by Julie Kriss
Kaito cleared his throat. “Dane, you’re not married. I was just in Chicago a few days ago and your girlfriend had left you. Remember?”
“I remember. I’m going to get her back, and we’re going to have a baby.”
“You seem awfully confident about that.”
“I am.” I leaned back in my seat. “I’m sorry, Kaito. You gave me a good offer, and I know I confused the hell out of you. Aside from the fact that you’re a genius, I actually like you. I don’t mean to jerk you around. But that’s the only offer I have on the table.”
“She must be very special. You’re sure about this?”
“She is, and yes, I am.”
“All right. I’ll take your offer of free labor, just to get access to the contents of your brain. I have my own wife and children, so I can’t complain too much. I’ll have my lawyers draft an agreement at a sane hour of the morning. And I want you in Tokyo next month.”
I agreed and hung up. It was a big deal. I was going to work with Kaito Okada on the biggest, most secret project he’d ever done. I was leaving Tower VC, which I’d helped found. I was on the outs with my best friend with no plan as to how to make him forgive me. And I was technically unemployed by my own choice.
I didn’t think of any of that. I put the phone in my lap and forgot about Kaito, about Aidan, about cancer or AI or anything. They were all gone from my mind. Because I was going to see Ava, and that was all that mattered.
Twenty-Five
Ava
* * *
Dane had cut his hair.
He was standing in the doorway of the beach house, wearing jeans and a T-shirt beneath a zip-up sweater I knew was Tom Ford because I’d bought it. His beard was trimmed, and he had an overnight bag on his shoulder. And his dark brown hair was cut short, showing off his perfect jaw and his dreamy cheekbones. He’d looked sexy with long, tousled hair. He looked even sexier now. So sexy that for a second I stood gaping at him like a girl who’d never seen him before, too starstruck to even let him through the door.
He looked me up and down as the rain misted down behind him. “Your hair,” he said.
“Your hair,” I said.
He grinned. Holy hell. Grumpy Dane was hot, and one of my favorite people. I didn’t have the strength to withstand Cocky Grinning Dane. My watery knees couldn’t take it.
“I was always going to get the haircut,” he said. “I was just trying to piss you off.”
Then he dropped the bag and came through the door. I jumped him and wrapped my legs around his waist as he hooked his arms under my ass and kissed me long and hard. He walked to the kitchen and set me on the counter so he could use his hands to cup my jaw and kiss me with such deep, serious intent that the entire region between my legs went hot and wild. He smelled like Dane and misty rain and excellent, excellent top-level cashmere. I ran my hands through his hair as I kissed him, feeling its new short length.
I pulled my mouth away from his. “This is a good haircut,” I panted, still clinging to him like a barnacle.
Dane grinned again, turning me into hot wax. “I called Tyrell.”
I punched his shoulder. I had begged him so many times. “You asshole.”
He kissed me again, shutting me up. Then he lowered his mouth and kissed his way down my neck, his beard rasping against my skin in the most shivery way. “You’re brunette,” he growled.
“Yes, I am.” I squeezed him tighter with my thighs, keeping him where he was in case he was thinking of leaving.
Dane’s hands moved to my hips. “Are these… track pants?”
“They’re couture,” I argued, because four-hundred-dollar track pants are not track pants.
“Whatever you say.” His clever hand moved to the waistband and dipped beneath it, sliding over where I was wet and hot for him. I gasped and he moaned against my skin as if he’d just spent months crossing the Sahara desert. “Fuck, I missed this.”
I nipped his earlobe and unzipped his sweater, desperate to have him. The dreamy state of the past few weeks had vanished in a second. “Hurry up,” I said.
His fingers moved over me, his fingertips sliding inside me. “Pee on a stick first.”
“No way. If I wasn’t pregnant, you got me pregnant when you walked through the door. Now get your pants off.”
He kissed me, his hand still moving. “Test first, then dick,” he said. “That’s the order of things.”
I groaned in frustration, moving my hips so his fingers would hit the right spot. “Your hand, then. Make me come or I won’t do the test at all.”
