unlike you, he’s a fucking gentleman.”
“Wow,” Brett said, rolling his eyes. “Already moving on. I thought you wanted last weekend to be our chance to reconnect.”
“Oh my fucking God! You’re such an asshole. Yeah, I said that I hoped we’d reconnect. Because we might as well have broken up months ago for all the time we’ve spent together. If I’d been aware of everything you were capable of, I certainly wouldn’t have said it. Don’t even try to fucking guilt trip me,” Mari said with a hard glare.
Brett’s gaze shifted between us as if he was trying to get a measure of the situation. I was pleased to discover my presence confused him enough he didn’t know how to handle it.
“Look,” he began, his tone placating. “I can see why you might be upset, but if you’ll just give me a chance to explain?—”
Mari shook her head sharply. “Shut up and leave me alone.”
Anger flashed in Brett’s eyes again. When he opened his mouth to speak, I shook my head. “You heard her,” I warned. “Get the hell out of here.”
“Fuck you both.” With another muttered curse, Brett turned and stalked across the street. I was relieved there were still people milling about because it minimized the possibility of him making more of a scene.
I could feel a subtle tremor running through Mari where I held her hand. “Let’s get inside,” I murmured, releasing her hand to slide my palm down her back and coax her gently forward.
Inside, I confirmed with the security guy at the desk that all was locked down for the night already. I also made a mental note to call the main security center as soon as I left the building tonight to make sure they ran a full scan and confirmed everything was in working order. At least here, Mari was protected by one of her brother’s high-end security systems. I knew I would need to alert Max about this development with Brett, but that would have to wait.
I’d meant what I said earlier and intended to give Mari her space tonight. Although there was no way I’d have turned down dinner with Mari, I’d been planning to use the time tonight to do some more research on Brett’s situation. I knew his financials were poor because I had my usual report drawn up when he’d asked to meet, but I hadn’t dug deeper because there’d been no point then. Since Brett had shown up to find Mari, there was both a reason to delve further and a sense of urgency behind it.
After the elevator took us to the top floor of the building where all the condos were, Mari glanced up at me as she keyed in the lock combination. “I don’t want to think about this, but I can’t figure out how Brett knew I was here.”
I’d been hoping Mari wouldn’t contemplate that detail. “Let’s get inside,” I commented as another couple stepped out of the elevator and began walking down the hall in our direction.
Mari quickly punched in the combination, and we stepped inside. She walked over to the windows, letting her purse slide off her shoulder and dropping it on the couch as she walked past it. I stopped at her side, and the magnetic pull to wrap her in my arms was strong. Between my awareness of her three margaritas and our very recent encounter with Brett, I didn’t think that was a good move.
I stuffed my hands in my pockets and looked out across the glittering skyline of New Orleans and the dark river in the distance beyond.
