Pacing, he assured himself that this had happened for the best. Maybe this would finally set the record straight between him and Abigail. She’d hate him, as she should have from the start. And it wasn’t as though he was cheating on her. They weren’t even a couple—they were barely friends, and she was surely the biggest pain in the neck he crossed on any given day. That was quite a feat, considering how much competition she had in that department.
Everything was going better than he could have hoped. He was surviving, keeping the mistakes of the past from repeating themselves while managing to keep his neck above the water. Why then, Ryan wondered, did he feel so damned bad?
* * * *
Abigail plopped onto the bench behind the lobby building. She positioned herself behind the large tree beside it. She caught her face in her hands.
She hadn’t just seen that—couldn’t have just seen that. But unless her eyes had been playing tricks on her, the events of the last two minutes had been as plain as the nose on her face. Ryan had been holding Kimberly Russell. And he’d kissed her cheek!
Maybe this was some sort of misunderstanding. Maybe Ryan was kissing Kimberly to congratulate her, because she and her husband were expecting their first child. But the chances of that were slim, considering Kimberly wasn’t married.
Abigail’s lungs shook as she breathed in and out. She shouldn’t care what Ryan Newberry did—didn’t care. Why in the world was she doing this to herself?
Ryan Newberry wasn’t good for her. Even if she was mildly attracted to the man, there were a number of factors about her supervisor that made her very suspicious. Like the way he’d acted upon seeing the body. And the fact that he jumped down her throat every time she asked him a question. Consequently, she’d never been able to ask him the questions that really burned in her mind—like what he’d been doing with that cash, or who Christopher Barrows was to him. Ryan was clearly a secretive guy, and yet her attraction to him was becoming deeper by the second. Why in the world was this happening to her?
“Hey, Abigail. Don’t tell me you’re tired of folding linens already.” Shane waved from the east wing building. After crossing the lawn in a shirt that was covered in paint, he said, “You don’t mind if I join you, do you?”
Abigail fought to hide the uneasiness in her voice. “Not at all. But actually, my break is just about over so I should probably be getting back to work.”
“You seem upset,” he said. “Is something wrong?”
“I’m fine. Just a little tired, with all the work we’ve all been doing.”
“Well that’s certainly understandable. We’ve been doing a lot of physical work the last couple of weeks and I’m sure you’re no more used to it than anyone else around here, myself included.” Letting his arms drape across the back of the bench as he stretched, Shane said, “Hey, why don’t I take you out to lunch? You look like you could use a break and I’d say you’ve certainly earned one.”
“That’s really not necessary,” Abigail protested, holding up her hands.
“Oh, but I insist. I can’t have my best front desk associate fading out on me before we’ve opened the doors.” Shane flashed an encouraging smile. Holding out his hand, he said, “Come on, my treat.”
Abigail hesitated. It felt strange accepting a lunch invitation from the assistant manager, especially since her best friend had a major crush on the guy. Shane was quite the flirt, but his asking her to lunch seemed over-the-top for his typical style.
Of course, Abigail did have a tendency to be paranoid. And she’d been told on more than one occasion that she needed to lighten up. Being friends with the managers couldn’t hurt her career any. She could probably use all the help she could get in that department.
“Best, huh?” She shot him a look. “I don’t think you’ve really seen me in action long enough to make a judgment like that. But hey, it’s your funeral.”
After Shane changed his clothes, the two of them walked to his car and drove to the center of town. A short while later they were seated opposite one another, in a booth at Main Street Café. As they talked, Abigail began to feel less and less awkward. Shane was friendly, but not overly so. It was what it should have been—a meal between friends. She was glad she’d decided to come, as she’d desperately needed a change of scenery. She’d actually found herself laughing a couple of times. Doing so had felt wonderful.
“You know, they have the most amazing rice pudding here,” Shane said, looking in the direction the waiter had disappeared to.
“Do they?” Abigail said. “I’ve been coming to this café for years and I can’t say I’ve ever tried it. Though I’ve always preferred chocolate pudding myself.”
