Love on Lexington Avenue(44)

“It is a good idea for you to move on,” Naomi said. “And I do like Scott. He’s one of my favorite people, and I don’t like many people. You get what you see with Scott, and I love that. But you’re not . . .”

“His type?” Claire guessed, remembering the supermodel.

“More importantly, he’s not yours,” Naomi pointed out. “Remember when we watched Gilmore Girls, and you had the gall to suggest that Christopher was better for Lorelei than Luke? Come to think of it, isn’t it because Luke wore flannel?”

Claire winced. “You make me sound like a snob.”

“No, you just know what you like, and it’s not men like Scott.”

It didn’t used to be.

“Maybe it’s just a proximity thing,” Naomi said gently. “I mean, you guys are two attractive people spending a lot of time together in a relatively small space. Plenty of opportunity to be thinking about . . .” She made a childish sex motion with her hands.

“I don’t think it’ll come to . . .” She mimicked Naomi’s hand gestures.

“Do you want it to?” Naomi asked.

Claire hesitated. “It’s been a long time since I’ve felt like this.”

“Horny?”

Claire laughed, trying not to feel embarrassed by the frank discussion. “I guess. But it’s a little more than that, because as we’ve seen, not just any guy will do it for me.”

Naomi sighed. “Just Scott, huh?”

“You think it’s a bad idea.”

Naomi tapped her fingers and considered. “Okay, here’s what I know about Scott. He’s hot. Crazy successful, mostly without even trying. Oliver says he’s got some sort of genius thing happening. Like he sees things and does things in a way other people can’t see, and won’t do. He’s one of the good ones, and I don’t just mean that he gives a crap ton of money to charity, but that under all that gruffness, he’s incredibly kind. Rescue a kitten from a highway kind.”

“In other words, not the kind of guy we agreed to protect each other from when we made the pact,” Claire said, feeling a surge of relief at the confirmation that Scott was one of the good ones.

Naomi lifted a single finger. “I’m not done. I also know that he got his heart broken. Badly.”

Claire leaned forward. “What happened? The way he talked about Brayden, there was something in his tone that made me wonder if he’d been through what I’d been through.”

Naomi made a wincing face. “Well, Scott’s fiancée didn’t fall off a yacht and drown after cheating on him, but she did cheat. It was back when Oliver and Scott were in Columbia’s architecture program. From what I’ve gleaned from Oliver, Scott was all kinds of smitten with this woman, only to find out she’d been banging her coworker for like a solid year. All while Scott had been working two jobs in addition to school, in order to pay for the expensive wedding she insisted on.”

“I hate her,” Claire said automatically.

“Me, too. But the point is, you know how we all dealt with Brayden a little differently? I got mad, you got bitter and jaded— no offense—and Audrey’s more determined than ever to prove that love is real?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, of the three of us, Scott handled it a little like me, a lot like you, and Audrey’s style not-at-all. That crap with his fiancée went down like a decade ago, and according to Oliver, Scott hasn’t been in anything close to a serious relationship since. And yet, he hasn’t been a monk, if you get what I’m saying.”

“Hard to miss,” Claire grumbled.

“He’s not a playboy in the sense that Clarke is,” Naomi continued. “With Clarke, women think it’s all about the chase, believing they’ll be the one to tame him. With Scott, nobody even tries to tame him. Nobody bothers.”

Claire felt as though someone were pressing on her chest. “That makes me kind of sad.”

Naomi gave a small sigh. “See, I was a little worried you’d say that, but I’m almost glad because now I know how to advise you.” She hesitated. “That is why you’re here, right? Or did you just want to talk it out?”

“Advice,” Claire said immediately. “Please.”

“I think that kiss with Scott needs to remain a one-time thing. A blip.”

“But—”

“You’re starting to care for him, babe. I can tell from the way you responded to everything I just told you. It wasn’t an ‘Oh great, booty-call perfection!’ It was you hurting for him—wanting him to change, and he won’t. Not even for you.”

“I’m not looking for a relationship, either,” Claire reminded her, even though that somehow felt less true, and she was less sure than she had been a few weeks ago.

“I know you’re not looking for one. But I also know that your heart’s enormous, and a little fragile. Do you really want to risk giving it to someone who won’t want it?”

Claire sat back and thought about everything Naomi had just said, and realized her friend was right. Something about Scott had wiggled beneath her defenses, slipped beneath the jaded cynicism that had been so firmly in place since Brayden died. She desperately wanted to believe that she’d be able to separate sex and emotion, but she was no longer certain she could. Not with him.