RISK(72)

I trace the outline of the light fixture with my eyes. "What if the person you want to fight for doesn't understand what love is? If you love someone, do you ignore them? Is that what love is?"

She rests her head against her hand. "I know this feels like what Tad did to you all over again, Ellie. I don't know Nolan very well, but he's a hell of a lot better than Tad."

I thought so too until a day passed and he hadn't returned any of my calls. Then another day passed and by yesterday I started to feel everything I felt when Tad stopped talking to me.

"When I called Nolan's assistant this afternoon, I promised myself it was the last time." I reach for my phone. "I'm not going to crawl after him forever. I tried. If he thinks I'm capable of cheating on him, maybe he's not the man for me."

"Maybe we need to turn our phones off and take a sick day tomorrow."

"I have an interview with the NYPD tomorrow," I point out.

"That's in the morning." She pops up to her knees. "Tomorrow afternoon the two of us are taking the train to Boston for the weekend."

"You want to go away for the entire weekend?" I stare at her. We haven't been to Boston together in years. "You can just leave work for two whole days?"

"I'm not on call this weekend." She palms her phone. "Dr. Hunt hasn't even asked for my number yet. I mean for his personal use. He has it if he needs me to hold down a dog while he cleans out its ears."

"Romance has to start somewhere, Ad."

"Maybe in Boston?" She looks around my room. "Pack some bikinis, Bean. We are hitting Beantown tomorrow afternoon."

"We don't need bikinis to go to Boston." I scoot to my feet. "I'm not walking the streets in next to nothing."

"You wouldn't get one complaint."

"You're ridiculous." I slap her shoulder. "You're also the best. This weekend will be fun, right?"

"This weekend will be bananas and I'm not talking the kind that monkeys like."

Monkeys.

I look across my room to where I'd pinned the picture May drew for me to the wall. It's her, Nolan, a monkey and me. As much as I wanted that to me my life just a few days ago, I can't have it. What I can have is time away with my best friend in Boston.





Chapter 50


Nolan




"Can I help you?" That sounded about as civil as it's going to considering who I said it to.

"I'm looking for Ellie Madden." He scans the area behind me where a group of women has gathered around a new lipstick display. "She works here, right?"

"Who's asking?" It's an empty question. I know who he is. Tad Darling in all his f*cked up, suntanned skin, blond haired, bastard glory is standing in front of me.

He gives me a once over, his eye catching on my wrist. "You rocking a Rolex, man?"

He's not. I take some perverse pleasure in that. "I am."

"Nice." He leans in close. Too close. I can feel his breath on my bare forearm. "You work here?"

"I own the place."

I don't look like I do at the moment. I was at home with May counting sheep. Literally, counting sheep in a picture book.

When Kristof called to tell me Tad had landed in New York and was headed straight for Matiz, I took off out the door. I didn't bother to change out of the jeans and concert T-shirt I'm wearing. I have no f*cking idea how a T-shirt from the farewell concert tour of a boyband ended up hanging in my closet, but I put it on this morning.

This is what happens when I'm walking around in an Ellie Madden daze. I pledge my allegiance to five grown men who dance in sync to songs from the nineties.

"You're a fan of them too, hey?" He points to the T-shirt.

I'm burning this f*cking thing as soon as I'm home.

"Why do you want to talk to Ellie?" I check the area behind him to see if Ellie is in sight.

"I'm her fiancé." He puts too much emphasis on that last syllable. So much so that he sounds like he's trying to fake a French accent.

Fucking douche.

"I'm her boyfriend," I begin as I tap my shoe on the floor, "I'd say we have a problem."

"Boyfriend?" he huffs out a laugh. "She didn't waste a minute, did she?"

"What do you want?" I cross my arms. I think I'm her boyfriend. I don't know what I saw going down between her and Wolf, but I know what I heard in her voice this morning when I finally listened to the six voicemail messages she's left me since Sunday. They're just friends she whispered into the phone on a sob. I want to believe her. I want to believe that now more than ever.

He mirrors my pose. "I want to speak to my fiancée."

"Your ex-fiancée," I correct him. "What do you want to speak to her about?"

"Things that are none of your business." He widens his stance. "I have something personal to discuss with Ellie. This has nothing to do with you, Crew."

"It's Nolan. Nolan Black," I correct him.

"Crew Benton owns this store," he quips with a grin. "I read that on the company website. You trying to pass yourself off as the owner, Noel?"