“Chocolate, huh?” He cracked a smile. “That doesn’t sound too bad. Everything’s homemade here so it’s hard to find something that isn’t good. You decide which kind you want. I’m gonna go use the men’s room.”
“All right,” Abigail said and watched him as he disappeared. She felt guilty eating pudding in the middle of a Thursday afternoon, especially after a burger and fries, but she had been working very hard at the hotel. Maybe she’d even managed to lose a few pounds.
She sat alone for several minutes, half wondering whether Shane planned on coming back at all. She looked in the direction of the restrooms, hoping to see him coming toward her. But instead she spotted an older man with his son.
Shane’s phone buzzed on the table. Abigail picked it up and looked back at the restroom doors. Shane had yet to come through them, and she didn’t see that he was anywhere else in the restaurant.
The phone stopped vibrating. But a few seconds later it started again, the screen lighting up as it did so. There was no phone number, but the identity of the caller was displayed in big letters. Blocked.
Abigail looked up a third time, hoping to find Shane. But instead, the front door to the restaurant swung open. Through it stepped Kimberly Russell, who was wearing that skimpy white sundress Abigail had seen her in earlier, and laughing hysterically. Behind her, sporting a big, eager grin was Ryan.
Abigail cringed. Slouching as low as she could, she attempted to hide her face. She wished she were seeing things. But there were only a couple of restaurants this close to the hotel. And as the place didn’t have a working microwave yet, pretty much everyone had been making daily trips out to buy lunch.
A high-pitched squeal sounded a few feet away. Kimberly covered her smiling mouth and came toward Ryan, lacing her arm in his. The waiter led them to a table in the center of the room, a few feet from the booth where Abigail was sitting. Abigail watched as Ryan pulled back Kim’s chair, and waited for her to sit before sitting himself.
“Sorry about that,” Shane said as he slid into the booth. “I was trying to find the waiter to give him our dessert order since it’s getting pretty packed in here.”
The waiter followed him. “Sorry for the holdup, folks. Can I get either of you a refill on your drinks?”
“No thanks, but we would like some dessert,” Shane said. “Two chocolate puddings—chocolate, right, Abigail? Toss a little whipped cream on those, if you don’t mind.”
“Coming right up.” The waiter wandered off. He stopped in front of Ryan and Kimberly’s table, taking his notebook from his apron pocket.
Trying desperately not to think about the fact that Ryan was having a date right in front of her, Abigail cleared her throat. She forced herself to ignore the couple across the way and turned to her own lunch date. “You really didn’t have to order me dessert. We’ve been gone way longer than the allotted break time. I really should get back to making those beds.”
“Honey, relax. You’ve been working for seven days straight. It’s okay to take a break, especially when you’re with the assistant manager.” Shane grinned. The warmth faded from his expression as he looked down. “What’s that in your hand?”
“This?” Abigail had forgotten all about his phone. Placing it on the table in front of him, she said, “It just kept ringing. I t
ried to find you, but I didn’t see where you’d gone. Exactly how big is this restaurant, anyway?”
Shane snatched up his phone. Appearing to be in deep concentration, he pressed several buttons. He stared at the screen for a long moment then slipped the phone into his pocket. Expression returning to normal, he said, “I’m sorry, what were you saying?”
“I was just saying that I—”
Abigail’s words were cut off by the laughter at the next table. Helplessly, she looked up to find Kimberly attempting to divide the enormous salad she and Ryan had ordered. Bits of lettuce and tomato were scattered across the tablecloth. As Kim cleared them away, Ryan laughed as though his lunch date’s flightiness was the most fascinating thing in the world. His laughter faded as his eyes drifted from the table.
Realizing that he’d seen her, Abigail turned away. Facing her own table, she saw that the waiter had brought them their dessert. It was just as well. She was going to pay for her meal then get the heck out of there. No way could she stomach any more of this idiocy.
