by Maggie Marr
“I think they do own an island,” Gwen said.
“What? How do they fail to tell me these things? I mean, that space is perfect for nearly any party we could want to have, right? It’s a blank canvas. You could put up moveable walls and decorate. Plus the kitchen? Gwen, really, that is a perfect space for your business.”
“Yes, of course, buuuuut…I mean, you do know I work out of my kitchen for a reason, right?”
“That space would be the ideal way to introduce Rockwater Farms and Nina to New York. We can do limited events, tastings, charity events, parties, maybe even weddings. See how all of this fits? Then, when it’s time look for the restaurant space Nina wants—”
“You never stop, do you? You’re on bed rest, about to have a baby, and you’re thinking about not one but two new businesses to start in the next year.”
“Well, I was thinking more like a couple months, but—”
“Aubrey, come on!” The doorbell rang. Gwen picked up her iPad and carried it with her to the door. “Could we just get through the baby shower and the launch party first?” Gwen smiled down at Aubrey’s image on the screen and opened the door. The sweet scent of flowers washed over her.
“Uh…”
A delivery guy popped his head from behind a giant bouquet of pink peonies and magnolias. “Gwen Fleming?”
“Uh-huh.”
“For you.”
“Okay, let me get…” Gwen clamped the iPad under one arm and scrambled into her purse, which hung beside the door. “Just a second, Aubrey.” She pulled out a five for the delivery guy.
“Thanks. Enjoy the flowers.”
Gwen took the huge arrangement, careful not to drop the iPad as she wrapped her free arm around the vase and braced the bottom with her other hand.
“Flowers? You got flowers?”
Shoot, she’d almost forgotten that Aubrey was still on the iPad now squished against the side of Gwen’s chest. She walked into the kitchen, a delicate sprig of asparagus fern tickling her nose. The gorgeous flowers smelled of spring and love. She set the bouquet on the kitchen table.
“Gwen, let me see!” Aubrey insisted.
Deep breath. Gwen turned the iPad toward the flowers.
“Oh, they’re beautiful. Who are they from?”
Gwen didn’t want to read the card now. What if they were from Leo? Her heart stuttered inside her chest… It couldn’t be, but who else would send her flowers?
“Not sure.” Gwen lifted both shoulders. “Probably a happy client. Or maybe even a floral designer who’s pitching me their services.”
“Read the card.” Aubrey tilted her head. “There is a card, isn’t there?”
“Yes, yes there is.” Gwen plucked the card from the bouquet. Then she paused. “Oh my gosh, the door again,” she fibbed. “Aubrey, let me call you back, okay? I need to—”
“Gwen, read the card, I want to know—”
But Gwen pressed the off button on her iPad. Yes, she felt bad about hanging up on Aubrey, but she also wanted to read this card alone. What if the flowers were from Leo? What if they weren’t? What if, what if, what if…
She opened the crisp white envelope and pulled out a bright white card with the initials “L. T.” embossed across the top. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
What reason could Leo have to send her flowers? Was he still trying to convince her she should agree to a convenient arrangement with him? She thought she’d put that idea to rest, but then last night at the Upper East Side space…before Aubrey called…the strangest moment had passed between them. He’d looked at her…something in Leo’s eyes, in his stance and even in his voice had seemed different, more serious, more sincere, but Aubrey had called and the moment had passed. They hadn’t discussed anything other than the space and the launch party after that, and then Leo had dropped her at home, as she’d stuck with the lie that she had a previous dinner engagement. Well, she did have a dinner engagement—just with Mr. Mouse and a Lean Cuisine. Ha!
Enough. She took another deep breath and opened her eyes. Her cat had jumped on the kitchen table and rubbed his whiskers against the tall glass vase. “Mr. Mouse, what is this man thinking?” she said, running her eyes over the words on the card.
Thank you for last night. May I take you to dinner?
Leo
Last night? There hadn’t been a last night…and why dinner? So he could spend a whole evening trying to convince her to sleep with him, be his ongoing booty call so that they could get this mutual attraction out of their systems?
