Part-Time Lover (Part-Time Lover #1)(61)

“It’s easier for me this way, and I think you’ll want to hear what I have to say,” Erik replies.

“Hello, Jandy,” I say, doing my best to be civil, though I’m sure she wants to throttle me as much as I want to throttle her.

“Hello,” she says, but her voice is wobbly, and her eyes look tired, as if she hasn’t slept in days.

Erik stands and pulls out a chair. Jandy pauses, regards it, then sits.

Erik takes a deep breath and looks straight at her. “I get that you’re not in love with me. I truly get it. It hurts like hell, but I’m not going to dwell.”

My heart aches for him, and I want to tell him it gets better. Instead, I simply listen.

Jandy murmurs a thank you.

Because listening to her husband talk about his feelings would be oh-so-hard. I resist the urge to slap her—mostly because I’ve never slapped anyone. I’m sure I’d botch it.

“But I need this to stop.” Erik’s tone is crisp and clear. Dominant, even.

Jandy flinches. “What do you need to stop?”

He slices a hand through the air. “All of it. You coming up to me at lunch, you seeing my family at matches, you making up stories about your sister. It has to stop.”

Jandy breathes out hard through her nose. Her top lip quivers. “And you think coming here will make it stop?”

She sounds as if she’s trying to be tough, but her will is breaking.

“I have an offer for you.”

That makes me sit up taller. He didn’t mention an offer.

Jandy shakes her head, worrying her lip, glancing at me. She lowers her voice. “I don’t want to discuss this with other people present.”

“Please,” Erik implores.

She shakes her head and folds her arms.

“I’ll step outside,” I suggest, since outside is a mere ten feet away.

“That’s fine,” Erik says.

I leave and pace on the sidewalk, hoping to hell and heaven and back that he isn’t caving and giving her his share of the company. I text Christian again to see what he’s up to, but he doesn’t respond. I spend a few minutes making sure I’m checked into my flight in a couple hours, then I send a note to my brother, since I’ll see him soon.

Briefly, I contemplate inviting Christian to join me in New York, and the idea sends a thrill through me. I’d love to show him my old stomping grounds. I’d love to take him around the city, to kiss him in Central Park, along Fifth Avenue, and by the Met.

But I resist. He’s clearly busy, and I have work to focus on with Nate and the Luxe. The cliff will have to wait.

Soon enough, Erik steps through the doorway of the café and onto the sidewalk, a gleam of triumph in his eyes.

He doesn’t look back at Jandy as she walks along the street, her head tucked down, until she fades into the early morning crowds. He simply walks toward me, a few sheets of paper in his hand.

“You look pleased,” I remark.

He beams. “I am. I struck a deal, and she said yes. Let me go track down Christian so we can tell him everything.”

I’m dying to know everything too.



*

Twenty minutes later, we walk into another café across the city, and Christian is waiting, drinking a coffee at an outdoor table. He runs a hand through his hair, slick with sweat from his run. A smile seems to tug at the corner of his lips when he spots me, but then it fades. He stands and drops a kiss to my cheek, and I wrap an arm around him, craving a bit of closeness. “Hi.” His voice sounds strained.

“Hi,” I say, and nerves thread through me. Christian seems cooler than usual. I want to ask him why, but Erik has a bulldog puppy inhabiting him today.

Erik clamps one hand on my shoulder and the other on Christian’s, separating us as he chuckles like Santa Claus. “And that kind of show won’t be necessary any longer.” Erik grabs a chair and parks his hands behind his head, clearly pleased with himself.

“What do you mean?” Christian asks as he takes a seat too. I do the same.

Erik’s grin stretches from Paris to Copenhagen. “She sold me her shares.”

My eyes widen.

Christian’s jaw comes unhinged. “What?”

He slaps the papers on the table victoriously. “I was tired of her games. So I made her an offer she couldn’t refuse. I knew when she tracked you down at the match that she was at the end of her rope, so I figured I had a shot at putting an end to this whole ruse.” He gestures from Christian to me, and his smile grows. He is the portrait of a proud man. A man who solved a problem. “The two of you were tremendous. You came through for me, and I can’t thank you both enough. But I’m tired of being the pathetic loser who begged his brother to marry a woman he was merely shagging so I could stay in charge of a company.”

I bristle at the way Erik describes me, especially since Christian and I weren’t even sleeping together till after we tied the knot. “Is that how you described this?” I ask my husband.

He slashes a hand through the air. “No. Absolutely not.”

Erik waves a hand. He’s undeterred. “You know what I’m getting at. The two of you had a deal. You made a deal for me, and I bloody love you for it. But we all know the score. You like each other. But no one is in love here, so you shouldn’t have to fake it, and now you don’t.” He leans back and swipes one palm across the other. “Problem solved.”