Shane plunged his spoon into his half-eaten dish. “You’re right, this is amazing. Hey, you haven’t even touched yours. Come on. Don’t make me take this walk of shame alone.”
Kimberly’s laughter rang in Abigail’s ears. Abigail managed a light smile and took several spoonfuls of her pudding.
Shane nodded his approval. “It’s addictive once you get going.”
“It certainly is,” she said. Without allowing herself to overthink it, she zoned in on the dot of pudding on Shane’s lip. Glancing out of the corner of her eye to see whether Ryan was watching, she reached across the table and took the dot with her finger. She put it into her mouth.
“You missed a spot,” she said as Shane offered her a deer-in-headlights look. Face burning, she looked down at her bowl.
Abigail attempted to search for Ryan’s face. He and Kimberly seemed to be talking and laughing, not paying any attention whatsoever.
Abigail ate the remainder of her pudding at lightning speed, and Shane got up to pay the bill. He’d only been gone a second when she heard him say, “I guess I’m not the only one with an obsession with Southwest burgers. Hey, Abigail, look who it is.”
Not all the chocolate in the world would help her now, Abigail thought as she helped herself to a final spoonful. She said a silent prayer as she walked over to Ryan and Kimberly’s table.
“I was wondering when you were going to give the passenger seat in that Jaguar some action,” Kimberly said, casting Shane a strange look. “Hey, Abigail. Cute shirt.”
Abigail smiled uncomfortably. Studying Kim’s expression, she got the distinct feeling that her tone had something to do with the way she’d touched Shane’s face a moment ago. Wishing the ground would swallow her whole, she followed Shane’s lead as he sat at Ryan and Kimberly’s table.
“How are the rooms in the east wing coming along?” Shane asked, snatching a cherry tomato off of Ryan’s plate.
Ryan glared at him. “About as well as can be expected, considering we just started.”
“And the pool? I realize you guys were sent home the other day, but it’s a big job. Those cracks aren’t going to finish themselves.”
Ryan gripped his water glass. “It’ll get done,” he said, helping himself to several swallows.
“When, next Christmas?”
“I said it’ll get done, all right!”
Abigail noticed that Kimberly had inched her chair even more closely beside Ryan’s. She had her hand on his back, and she was rubbing it up and down in slow circles.
Unable to keep watching, Abigail excused herself to the ladies’ room. Alone, she splashed cold water onto her face. It was a hot day outside and the stress in her life wasn’t helping matters any. Bad enough that they’d run into Ryan and Kimberly in the first place, but now they were on some sort of out-of-this-universe double date with them. Ryan clearly had a temper, and Kimberly seemed to be all-too-aware of the fact. It was almost as though she’d been trying to help him control it.
The door swung open and Kimberly entered the ladies’ room. As if she didn’t even see Abigail standing there, she approached the mirror and slipped her hand into her purse. She whipped out a mascara wand and began applying generous coats of it to her eyelashes.
“Nice bumping into you guys.” Abigail started for the door. “I think Shane and I are going to be heading back to the hotel, so…”
“Abigail, I didn’t see you there!”
“Right. Well, like I said, it was nice seeing you guys, but we—”
“That definitely is a cute shirt. You’re small, so it kind of suits you, you know?”
“Thanks.” I think…
“I’m not too sure about the color, though. Pink’s better suited to someone more outgoing, like—”
“You?”
Kimberly smiled at her own reflection. Taking out a tube of lipstick that matched her nail polish, she said, “I don’t usually wear my good things to work. But I had a feeling that Ryan was going to ask me to have lunch today.”
Abigail clenched her teeth. She and Kimberly had hardly said two words to each other the entire time they’d been working together. Suddenly she wanted to open up? Odd as it was, there was a question on her mind that Abigail really wanted an answer to.
“I didn’t realize you and Ryan were so close.”
“We actually used to date,” Kim said with a smile that indicated she’d been waiting for an opportunity to blurt the fact out. “Most men are pretty immature at twenty-four. But Ryan and I just have this connection. It’s like we were never apart, and like we’re still together now. Maybe we always will be.”
