Chase Me (Broke and Beautiful #1)(26)

“You think so?” She nodded, which only made him look smug. “When they were ten, my parents sent them to summer camp. It wasn’t the kind you’re thinking of. They didn’t do arts and crafts or go hiking. They basically sunbathed and read magazines for two weeks at a lakeside resort. Anyway, there was a talent show. They lip-synced to “The Boy Is Mine” . . . Brandy and Monica . . . you know the one?”

“Yes, and it’s a classic. Continue.”

“Well, the judges gave them second place. I don’t even think there was an actual prize for winning, it was just a way to entertain the kids for a couple hours.” His tone turned serious. “They didn’t strike right away. They bided their time. Waited six years, until they got their driver’s licenses. Then they drove to the first-place winner’s house in the Hamptons and slashed his tires.”

Very slowly, she set her drink down. “Please tell me this one is made up, too.”

“Nope. I was in the backseat, being scarred for life.”

The waiter sidled up to their table holding a tray full of food. Both of them leaned back so he could set down the plates. “Have your sisters found husbands to terrorize yet?”

Louis nodded once. “Lena is getting married next week.”

“Poor guy.” She picked up her fork. “Is it a blood ceremony?”

“She hasn’t involved me in the planning, but I wouldn’t discount anything.” He stayed silent until the waiter left. “Actually, you met her fiancé last week, Rox.”

Confusion had her pausing in the act of taking her first bite, but unwanted recognition finally crept in. She lowered her hand until it rested on the table, her heart beating dully in her chest. “That was your sister’s fiancé’s bachelor party? I almost . . .” Took my clothes off for him.

“Almost.” He shook his head. “But you didn’t.”

Stupid. So stupid that she’d never put it together. Never asked Louis how he knew the guest of honor. Instead, she’d avoided any memory of it, the same way she did with anything else unpleasant. Just pretending it didn’t happen. Jesus, what was she doing here with this guy? What could come of it? She could never show her face around his friends or family lest they judge her straight into the ground. Their entire association was doomed.

Louis scrubbed a hand over his face. “I should’ve waited longer to tell you.”

She forced herself to take a bite of fish. “What difference would it have made?”

“Maybe if I’d waited for you to know me better, you wouldn’t be looking for the closest exit.”

“I wasn’t.”

“Rox.”

“Fine, I was.” She took an impatient sip of her beer. “You earned your three questions, Louis. Fire away.”

He stared at her hard a moment in a way that suggested he wanted to shake some sense into her. “You’re the type who fulfills her end of a deal, aren’t you?”

She shrugged, wondering where he was going with this line of questioning. “Yes. I am.”

“Good.” He dug into his meal. “Then I’ll have to make sure I space those three questions out.”

Roxy’s eyebrows rose. Well played.





Chapter 9



LOUIS WATCHED THE breeze lift Roxy’s hair off her neck as they walked along East 37th Street. This time, she kept her hands firmly in her pockets, where he couldn’t reach them, sending a signal louder than a reversing semitruck. After their speed bump at dinner, she’d rallied, asking him questions about work, telling him funny audition stories. But the sparkle in her eyes had been gone. Or rather, he’d doused it with a bucket of Stupid Juice. If she hadn’t given him the perfect opening to tell her whose bachelor party it had been, he would’ve kept it to himself just a little longer. As it was, he’d already set a plan in motion that required him to omit the truth. The idea of lying to her twice made him feel like the world’s biggest *, so he’d bit the bullet.

“The truth will set you free”? Apparently that didn’t apply to him.

Back at the restaurant, he’d been able to read the thoughts on her face. Horror had turned to resignation, right before his eyes. She thought this date was pointless now. Thought he was pointless.

It was f*cking awesome.

Because while Roxy probably assumed her shift in attitude would shut him down, it wouldn’t. This is where his lawyer mind went into warp speed, examining reactions from every angle, weighing words, actions. It was a knee-jerk quality that usually irritated him outside of work. Tonight, he wanted to buy that quality a car, because it was giving him some much-needed hope. If Roxy felt as though pursuing anything with him was pointless now, it meant she hadn’t felt it pointless prior to his coming clean about Fletcher. Before he’d revealed his future brother-in-law as the bachelor party’s guest of honor, she’d felt something, too. She’d anticipated more with him. Or she wouldn’t have had any hope to lose in the first place.

Right?

Okay, this explanation was what he was going with. For now. Otherwise, he’d have to face facts that he wouldn’t be spending any more time with this girl who made him hot and crazy, yet calm all at the same time. That, he just couldn’t allow to happen. Being with her felt right, like this was where he should have been all along but he’d been epically late. Yeah, that scared the shit out of him. He’d never been committed to another person. Hell, he didn’t know how. What example did he have to go on? His parents had been more committed to their personal shoppers than to their own marriage. One thing he did know? The possibility of her not feeling the same, or finding him not worth the trouble, scared him even more shitless. Basically, in either scenario, he was flat out of shits.