Seducing the Bridesmaid (Wedding Dare, #3)(44)

“Good. Then I’m going back to bed with my beautiful wife. Call me and let me know how everything turns out.”

“Will do.” He took a deep breath. “And…thanks. I know it’s not always easy to tell the hard truths.”

Colton paused. “In that case, I have one last piece of advice. Tell Reed about the foundation. He deserves to know.” He hung up before Brock could come up with a response. It was just as well. He had a lot of thinking and planning to do. He might be falling hard and fast for Regan, but he knew better than showing up on her doorstep without some kind of plan in place. She was a woman who lived for plans, which meant he needed one of his own.

…

Regan finished her presentation and turned to the man at the conference table. “Those are the top three candidates I have for the job. Is there one who caught your eye?”

The CFO of Geofit Enterprises stroked his mustache, staring at the now-blank screen. “Bring them all in.”

She smiled. This client tended to take the cautious approach, and he was known for going with his gut when it came to how a man shook his hand. “I thought you might say that, Mr. Reid. Shall I set the meetings up for next week?”

“Do that.” He stood and shook her hand. “Good work, Ms. Wakefield.”

“Thank me after you find the perfect applicant for the position.” One of the three she’d handpicked would fit the bill. All of the men were exactly what Mr. Reid was looking for. It was only a matter of the right personality clicking with his.

Normally, she’d be flying high at this point, knowing that this contract was all but in the bag, but she could barely dredge up more than a flicker of excitement. In the week she’d been back in New York, nothing could touch the sad gray cloud surrounding her. She felt like Pigpen, but without the unfortunate filth.

Her phone rang and her heart leaped for one terrible second before she reminded herself that Brock had no reason to call her. He’d all but literally washed his hands of her. Men that walked out like that didn’t typically come calling afterward.

Even under the crushing disappointment, she managed to perk up a little when she saw it was Julie. “Hey there, girlfriend.”

“I’ve been meaning to call you for days, but life keeps happening.”

“It does that.” She’d picked up the phone more times than she cared to count to call her best friend, but she’d set it down each time without going through with it. Julie was finally happy. It wasn’t on Regan to bring her problems to her door.

She would have loved to go grab drinks with Addison and bitch a little just to let off some steam, but Addison was juggling a few new clients and Regan doubted she’d see her for at least a few weeks. Which was a good thing. It was past time for both Christine and Julie to find their happiness.

That didn’t stop Regan from feeling lonelier than she ever had before.

Julie cleared her throat. “I couldn’t help but notice that you didn’t come back to the reception after you left—and neither did Brock.”

From the tone of her voice, she expected some juicy details, and Regan wished she could give them. Sadly, the truth was a whole lot more depressing. “He flipped out. Accused me of scheming to get Logan into bed.”

“Wasn’t that your plan?”

“Initially, yeah.” She reached the street and decided to hold off hailing a cab. The walk would do her good. “I know I thought I had Brock’s number down as a lazy playboy, but I was wrong about him.”

“I know.”

She nearly tripped over her own feet. “What?”

“He called Reed this morning. Apparently Brock is actually the founder of the Blue Boat Foundation. And he did it for Reed.” Her voice thickened. “You can’t know how much that means to Reed—to both of us.”

Regan couldn’t believe he’d told Reed, not when he’d basically ripped her a new one when she found out. From that reaction alone, she would have guessed he kept his involvement on the down-low—and that was without knowing how he’d covered his tracks as much as possible so he wasn’t linked to the foundation publicly. It was a mystery—and it’d remain that way because he wasn’t exactly breaking down her door to confess his reasoning to her. “I know. I did a background search on him and found out he was attached to the Blue Boat Foundation.”

Julie was silent for all of a beat. “Then what gives? He’s a saint as far as I’m concerned, and even the village fool could tell that he’s got a thing for you. Why aren’t you banging on his doorstep and demanding he make an honest woman of you?”

“Just because he finally owned up to this with Reed doesn’t mean he’s ready for something like that.” As much as she was coming to realize she wanted it. And not just with anyone—with Brock. He was the only person she’d ever been serious about who actually lightened the load of stress she carried around constantly. “He’s got this underachiever bullshit down to a science. He’s so terrified of coming up short that he’s not willing to even try. Not even for me.”

“Regan Wakefield, that’s a defeatist attitude if I ever heard one. Since when do you give up without a fight?”

“I don’t know. I can’t think straight when it comes to this guy. He’s got me so twisted up, I have a few hives’ worth of bees in my bonnet.”