The Billionaire Next Door (Billionaire Bad Boys #2)(90)
“Tag teamed,” Tag muttered. “In this case literally.” His joke had no hang time. It settled into the air like pungent gas. Gena even wrinkled her nose.
“Who was the last girl who dumped you?” she asked, eyebrows raised.
Tag blinked at Gena before shrugging. “I don’t know.” His mind flipped through his past dates like pages in a book. Slowly, given he was running at half-speed today. “I don’t remember.”
“Rachel,” Lucas answered with a snap of his fingers.
“Bingo.” Gena held up a hand and Lucas high-fived her.
Tag sent his buddy a glare meant to be a silent reprimand. Whose side was Luc on?
“She’s right. No one’s ever dumped you,” Luc said, sipping his coffee. “It’s your thing.”
“It’s not my thing,” Tag argued.
“No,” Gena interjected. “Your thing is breaking up with them before they break up with you. Letting them down easy so no one gets their feelings hurt. How many girls have you left in tears?”
“None.” Tag knew the answer instantly. He didn’t like tears. Didn’t like sadness in general. He never wanted to leave a girl feeling less than good about the time they’d spent together.
“Rachel learned a lot from you, seeing as how she let you down the same way. I don’t see you sobbing,” Gena said.
“No, Rachel was very clear about what I meant to her. She thanked me for all the monetary goods and services I’ve awarded her and then left whole.” His stomach soured and he pushed his coffee mug away. That wasn’t true. She hadn’t been whole. Tag hadn’t missed the pain etched on her face as she stepped out the door.
But she’d torn him to bits, so he’d felt justified letting her leave hurt.
“I gave her everything she’d let me,” he said. “Hawaii. Dates. Sex. She moved in. I kept trying to offer more, and she kept telling me no.” He lifted a hand in frustration. He’d have done more. He’d have given her the damn moon. “I have to work one weekend, and she’s done with me.”
He drank the coffee anyway. Stomach be damned, he needed caffeine.
“Wow, how could she leave you after you gave her the contents of your wallet?” Gena asked dryly. Lucas stepped away from Tag to avoid getting hit in the cross fire.
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Tag’s anger had peaked. He couldn’t take any more women falsely accusing him today.
“What comes hard for you, Tag?”
“This conversation isn’t exactly easy,” he snapped, standing to flatten his palms on the counter.
“Money doesn’t come hard for you,” she said.
“You know what”—Tag held up his hands in surrender—“I’m not doing this. Luc, later man.”
Gena, proving that Tag’s size didn’t intimidate her, moved to him and poked him square in the chest. “You bought her things. You took her to Hawaii. You had sex with her.”
“Oh, and you think she didn’t enjoy any of that?” Tag said in his defense, his heart twisting as memories of each moment they had together chugged through his brain like a railcar. The coffee on the beach at Oahu when Rachel sat between his legs, her head resting on his chest. The way she’d determinedly pushed up on her surfboard and then howled as she tumbled into the ocean. The shower where she turned him on and reclaimed her power at the same time.
“Those things come easy for you.” Gena interrupted his thoughts, poking him again. “You’re good at lavishing attention on women. You’re good at flying to Hawaii in the company plane. I’m assuming by your reputation that you have the sex thing down.”
“Damn straight,” he couldn’t keep from agreeing.
“Going to a wedding is hard,” Gena said. “Telling her how you feel is hard.”
Given the way the room swam, Tag was beginning to think Gena might have a point. The idea of telling Rachel his feelings—confronting his fears—was terrifying.
“Putting yourself on the line, telling her you’re not going anywhere, is hard. She wants the hard thing from you.”
Lucas snorted.
“Shut up,” Gena told her husband.
“Sweets, you can only make so many ‘hard’ references before it starts sounding funny.”
“This is your problem,” she snapped. Luc’s smile erased. Before Tag could become smug, she turned back to him. “You’re little boys. Grow up. Rachel never wanted your money or your gifts, Tag.” Her voice softened, she stopped poking him, and she patted his chest with the flat of her hand. “She wants your heart.”
Like that, the clouds cleared from his head.
Rachel left not because she’d become whole and found herself after using him. She’d left because he hadn’t given her a reason to stay. He hadn’t stepped up when she’d needed reassuring the most.
He thought of Reese’s words about their mother. How afraid of commitment Lunette Crane’s sons were. Because they feared being left by another woman they loved. Tag had avoided commitment his entire life, breaking off relationships but maintaining his “good guy” status. Then he avoided commitment with Rachel, and she was the one who left him.
Tag had opened the door for her to walk out, but in truth, he’d opened it a long time ago. Lucas saw what was coming a mile away, and when he’d confronted Tag with it, Tag had been too chickenshit to admit the truth. To Lucas, to himself.