Page 22 of The Rebound
“Beth?”
I still at the familiar voice, watching as two long legs appear halfway down the staircase.
Oh no.
“I called Harry about Wednesday and he said—” Luke breaks off when he catches sight of me, bumping his head off the low ceiling as he stops two steps from the bottom.
“Ouch,” Beth says as Ollie snorts. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” he mutters, rubbing his forehead.
“It sounded—”
“I’m fine.”
I smile weakly as he frowns at me.
“Hello,” I say when he doesn’t. If he can’t get it together then I will. “You didn’t tell me you owned a café.”
Beth straightens from where she’s hunched over the counter. “You’ve already met?”
“We live next door to each other,” I explain. “Or we used to.”
“That’s crazy!”
“The craziest,” I agree.
Luke ducks his head as he skips the final steps, landing with a thump on the polished concrete. His eyes drop immediately to the diamond on my finger, but his expression doesn’t change, even when I hide my hand behind my back on instinct.
“He doesn’t own it,” Beth continues. “I do. But he owns the building and lets me rent it on the cheap.”
“Until you start making your millions,” Luke says, heading to the counter. “I thought I dumped that thing in the river,” he adds, gesturing to the binder.
“Very funny. Abby’s interested in the marketing job.”
“What marketing job?”
“The one you told me I should set up so I can get more customers.” She sounds exasperated. “You’re grumpy today.”
And I can guess why. “You know what? Now that I think about it, I probably won’t have time for something like this.”
“But I thought you said—”
“There’s no point in hiring someone who’s going to leave us high and dry in two weeks,” Luke interrupts, his voice firm.
Ollie glances between us while pretending to type into her phone.
“I wouldn’t do that,” I say, my friendly tone beginning to strain.
“That’s your plan, isn’t it? Back to your fiancé?”
I stare at him. Okay, so he’s still mad at me. That’s fine. I’d be mad at him too if I was all knee-touching and sly-glancing and it turned out he was engaged. Only I’m not engaged. I’m just lying to everyone about it. Which is fine.
I mean it’s not fine. It’s the opposite of fine. But—
“You’reengaged?” Beth gasps, clasping her hands together. “I didn’t even notice the ring. Ollie, did you see the ring?”
Ollie shakes her head.