No thank you. She could find less hurtful ways to spend her time. She wanted to be more to a man than a convenient arrangement. If that meant she wasn’t Leo’s type of woman, then fine, but she wasn’t going to waste her time or her energy or put her heart in a place to be broken.
The flowers were beautiful, though. She wished she could say yes to dinner…but she couldn’t. Her phone rang. Had to be Aubrey. What would she tell her best friend? Was it time to tell her the entire sordid story about Leo and New Year’s Eve? She blindly swiped the answer bar, not able to take her eyes off of the perfect blooms.
“Did you get the flowers?”
Heat shot through her body. She closed her eyes. How did he do that? One simple question from Leo, and her entire body quivered with desire.
“I did. Thank you. They’re beautiful.”
“And you read the card?”
“Mmmhmm.” She still held the heavy square with his initials across the top between her fingertips. What could she say to Leo that was honest, but didn’t make everything uncomfortable and strange? Before she could overthink it, she blurted out the truth. “Listen, Leo, I…I can’t go to dinner with you because I’m not interested in a convenient arrangement. I…I just can’t do that with you.”
“I’m not either.”
Leo’s voice was deep and thick. Gwen blinked, certain she’d misheard what Leo said.
“Excuse me?”
“I’m not interested in that type of arrangement with you, but I am interested in taking you to dinner.”
Her stomach flipped. “To dinner as in a…” She couldn’t say the word, she hardly wanted to even think the word. My God, what kind of mess would they be stepping into if they actually went out together? “As in a date?”
“Yes, a date. The two of us. Dinner. Will you go?”
Her heart rattled her ribs, and fuzzy white noise filled her brain… Leo had asked her on a date. Was he breaking his rules or just bending them? What exactly did this invitation mean? The man she’d crushed hard on for the last six months was asking her to dinner. She wanted to scream “yes!” and do a victory dance around her apartment and yet…they faced the same challenges as when she’d told him she couldn’t be party to a “convenient arrangement.” If they went on a date and people found out—and they would find out, Leo got photographed like he was Prince Harry at a whorehouse—they’d still have to deal with all the questions from family and friends.
“I can actually hear your brain spinning.” The smile in Leo’s voice calmed her. “You’re working out every single worst-case scenario in your mind. I understand, I get it, but Gwen, this is dinner between two adults who like each other. I promise I can act like an adult. I know you may not believe me, but I can, and I’m pretty sure you can too.”
She smiled. Dinner with Leo Travati? Alone? On a date? This was a dream come true, how could she possibly say no? She couldn’t, could she? Her good sense demanded she say no, but the rest of her, every part of her, wanted to say yes.
“I’d love to.” Gwen’s heart jolted against her ribs. Such a bad girl walking on the wild side. “But can we try to keep this quiet? Just between us?”
“I won’t tell a soul,” Leo said. “Not sure about the millions who read The Daily News, but I promise not to breathe a word.”
“That’s fair.” Gwen smiled. “We can always say we’re working on the launch.”
“Miss Fleming, I never knew you to be a liar.�
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She flushed. Was he alluding to their conversation on New Year’s Day? “Maybe occasionally,” she said, swallowing hard. “When necessary.”
“I see.” He paused. “I’m sorry for making that necessary.”
She pressed her lips together. He knew, Leo absolutely knew that she’d been faking being nonchalant and devil-may-care. Why deny it?
“Does Friday night work? Seven?” he asked.
“Perfect,” Gwen said.
“I’ll pick you up then.”
She pushed “off” on her phone and put one trembling hand to her forehead. The sweet scent of magnolias and peonies infused her apartment. What the heck? She had a date with Leo. A real date. Not a one-night stand, or a convenient arrangement, but a real date where he’d sent her flowers, called her up, and asked her out…my goodness, how was this even possible? She’d slept with him, told him to kiss off, and now he was asking her out? It all seemed backwards and upside down…and she wasn’t sure…did she have anything to wear?