“Are you negotiating with me?”
“Maybe. Am I winning?”
His reply was to move his thumb right there, the sensation so good and so strong that I dropped my head back and closed my eyes. He held me tight as I spiraled higher, and then I came apart, shaking and gasping for breath. He kissed me again as I spun back to earth.
“Do you like the house?” he asked, sliding his hand out of my pants.
I sat on the kitchen counter, feeling stupid and wrecked. And happy. Dane was here, he was amazing, and he’d just made me come within sixty seconds of walking through the door. “I love it,” I said. “I never want to leave.”
“Then don’t.” He adjusted his jeans and looked me over. “This place suits you.”
“The orgasm suits me.” My cheeks were warm. Was I blushing? I’d never blushed at a compliment from Dane Scotland before. Something must really be wrong with me. I tried to regain my dignity and get back to business. “How did it go with Kaito Okada? Tell me you wore the Zegna. That’s my favorite thing I bought you.”
Dane blew out a breath and scrubbed a hand through his hair, which drew my attention to it again. I wasn’t used to Dane with short hair. “Can we do the pregnancy test and talk about it later?”
“No.” I tensed and pressed my knees together. “What happened? Tell me now. Was he a jerk? Did he hate the restaurant? Was it a disaster?”
“We never got to the restaurant,” Dane said. “We drank, and then he wanted to go to the hangar where his private jet was parked, so we went. And he offered me a job at Okada.”
My jaw dropped. “Leave Tower VC? That’s crazy.” I looked at his expression. “Or maybe not so crazy. Are you saying you’re going to do it?”
Dane looked tense, and my stomach dropped. Okada was in Japan. I might be pregnant right now, as we were talking, and Dane might be going to Japan.
I’d just gotten him back, and now I was going to lose him?
But Dane didn’t say that. What he said was worse.
“I’m leaving Tower VC no matter what I do,” he said. “Ava, I told Aidan about us. About eleven years ago, and now. He’s kicking me out of the company.”
All this had been happening while I was napping? Jesus. “He can’t do that,” I said, sliding off the kitchen counter and walking to the living room, looking for my phone. “That asshole. Why didn’t he call me? I’ll call him right now.”
“He isn’t mad at you,” Dane said. “He’s mad at me.”
“That’s bullshit,” I shot back. “The last I remember, I was participating when you and I lost our virginity. In fact, it was my idea. If Aidan wants to be mad, he can be mad at both of us.” I flipped a cushion, my phone nowhere to be found. I hadn’t used it much in the past few days.
“It threw him for a loop,” Dane said. “When he calms down, it’ll be fine.”
“It isn’t fine if his stupidity sent you to the other side of the planet!” I cried. “My brother is mad, so you go to Japan? And no one called me? Why are men so insane?” I looked around. “And where the hell is my phone?”
“I’m not going to Japan.”
“Of course you are! It’s Okada, a huge amazing company run by a genius. It’s the opportunity of a lifetime. Of course you’re going! And I’m going to be left here to have a baby by myself!”
“Ava.” He strode into the room, next to me, and put his hands on my shoulders, turning me toward hi
m. “You’re not listening. I’m not going.”
I looked up at him. “You turned down Kaito Okada? When you like his air traffic control code so much? Dane, that’s crazy.” Then it occurred to me. “Oh God, it’s because of this baby, right? You turned Okada down because you feel bad.” I pulled out of his grip. “Let’s go do the test right now. If I’m not pregnant, you can call him back.”
“It doesn’t matter.” He followed me as I strode toward the bathroom. “Whatever the test says, I’m not changing my mind.”
I felt the sting of tears behind my eyes. Did pregnancy make you emotional, or was this just my heart breaking? “Then you’re insane. Don’t turn him down. If I’m not pregnant, you should go.”
“Ava.” He grasped my arm, turned me gently. I took a breath. I didn’t pull free. “I’m not fucking leaving,” he said. “Don’t you get that? I’m not fucking leaving. We knew what we were doing when we made this baby. I’m all in. And if you’re not pregnant, I’m still all in. If there’s no baby, I want to keep trying until you are. If that’s what you want, that is.”