She ought to be glad. Yes, very glad, Abigail assured herself. Ryan’s working with an ex he clearly still had feelings for meant that she and Ryan couldn’t be together. With all of her suspicions about the guy, that ought to make her feel relieved. But actually, it made her feel sick to her stomach.
“I’m sure if it’s meant to be, I’m sure it will work out,” Abigail said.
Kim smiled. “Yes, I’m sure it will.”
Chapter 11
Ryan opened his biochemistry textbook. He read several pages, which didn’t seem that difficult to do in the quiet of the library. But when he was finished with them, he realized he didn’t have a clue what they’d been about.
He smacked his forehead, causing Alec to look up at him from across the table. Glancing toward the front door, he half hoped Abigail would come walking in. She was a student, too, and apparently she was studying to be a teacher. He needed to talk to her, hadn’t said a word to her since Thursday afternoon at the café, when she’d put her hand on Shane Dempsey’s face.
Thinking back, that afternoon seemed completely surreal. It had begun with Kim returning something Ryan never would have believed she’d give up without a fight—the key to his apartment. Stunned by her forthcoming, he’d lost all sense and kissed her cheek. The lapse in judgment had been awkward to say the least. But what was even worse than the fact that Kim had asked him to grab lunch with her an hour later and that he’d agreed to go, was that Abigail had seen him kiss Kim.
It was shortly after the bizarre incident that they’d bumped into Abigail and Shane at the café. Of course, it was highly possible that Abigail had gone out with Shane because she was hungry, and had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time. But judging by the look on her face when she’d left the front office that morning, it seemed a stronger possibility that she’d done it because his kissing Kimberly’s cheek had bothered her.
He shouldn’t concern himself with Abigail MacKenzie’s crazy mindset. He was a man, and he could do what he wanted with whatever woman he wanted to. He and Kimberly had dated each other exclusively for a long time. At least, Ryan had thought that’s what they’d been doing. Even though he could never look at her the same way, it was his prerogative to have a meal with her if he chose. Dempsey on the other hand…
Ryan didn’t like the way Abigail had
acted with Shane, the way she’d touched his face. Thinking back on it, that smug smile Dempsey had had on his face afterward, he clenched a fist beneath the table. He hated the idea of Abigail having lunch with Shane, and it wasn’t because she worked under him. The guy was bad news. He couldn’t explain it but something about Shane Dempsey rubbed him the wrong way.
“Everything all right?” Alec whispered. “You seem out of sorts, not that that doesn’t seem to be becoming a pattern with you lately.”
Imagining he wouldn’t be getting much studying done tonight, Ryan shut his textbook. “I don’t know. Why did you let me think you slept with Abigail MacKenzie when you didn’t?”
Alec cleared his throat. Scratching the back of his head, he said, “Sorry, man. To be honest, I thought if I could get her alone I might get another chance. But when I called her the next day she totally shot me down. Crazy, right? It’s like the girl’s in a convent or something. Oh well. Didn’t she have a friend? A redhead, or something?”
Ryan smiled to himself. Though he’d wanted to believe that Abigail had been telling him the truth when she’d told him she hadn’t slept with Alec, he hadn’t been a hundred percent sure. Hearing it from Alec’s mouth was gospel. There was no way in hell his friend would admit he hadn’t slept with Abigail if it wasn’t the truth. He was still pissed about her lunch outing with Dempsey, but hearing Alec hadn’t even gotten to first base with her was quite a relief.
Ryan released a long, pent-up sigh. He ought to have known that nothing had happened between Alec and Abigail. Abigail was a class A woman. She’d never be stupid enough to be seduced by a moron like Alec. And maybe, just maybe, she hadn’t slept with his friend because he was the one she really wanted.
Dangerous Secret [The Pinnacles of Power Prequel] (BookStrand Publishing Romance) Page 9