Gwen glanced at her phone. She didn’t have the luxury of time to worry. She had a meeting with a potential client in an hour and she still needed to shower and dress. Her hand slid over Mr. Mouse’s soft arched back. The beauty of the flowers stunned her. How would she keep her mind on anything but her upcoming dinner date with Leo? Hmm, she had no choice. She’d just have to try.
*
The racquetball court stank of sweat and stale towels and absolutely nothing feminine. For that lack of the feminine, Leo was oddly thankful. Everything Travati was being taken over by a g*aggle of girls, Leo groused, but here he was getting ready for a date on Friday night that had him wound up like a Yankees fan in Boston.
“Where would you take Aubrey to dinner?” he asked Justin, deliberately not making eye contact. Just trying to pretend it was a theoretical question, no big deal.
“Right now?” His older brother bounced the ball on the court. “Anywhere with a burger and fries. She can’t get enough cheeseburgers, plus throw in a chocolate shake and we’ve got a date.”
Not what he was after. “No, no, no, I mean if you wanted to take her for a nice dinner, something special?”
Justin turned his head to look intently at Leo. “Special? You want to take a woman somewhere special?”
“Cut the commentary.”
Justin dropped the ball and served. The screech of rubber bouncing off the wooden floor repeatedly sliced through their huffing and puffing until Justin slammed the ball into the wall and scored.
“You were saying there’s a woman in your life who warrants a special dinner.”
“Forget I asked.” Leo grabbed his towel and scrubbed it over his face. Like he needed his brother busting his balls.
“No, no, it’s just I never hear you mentioning taking a woman somewhere special for dinner. I thought your type of liaisons involved Chinese takeout and king-sized beds.”
“I have, on occasion, taken a woman out.”
“To an event yes, but those aren’t usually relationships, are they? Would you be seeking out a special place to take those women?”
Justin was right, yes. With the convenient arrangements he’d had with the assortment of exquisitely polished women he took to events, they often dined in all the right places but didn’t really do special things. But again those had been mutually agreed-upon convenient arrangements, disposable relationships. When he and whatever actress, model, or heiress he was bedding at the time worked through the physical attraction, the entire involvement ended. Those women were just as ready to move on to the next man as he was to move on to the next woman.
“What about flying her somewhere? That’s kind of impressive, isn’t it? Use the corporate jet and take her somewhere unusual.”
Leo shook his head. “Don’t think she’ll be impressed.”
“Seriously?”
Leo nodded. “It’ll take a show of the heart to impress her, not a show of capital.”
“Oh.” A knowing grin spread across Justin’s face. He stuffed his towel into his bag. “I see.”
“You see what?” His older brother’s superior attitude annoyed Leo.
“Well, when a man wants to do something special for a woman that involves an emotional component, that usually means there’s something deeper going on than just a ‘convenient arrangement.’”
“This…yes…well…this person may mean more than that,” Leo admitted.
“Well, well, well,” Justin cocked an eyebrow. “Who knew?” He slung the strap of his gym bag over his shoulder and headed through the door to the club’s locker room. “The reports that you have no heart are indeed false.” Justin dropped his bag in front of his locker. “I told everyone they were wrong, you just hadn’t discovered the right woman yet.”
Leo grumbled. Who was Justin to give Leo shit about being a womanizer? Before Aubrey had reentered his life, Justin had been a bigger player than Leo.
“Have you considered cooking for her?” Justin opened his locker and pulled out a fresh towel.
“Cooking? Me? Cook?”
“It’s a special thing for a man to cook for a woman. Or they think it is.” Justin tossed his clothes into his bag. “Not sure why, maybe it’s us showing them our domestic side. Or vulnerability. Maybe it’s vulnerability.”
Cooking, eh? Leo’s cooking entailed a microwave and leftovers. He did not cook. Couldn’t even boil water.
“I don’t know that’s the way to start out…I…well, I can admit that I’m not a very good cook.”