Now the tears were stinging my eyes and my throat, and I felt them start to spill down my cheeks. I swallowed, trying to keep them back. “Don’t,” I said. “Please don’t. Don’t hold yourself back for me. I’m not the kind of girl you make sacrifices for, Dane.”
That was my mother talking. I knew that—I knew it. But it didn’t stop the words from slicing through my mind: He can do better than you. He shouldn’t give up anything for you. Because any man could do better than you.
Dane’s hand touched my cheek, cradled my jaw. He dipped his head and kissed the soft skin next to my ear as if he knew what I was thinking. Maybe he did. He knew me so fucking well.
“Having a baby with you isn’t holding me back,” he said softly. “It’s getting what I want. I wanted you eleven years ago, Ava, and I was too scared to say it. I wanted the baby we lost, even though we didn’t plan it. I wanted all of it with you.”
“Dane,” I said, my voice a sob.
“You’re my girl,” he said, as if this was obvious. “My first girl, my best girl. The woman I’ve always wanted but didn’t think I could have. I proposed to you in that restaurant because I wanted to marry you, Ava. It was a stupid move, but I didn’t do it because I felt obligated. I did it because I wanted to fucking marry you. It wasn’t the right time for us then, but it is now. I finally got you back after eleven years without you. I’m not going anywhere unless you tell me to.”
“Don’t you dare,” I said fiercely. “Don’t you dare go anywhere, Dane Scotland. If you’re mine, then you’re really mine. Swear it.”
“I swear,” he said.
I sniffed and wiped the tears from my cheeks. I loved him so much in that moment I didn’t think I could stand it. It felt too big, too terrifying. I didn’t think it was possible to love anyone the way I loved this gorgeous, sexy, grumpy, beautiful man.
“Okay,” I said to him. “I’m going to go pee on a stick.”
“I love you,” he said, because he could always read my mind.
“Stop making me cry.” I wiped more tears. “I have to concentrate.”
“You don’t have to concentrate to pee.”
“On a stick,” I corrected him. “I have to aim this time. And there are three different sticks, because I want to be sure. I have to keep them straight.”
“I’ll help you,” he said.
“You will not.” I waved a hand. “I’d like some privacy. Go code something for a few minutes.”
“Nice try. I’ll stand outside the door, but that’s as far as I go.”
We actually argued about that—about my pee—for five more minutes, but Dane won. He helped me sort the sticks, and then he stood outside the open door because I wouldn’t let him in. A girl has to keep some secrets.
Then we waited, the sticks lined up on the bathroom counter. Dane unzipped his sweater and took it off, then took off the tee he was wearing beneath it. He started unbuckling his belt.
“What are you doing?” I asked, nervous but also distracted by the yummy sight of him. All that muscle made me stupid.
“I’m preparing for a negative test,” he said as if that were obvious. “If you do it enough times, it has to work sooner or later. Get naked, Ava.”
“And if the test is positive?”
“Then we celebrate. With sex.”
I narrowed my eyes. “You just want to get laid.”
“Says the woman who wouldn’t even talk to me until I made her come,” he said. “You wanted me to fuck you earlier, so now you get your wish.”
That sounded good, so good, but I was still nervous about the sticks on the counter. “You really said no to Kaito Okada?” I asked. “Just forget it, goodbye?”
Dane was down to his black boxer briefs, like a big Christmas present that was mostly unwrapped. He caught me around the waist, turned so he was leaning against the counter, and pulled me between his thighs. “I told him I’d work as a consultant. For free. I have to go to Japan next month, but only for a visit.” He leaned in and nibbled my neck.
He was happy, I realized. No matter what the sticks said, Dane was happy. And so was I. I put my hands on his shoulders, feeling how hard and warm they were. “Of course you’re going to save the world for free,” I said. “You’re a superhero.”
He laughed softly against my skin.
