Found in You(95)

My fingers curled into the sofa behind me as I waited for him to say the name I knew he’d say.

“Paul Kresh.”

“Oh.” I nodded slowly for several seconds. “Oh.” There was nothing else to say. I had no reaction, I had no defense. “You found out about Paul.”

His teeth gritted. I could hear as he ground them together. “Since you know I’m already aware of your past with Paul, you must be referring to the fact that he’s a partner in Party Planners Plus.”

I shook my head.

“You didn’t know?” There was hope in his tone. He wanted me to not know.

But I couldn’t lie. It was one thing to keep it from him, quite another to lie outright. “Well, he’s not technically a partner, so that’s not a fair question.”

“Dammit, Alayna. Don’t hedge around the facts. Because I’d like to think that you would never do something so stupid as to sign a deal that would put you in close working proximity with someone that you are legally not supposed to be anywhere near. The Alayna I know would never do something so brainless.”

But I had signed the deal. That morning, in fact. “Guess you don’t really know me.”

He slammed his empty glass on the bar. “This is not a f*cking game!”

“Don’t you think I know that?” I raised my voice to match his. “I’m the one who has the restraining order. I get the seriousness of the situation.” I pointed my finger into my chest at each mention of the word I so forcefully, I knew it would bruise.

“Then why?” His eyes were pleading. “You can’t have been that desperate to sign a deal. I had thought—I’d hoped—that you didn’t realize that Kresh was engaged to Julie Swaggert—”

“Engaged? I thought they were just dating.”

The look on his face said that wasn’t the thing to say.

I quickly corrected. “Which doesn’t matter, I know. I didn’t mean to seem interested, because I’m not. I’m not, Hudson. I don’t care what or whom he’s with. It’s only that he didn’t say they were engaged when we talked.”

“You talked to him?”

I hadn’t thought he could be more enraged. Turned out I was wrong.

“So help me god, Alayna, you better say it was on the phone.”

Lie, lie, lie. It was a song in my head, repeating the same refrain. I willed myself to ignore it. “It wasn’t. It was in person.”

He stepped toward me, his hands poised like he wanted to wring my neck. “Dammit, Alayna! What the f*ck were you thinking?”


“Stop yelling at me and I’ll explain.” Even though I knew he wouldn’t hit me, his rage wasn’t productive. And as mad as he was, I was afraid he wouldn’t get past his anger. That he’d end things for sure. I needed a hint that there was a chance we weren’t over.

“I’m waiting.” His volume was lower, but his demeanor hadn’t changed in the least.

“I’m not saying anything until you calm down. You’re scaring me.”

He looked as though I’d slapped him. “That’s fair.” He ran a hand through his hair. “But this is as calm as I’m going to get.”

I swallowed. “I, um, had the meeting with Julia. On Thursday. And I didn’t know she was involved with Paul. But then at the end he showed up and I was totally unprepared.” A chill ran through me at the memory of seeing him in the club, at the shock I’d felt. “He acted like he didn’t know me so I followed his lead. And then when Julia went off to the bathroom, Paul told me he didn’t want to ruin the deal for her and so we had to pretend we’d never met.”