The Gambler

by Denise Grover Swank

  “What does that have to do with her getting married before her birthday?”

  He gave Noah an ornery grin. “I confess, my attention was on other things when Megan told me, so a lot of the details escaped me.”

  Noah cringed. “TMI, dude.”

  “Really? This from the king of TMI? How many of your exploits have I been forced to hear about?”

  “That was different. Megan’s my sister-in-law.”

  Josh gave him a look of surprise, then continued. “Like I said, I don’t remember a lot of the details, but I do know Libby totally believes in it.”

  Noah sucked in a breath, trying to quell his brewing nausea. “I don’t know, Josh. I have a really bad feeling about this.”

  Josh’s gaze narrowed. “Maybe you need to take a good look at why you have that feeling.”

  “What do you mean by that?”

  “Maybe you need to examine your own life.”

  Here he was trying to save his friend from making the biggest mistake of her life and Josh was using it as yet another opportunity to point out what a screw-up he was. He started to walk away, but Josh called after him.

  “How’s the Abrahams account coming?”

  So Josh really didn’t trust him. Noah stopped in his tracks and turned to face his brother. “Great. I have a meeting with Scott next week.”

  “You’re sure you’ve got this? I know you went to college with him, but I can help if you need me to intervene.”

  Noah tried to stifle his irritation. He couldn’t really blame Josh for being cautious. After all, he had spent the better part of a decade trying to do as little as possible. Still, it sucked to be treated like a preschooler, even if he deserved it. “I think we’re good.”

  Josh lowered his voice. “Look, Noah. We need that account. Bad. You know that, right?”

  “I know.”

  “If you get into any trouble, you’ll let me know?”

  “Sure,” he said, still distracted by Libby and her engagement.

  That night he went out with a couple of friends and met Donna at a bar. She was with several friends who joined his group. While it wasn’t exactly unusual that he went home with her, he surprised himself by asking for her number and telling her he wanted to see her again.

  In a way, Josh was right. Libby’s impending marriage had made him realize how empty his life was. Now that she was preparing for her wedding—or more likely because of their disagreement—she no longer called him as frequently, which made him acutely aware that once she was married, he would hear from her even less. Her absence left an ache in his soul, and his typical one-night stands weren’t going to fill it. Donna was conventionally pretty and model-thin—the polar opposite of Libby’s exotic beauty and hourglass figure. And while Donna was a little clueless about some things, she was actually a nice woman he could take home to meet his mother.

  Everyone who knew him was shocked that he’d kept a woman in his life for more than a few weeks, and while he wasn’t as over-the-moon happy as Josh, he was trying to be content. For the first time in a long while, he felt like maybe he could stop blustering and be happy. But that wasn’t entirely true. Libby was the one who’d made him feel that way, not Donna.

  Maybe it just took time.

  As Libby’s wedding drew closer, Noah became more and more anxious, and Donna became more and more of a bitch over his friendship with Libby.

  Noah was supposed to fly out two days before the wedding, but Scott Abrahams was a hard man to pin down. He’d postponed their meeting until Friday afternoon, forcing Noah to move his flight to the day of the wedding. But five minutes before they were supposed to meet, Abrahams called to cancel.

  “Noah, you know I like your plans, but I’m meeting with someone else next week. I’ll be honest—I’ll probably sign with them.”

  Noah’s stomach dropped. “Scott, I’d be more than happy to go over the schematics with you over drinks.”

  “I trust your schematics, and I know we go way back, but I think I can get a better deal. No hard feelings. It’s just business.”

  He hung up before Noah could press him for more details.

  Noah felt like he was going to be sick. How was he going to explain this to Josh? His brother was definitely going to blame him for losing the job. He considered waiting until after the wedding to tell him, but that’s what the old Noah would do. The new Noah was taking charge. He called his brother before he could change his mind.

  “That was fast,” Josh said.

  “There’s a reason.”

  “He didn’t sign.” Josh’s voice was flat.

  “He canceled the meeting.”

  “What happened?”

  The accusation in Josh’s voice stiffened Noah’s back. “Why does it sound like you think I fucked this up?”

  “Well, did you?”

  “What the hell, Josh? You know I’ve been busting my ass to get this deal.” Still, some inner voice taunted him. You must have fucked it up. You know Josh would have closed the deal without a problem.

  That voice only pissed him off more.

  Josh groaned in frustration. “I knew I should have sat in on some of the meetings.”

  Noah’s irritation only grew. “You don’t think I can handle a meeting?”

  “I’m sure you can when drinks are involved.”

  “So now you’re accusing me of being a drunk and a slacker.”

  “You have to admit, you’ve fit both descriptions in the past.”

  “If that’s really what you think of me, why the hell am I even working there?”

  “Because your name’s on the damn building!”

  And that was the crux of it. Noah had never wanted to take the helm of the engineering firm, but after their father’s death, it was just expected of him. He’d barely managed to hold it together until Josh took over, even if he’d fooled everyone else into thinking management was easy for him. Of course, he could have left then, but instead he’d coasted along, reasoning that the business owed him for single-handedly running things for a while. But then again, he had no idea what else to do.

  Maybe this was the push he needed.

  “Then take my damn name off, because I quit!”

  Before Josh could say something else in that condescending tone, Noah hung up.

  Now what the hell was he going to do?

  Since he’d remained in town—apparently for no reason—Donna came over to his apartment for dinner. And since he was leaving for Libby’s wedding the next day, she was bitchier than usual. To make matters worse, over the last couple of weeks she’d appointed herself his life coach. She’d started a freelance life coaching business and slowly began offering him unsolicited advice until it had increased to an annoying intensity. Tonight she dusted off her list of the areas of his life he needed to improve to find inner peace—his apartment was too small; his car was too old; his job too financially limiting. Her list was insulting, but her passive-aggressive approach made it easier for him to ignore. “Noah, don’t you think you’d be happier if you talked to Terry, my stockbroker friend, about applying for that opening in his firm? You’d make so much more money.”

