Chasing Forever (The Forever Series #1)(25)

Richard laughed. “Lucas loves baseball. He played in college. Did you he tell you?”

“No, I didn’t realize,” she said. “Wow. I’m sorry. Don’t listen to me. My opinion is tainted by some jerk I met in college who played baseball. He wasn’t even that good. Don’t be offended.”

Lucas’s eyes narrowed. “None taken.”

“So what did you wager?” Richard asked.

“Lunch. She’s going to owe me lunch on Friday.”

“Well, you better make it hurt after that comment about baseball.”

Lucas turned to look at her. “I’m planning on it.”

Richard turned to talk to the waiter, and Lucas winked at her. “Be prepared,” he whispered. “I’m going to make you eat your words.”





Chapter Thirteen




“Wait. So you two are friends now?” Drew asked, laughing. “How did you pull that off?”

Lucas shook his head. “She didn’t say friends exactly, but she said we could be something like that.”

Drew raised his eyebrows. “Like something more than friends?”

“No, I think she meant something less than friends and more along the lines of a tentative truce.”

Drew whistled under his breath. “I can’t believe she called a truce. Keep your eyes open. It could be a trick. If I were her, I would be quietly masterminding your downfall.” Drew shook his head. “No, downfall is too nice. Death, maiming, public humiliation is more likely.”

Annoyed, Lucas stood up from his chair. He didn’t want to be reminded of his past transgressions. He never wanted to hurt Regan, but once Olivia started the ball in motion that night he froze. All he could do was stare as Olivia went for blood. Nothing he said would’ve mattered. He waited too long. “We agreed to keep the past in the past.”

Drew took a sip of his beer. “Right. Good luck with that.”

He and Drew were at the neighborhood bar watching the Giants play. While the bar was dark and served heartburn inducing food, it had its benefits. The owner let them control the television remote, it was never too crowded, and there was always an open table.

Usually, meeting for beers to watch the baseball game offered a much-deserved reprieve from the firm’s mandate to rack up billable hours faster than humanly possible, but tonight his mind kept drifting back to work. Well, not work exactly, more like Regan, and working with Regan. Even the baseball game reminded him of her given their silly, not totally existent bet over which team would win.

For some reason, he thought it would be a good idea to divulge his lunch conversation with Regan to Drew. Rather than acting as a non-judgmental sounding board, Drew wouldn’t shut up about the situation.

“I know Regan, and she’s not trying to trick me.”

“Oh, you know her. Refresh my memory. How many years has it been since the incident in college?” Drew held up his fingers to make the sign for quotation marks.

Lucas shrugged. “Six or so.”

“And you still think you know her?”

“Yeah, I do. She’s not like Olivia. She isn’t the type to come up with wildly manipulative and vengeful schemes.”

“There aren’t many people like Olivia. I’ll give you that. Remind me why you still talk to her.”

Lucas exhaled loudly. “It’s complicated.”

“She’s a bitch. She’s self-centered. She’s high maintenance. She’s toxic.” Drew took a sip of his beer. “How does that make things complicated?”

“I’ve known her forever. Our families are friends. We spend holidays together. I think our parents still harbor some delusion that Olivia and I will be more than friends one day. As much as I want to, I can’t just write her out of my life without good reason.” Lucas lifted his beer mug.

“Can’t or won’t?” Drew asked.

“Maybe a little of both. I’ve never really thought about it.”

“It’s settled then.” Drew leaned back in his chair. “You might as well propose. Get it over with. No use in prolonging the inevitable.”

Lucas choked on his beer. “Propose to who?”

“Olivia. That’s where this is headed.”

“That will never happen,” Lucas said, shaking his head. Being married to Olivia would be a death sentence. They may have dated casually in college, but it was more of a convenience than anything else. Olivia liked the image they created together, but neither of them was interested in having a serious relationship. At the time, she dated other people and so did he. Since college ended, they were friends, nothing more, not ever.

“Then you need to open your eyes.”

Lucas cocked his head. “Excuse me?”

“Please tell me you’re not that blind. You had to have noticed.”

“Noticed what?” He didn’t like the direction of this conversation.

Drew laughed. “You’re shitting me. You really haven’t noticed anything?”

Lucas shook his head.

“Olivia has successfully gotten rid of every woman you have dated for longer than a month. Think about it.”

Lucas shrugged. “Other than Regan, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”