“The point is, if you can’t give me that then—”
“I’d give you time to talk to him if I could, but it’s too late. That call I got this morning? It was about this.”
He grabbed his iPhone from the counter, opened the email that had come in earlier, a link to a well-known sports blog that had posted a photo of the two of them taken last night as they exited the restaurant.
Her cheeks were flushed. Her hand in his. There was no doubt they were together. Or intended to be.
She took the phone and stared at the photo filling the screen. “Oh God.” She jumped up from her seat.
“My phone. I need my phone from your car.” She started for the door then turned back to him. “Why didn’t you tell me about the picture before?”
“It’s only been ten minutes since I found out. I was trying to find out how far it spread.”
“And?” she asked.
“It’s gone viral, in the Miami sports blogs anyway.”
She winced. “What are they saying? What’s the caption?”
“Is it important?” he asked, not wanting to get into that.
She eyed him warily. “The fact that you asked that tells me it is,” she said in a cool voice.
He met her gaze. “Miami Thunder President, Ian Dare, and his latest fling. What are the odds this one makes it beyond the weekend?”
“Wonderful,” she muttered.
He refused to lose her over something he couldn’t control. “It only matters what goes on between us, and we’ve already had this conversation. You don’t need to worry.”
“It’s not me I’m worried about,” she said, her expression panic-stricken. “I need to call Alex.”
Of course she did. Somehow he managed to stop the words from coming out of his mouth. “Use my phone,” he said.
When she hesitated, he said, “It’s faster than waiting for my car to be brought around.”
She swallowed hard. “Thanks.” She dialed and waited for the other man to answer.
Ian knew he ought to give her privacy, but he couldn’t bring himself to walk out. He didn’t like being in the dark, and when it came to Riley and Alex, he wasn’t just the one being blacked out, he was entirely on the outside looking in. The thought turned his stomach.
“Hi, it’s me,” she said.
“Dammit, Riley—I’ve been calling you all night. Then I wake up this morning to that photo of you and Ian?”
Ian stood close enough to Riley that Alex’s voice carried from the other end, and he clenched his hands at his sides.
“I was waiting until you came home from your trip to tell you in person.” She glanced at Ian and turned away. “He offered me a job with the Thunder.”
“And he’s f**king you at the same time?” Alex yelled.
“It’s not like that!” she shot right back.
Except it was exactly like that, Ian thought, and they both knew it.
“You’re home from LA, right?” she asked.
Whatever his answer, he’d lowered his voice, and Ian could no longer hear.
“Okay then. I’ll see you this afternoon. In the meantime, calm down.” Silence followed, then, “Love you too. Bye.”
Resisting the urge to punch something, Ian waited for her to turn back toward him. When she did, she appeared much more subdued than he’d have liked.
“He hates me that much?” Ian asked her.
She shook her head. “No matter what he said, it’s not all about you. It’s about me and Alex. And me keeping this from him for the last week.”
“You said he’s your family.”
She looked up at him, eyes wide and glassy. “He is. Alex and my stepmom. They’re all I have.”
Ian wanted to be included in that short list. It didn’t matter how little he really knew her, what he did know had only convinced him she was special. The right person for him in an otherwise empty personal life. Other than family, who he’d do anything for, he hadn’t had anyone he’d felt so strongly for—ever. Losing her before they ever got started wasn’t an option.
“What about your parents?”
She swallowed hard. “My mom died when I was sixteen. And my father…I don’t have a relationship with him, and I don’t discuss him. Ever.”
Ian accepted that declaration. For now.
“Can you take me to get my car?” she asked.
“Sure.” The morning had imploded in a way he’d never expected, and he saw no way of salvaging things.
Until she made her peace with Alex, no amount of coaxing by Ian would make things better. Which made Ian’s overture to his half siblings tomorrow night that much more important.
SEVEN
Riley stripped out of her clothes and stepped into the shower, eager to wash away the stress of the day. But all the hot water in the world couldn’t erase the knowledge that Alex wasn’t pleased about her relationship with Ian. To say he hated it would be an understatement. He wouldn’t stand in her way, but he couldn’t say he was happy. He didn’t trust his half brother, and she understood why.
From the time they were kids and Alex had found out he had an older brother, he’d been eager to get to know him. Someone to have his back, instead of him having to have theirs, as he did with his siblings. Ian had played football in high school, like Alex. Ian had gotten a scholarship to the University of Florida, like Alex. But no matter how many similarities the teenagers and then the men shared, Ian froze Alex and his family out.
It made sense, of course. Alex’s sister Sienna and her childhood leukemia had exposed their father’s affair with Alex’s mother. Sienna had needed a bone marrow donor, and Robert Dare had revealed the truth in the hopes one of his other children would be a match. Avery had been, which had led to Avery, Olivia, and Sienna bonding during hospital time.
The sad thing was, Savannah had always known about Robert Dare’s wife and kids. She’d accepted it because his marriage to Emma St. Claire had been one of convenience, while he’d loved Savannah. And though Alex had been an oops baby, their relationship had taken hold, and he’d built a family with them. Spent time with them. More time than he had with his real family.
So Sienna’s illness had been the catalyst for destroying Ian’s family. Of course he wanted nothing to do with the kids his father had with another woman. Even Alex rationally understood that, but as they grew to be adults, instead of getting beyond their father’s mistakes, their competition only grew, with Alex being drafted by the Tampa Breakers, while Ian had already begun his climb within the Thunder organization. Just another rivalry to separate the men.