“Neither am I, and to be honest, neither is Aubrey. You know what she did? I thought it was pretty genius. She’d bring the food in from Rockwater and then heat it up and put it in regular dishes. Took me about four meals before I figured out that she wasn’t cooking for me at all, but faking me out with her sister’s food.”
“Brilliant.”
“And breakfast, have bagels and cream cheese in the fridge. No one can mess that up.”
“I’m not sure I’ll need to worry about breakfast. I mean, I think it’s unfair to assume—”
“Wait, so you want to have a special meal with a woman, maybe even cooking for her, but you won’t assume there’ll be a need for breakfast?”
Leo nodded.
Justin slapped him on the shoulder. “I sure as hell hope this special dinner works out for you, because I think you may have met the girl who’s going to flip you on your ass.”
Chapter 8
“I got the new gig!” Gwen called out as she marched into Aubrey’s kitchen and swung the bag of takeout salads onto the counter. Aubrey, standing by the refrigerator, smiled a knowing smile that said loud and clear, Of course you did, silly. Wait—Aubrey was in the kitchen? “What are you doing out of bed?”
“I needed some water.”
“Ramona can get you water. You’re not supposed to be up.”
“Ramona went to the store.” Aubrey grimaced. “Do you have any idea how hard it is to lay in bed all day, every day?”
“I don’t know.” Gwen lifted both boxes from the bag. “Sounds sort of fabulously decadent to me.”
“For the first twenty-four hours. Now I’m bored and cranky and I’ve watched more TV than any human should. I’m driving Nina crazy with my emails and texts. She banned me from texting her the rest of today. Unless there’s an emergency, I’m limited to ten texts a day.”
“Ten? That’s pretty generous.” Gwen opened a cabinet and pulled out two plates. “Go to your room. I’ll be there in a minute with lunch.”
“Fine. I return to my bed under protest and only because you’re here. I’m losing my mind. Thank goodness you came by.” Aubrey smiled again. “And you got the job!” She lifted her hands over her head in a triumphant gesture as she turned and tottered off toward the far side of the penthouse.
Five minutes later Gwen sat beside Aubrey on Aubrey’s bed, both with their feet propped up and their backs against the headboard. “Morgan Montgomery wasn’t anything like I expected.”
/> “She’s pretty awesome, right? Just really straight and down-to-earth. I knew you two would hit it off. You can’t imagine what a nightmare her last event planner was. The woman stole half the venue fee, and then there was no food because she forgot to finalize the contract with the caterer.”
“I guess there are a lot of flaky event planners.”
“That’s why your business is growing so fast. All you needed was a couple high-profile events—”
“Which I got thanks to you.”
“No, you got them because you’d done such a great job with the Teddy Bear Luncheon for five years. You were the natural choice for my charity events. Plus I like you.” Aubrey speared a piece of lettuce. “You bring me food, you let me whine, and you tell me when I need to get my ass back to bed.” Aubrey sighed. “I know it’s not much longer”—she rested her hand on her belly—“and I know it’s totally worth it, but I can’t help but feel there’s so much I should be doing.”
“Stop, just stop,” Gwen said. “Nina’s right, you’re growing a baby. Everything else can wait. Nina’s got Rockwater and I’ve got the baby shower and the launch. Your plans for world domination will simply have to be on hold until the baby’s born.”
Aubrey rolled her eyes, but didn’t argue. “Will you come over this Friday night to play cards? Shelly and Anthony and Nonna are coming for dinner. I’d love to have you join.”
A tiny thread of cold apprehension tickled Gwen’s stomach. Normally, she’d say yes. She loved the relaxed feeling of hanging out on a Friday night with Aubrey and her family, so different from all the time she spent being social at big events. They ate dinner, drank wine, and played cards. She was becoming quite the shark at hearts.
“I can’t,” Gwen said softly. “I…uh…I have plans.”
Aubrey’s mouth curved into a sly smile. “Plans, as in a date with the man who sent you flowers?”
Gwen smiled. Goodness, she wanted to fess up, and tell her best friend but Aubrey would flip if she knew the flowers and the date involved Leo.
