Page 85 of Love Lessons
I look up to see Ian leaning on the doorframe to his room. His tie is draped lazily around his neck, and his shirt is unbuttoned, revealing the tattoo I might never see again after tonight. He looks like an ad in a high-end magazine—the poster boy for money, sex, and sin. If this is my one and only vacation fling, I chose well.
Still, I have to spit out the toothpaste before I can answer him.
Sexy, my inner critic snorts.
“Yes?” I finally say, grabbing a towel.
“Um…” He hesitates, which isn’t like him. “I have to go to a wedding in Connecticut after we get back. You should feel no obligation, but I was wondering if you might consider going with me?”
Wait, what?My mind reels as I dab water off my face. “A wedding? Your ex’s?” Then I wince because there’s no way I’d know that short of googling him.
“Yeah,” he says easily. “It’s August seventh.”
August seventh. My sluggish mind rolls that date around for a moment before realizing why it sounds familiar. “Oh! That’s the night of the gala,” I blurt out.
Ian’s expression shutters. “Oh right. Your gala. Should’a figured you’d have plans.” He starts to turn away.
That wakes me up fast, but I’m still playing catch up. “Okay, but…” Did Ian really just ask me to his ex’s wedding? “What if…”
When he turns, he’s already shaking his head. His cool eyes grow cooler. “Nah, go to your party. Haven’t you been planning for that for weeks? Wasn’t that the whole point of this…” He waves a hand between us. “To set you up for that night?”
“Well, itwas, but… But I…” The sentence dies on my tongue. Because it’s no longer true. What began as a ridiculous plot to learn to seduce Danforth became so much more the very first moment Ian kissed me.
But he doesn’t want to hear that, does he? What would he even say if I told him I feelguttedat the thought of not waking up next to him again?
He’d laugh, my inner critic says.He’d back away real fast.
“Look,” he says, leaning against the doorframe. “Forget I mentioned it. Don’t blow this chance with your guy. Not for a crappy night in a wedding hall. He’s supposed to be your forever guy. Not me.”
Well, ouch.
“Right,” I say numbly. “Of course.”
Ian’s eyes dip. He clears his throat. “You don’t need me anymore. You know that, right?”
Not true!I want to shriek. But I don’t scream it. I don’t even whisper it.
Because I know a dismissal when I hear one.
TWENTY-NINE
Is This an Emergency?
IAN
I watch Vera’s reaction.She looks conflicted. Maybe a little hurt. I have to fight my own reaction, which is to step farther into the room, lift her up onto that bathroom counter, and kiss her senseless.
But I can’t do that anymore, can I? I can’t pretend to offer her more than we’ve already had.
Why would she blow off her ex for a wreck like me? I’ve got a trade hanging over my head. And if that doesn’t blow up in my face, I’m still diving back into another brutal season, hitting the road for a hundred nights this year, and working twice as hard to prove myself again.
And yet I seem to be stuck here in the doorway. My feet won’t move to go into my own room, where I haven’t slept since the first or second night of this trip.
“Listen, there’s something I need to tell you,” Vera says. She folds a towel with nervous fingers and sets it down. Then she lifts vulnerable eyes to mine, and my heart stutters.
Come to bed with me. I don’t want to end things yet. I think I might love you.These are all the things I’m both hoping and terrified to hear.
But when she opens her mouth, she breaks my heart instead. “I called the police when your party got loud. It was me.”