“I’ve had time to think about my career,” I told him, my eyes glancing over his shoulder to the sticks and away again. “I’m going to start my own business.”
“Oh yeah? Doing what?”
“I’m going to start my own clothing line for women with curves. Clothes that are sexy and flattering and perfect for going to work. That are quality made. And have pockets. I filled a sketchbook with ideas. But I don’t know what I’m doing, so it’s kind of terrifying.”
Dane kissed my temple. “You’ll figure it out. If you want me to help, I will.”
“You will? We’re really doing this, aren’t we?”
He pulled back and looked into my eyes. “Yeah, we are.”
I glanced past his shoulder again. “Good, because the lines and the squiggles say I’m pregnant.”
There was a pause, and then Dane swung me up against his chest, both of us laughing. Then he kissed me.
Then Dane kept his promise, and we went to bed.
Epilogue
Three months later
* * *
Dane
* * *
Ava pushed her chair back from the kitchen table. “I did it,” she said, putting her fist in the air. “I cooked a lasagna. And it was killer.”
“You did,” Aidan said, smiling across the table at her. “And it was.”
“I agree,” Samantha said, pushing away her empty plate. “I should have worn my yoga pants.”
I stood up, stacking empty plates. It was Sunday night, and we were at the beach house. Ava and I lived here now; I was about to put my Chicago penthouse up for sale. After a lifetime in Chicago, I didn’t need to be there anymore. The beach house was home.
This was the fourth Sunday we’d had dinner with Aidan and Samantha. The dinners were Ava’s idea; Aidan and I claimed we didn’t need regular dinners to complete the process of our making up and becoming friends again, but Ava insisted.
Aidan had come around pretty quickly after our fight. He and Ava had spent a lot of time together talking things through, and when he was convinced that I hadn’t trampled his little sister’s heart—only her virginity, though she never specified that part—he actually apologized to me. The Man in Black, the most terrifying real estate baron in Manhattan, drove all the way out to Nowhere, Long Island to apologize in person. Noah said I should have filmed it.
Of course I forgave him. He’d been mad, and then he stopped being mad, and that was the end of it. That’s the way men work. But Ava wanted regular dinners, so we agreed. And in a way, she was right. I hadn’t spent a lot of time with my best friend in the
past eleven years, and I hadn’t spent much time with Samantha at all. Every time we had one of these dinners, it was actually fun. Ava said she was proud of me for—as she called it—“briefly emerging from my cave of grumpiness.”
“What’s the news from Okada?” Aidan asked me as I took his dishes.
“You know I can’t tell you that,” I replied. “Top secret and all that.” I’d spent ten days in Tokyo two months ago, looking over Okada’s cancer treatment project and giving ideas. Kaito and I had regular phone meetings—over a secure connection, of course, so there was no chance of anyone listening in.
“Does he need investors?” Aidan asked. “Tower is still interested, even though Okada tried to steal one of our partners.”
“You never quit,” Samantha said, shaking her head and smiling.
“Neither do you,” Aidan said to his wife. “We didn’t get where we are by quitting.”
“It was me who quit,” I said, putting the dishes in the sink.
Aidan ran a hand through his hair. He wasn’t wearing black tonight; that was something he did at work to give him the scary image he swore helped in making real estate deals. Tonight he was wearing jeans and a navy button-down shirt and he didn’t look scary at all. He looked like the guy I’d been friends with at fifteen. “I can’t believe you retired,” he said, looking around. “Part of me thought you wouldn’t go through with it.”
“I’m not even close to retired,” I said as I turned the tap on and started washing. I’d been washing my own dishes for as long as I could remember, and it was as naturally to me as breathing, no matter how much money I had. “I consult with Okada, I’m working on the AI program, and I’m helping Ava launch her business. The difference is that I work when I want, and I take time off when I want.”
“I have no idea what that’s like,” Samantha admitted. “I work all the time. I think I’d go crazy if I had too much time on my hands.”
“Maybe we’d have more sex if we didn’t work so much,” Aidan said to his wife.