  The combination of losing the account, his fight with Josh, and the feeling of impending doom that surrounded him like a noxious cloud had him so utterly miserable he couldn’t help wondering if she was right. Maybe his life really did need an overhaul.

  After dinner he was emotionally beat-up, but he couldn’t let the Abrahams deal go without a fight. Even if it was time to stop working with his brother, he wanted to just this once prove he was capable of something other than screwing up. He sat through as much of Donna’s lame rom-com as he could bear before he hid in the bathroom to call Cal, his friend from college who had stayed in contact with both Noah and Scott Abrahams.

  “Sorry to bother you on a Friday night, Cal, but do you happen to know if Scott Abrahams still has that cute secretary? The one he’s sleeping with? Terry . . . Tobi . . .”

  �
�Ahh . . . Tiffany.” Noah heard the smile in his voice. “Yeah, she’s still there, although I think she’s about to cut him loose. Scott says she’s been giving him grief about not leaving his wife.”

  Perfect. “You don’t happen to have her number, do you? Or know her last name?”

  Cal laughed. “You probably picked a good time to make a play for her. I don’t have her number, but I know her last name is Brown.”

  “That’s nearly totally unhelpful.”

  “She went to college at Oregon State.”

  “She went to college?” Noah always assumed she’d landed her position on the basis of her physical appearance alone.

  Cal laughed again. “She quit her sophomore year. She’s on Facebook. Look her up there.”

  “Will do. Thanks.”

  “Noah!” Donna shouted from the living room. “Did you fall in the toilet?”

  “No, coming.” He flushed to corroborate his cover story and ran the water in the sink before returning to the living room. He considered searching for Tiffany on his phone, but how was he going to explain to Donna why he was looking up another woman on Facebook? That would likely get him strapped to a burning stake. He’d have to wait.

  “Are you even listening to me?” Donna asked, sounding huffy, as he sat down next to her on the couch.

  “What?”

  “You’re busy thinking about her again. Did you go hide in the bathroom to call her?”

  It took him a second to realize she was talking about Libby. Ironically enough, the last fifteen minutes had probably been the longest length of time in days that he’d gone without thinking about her. The realization only adding to his growing tempest of anxiety.

  “You’re either with me or you’re not, Noah.”

  This had also been a repeated topic of discussion between them. He wrapped an arm around her back and pulled her close. “Donna, you’re the one I want, sweetheart. I’m here, aren’t I?”

  “Only because you had that stupid meeting with that stupid man.”

  She knew how important the meeting had been, yet she’d never once asked about it. But this was how normal people functioned, right? He didn’t remember his dad going home and discussing the specifics of his job. Normal people had responsible jobs and significant others. But he couldn’t help thinking that if he and Libby were still close, it would have been the first thing she would have asked him. Noah suddenly had a craving for something more. He’d convinced himself that normal was what he wanted. What Josh had. But if this was it, was it really enough?

  “I mean it, Noah,” she pouted. “It’s not normal for a guy to be friends with a girl.”

  “Hey, all those people did it on Friends.”

  Her eyebrows lowered into a scowl. “They all ended up sleeping with each other like some exotic swingers club.”

  Noah wondered how he’d missed the X-rated version of the series—and where he could find it—but he suspected she wouldn’t appreciate the question. “Why does it have to be either or?” he asked in frustration as he jumped to his feet, his anxiety rising to an all-time high. He didn’t need this in addition to everything else. “Why can’t I be friends with her and have you too?”

  “It doesn’t work that way.”

  “If you met her, I’m sure you’d change your mind. Come to the wedding with me tomorrow. I’ll buy you a ticket.” He wasn’t sure where that had come from, but now that he’d said it, it seemed like a good next step in their relationship. It would show her that she had nothing to worry about, that he was in this for real.

  She shook her head vehemently. “No. No way. In fact, if you go to that wedding, you and I are done.”

  His eyes widened. “What?”

  Rising from the couch, she planted her hands on her hips, her lips pursed like she was trying out for some lipstick commercial.

  “Donna, I’m in the fucking wedding! I have to go!” But even as he said the words, he realized how much he really didn’t want to go.

  “It’s her or me, Noah.” Then she stomped out of his apartment.

  Noah was torn. He really wanted to be there for Libby, but he wasn’t sure he could bear to watch her exchange vows with the world’s biggest Arkansas Razorbacks fan. Not to mention the fact that he had no desire to see his brother. He was sick to death of people believing the worst of him, especially since he was trying so hard to change. Besides, if he broke up with Donna, he’d be drowned in a chorus of I told you so. He wasn’t sure he could handle that on top of the rawness he felt about Libby’s impending marriage.

  So after a long sleepless night, he texted Josh the next morning and told him something with Donna had come up and he wasn’t coming. He worried about hurting Libby, but she was marrying Mitch, the man she claimed to love. Why would she care if he came or not? She’d made her choice; it was time for him to worry about his own love life.

  Donna . . . he could do this. He could be in a long-term committed relationship. He just needed to make more of an effort. He picked up his phone and called her, mulling over the idea of asking her to move into his apartment. Wasn’t that what couples did when they took things to the next level?

  “Did you decide?” she asked in a snotty tone when she answered.

  “I’m not going.”

  “Wise choice, McMillan.” Her voice took on a husky tone. “I’ll be right over.”

  He made a pot of coffee, wondering when he should ask her to move in. After they had sex or before?

  But when he opened the door for her, apprehension sucked his breath away. Could he really spend the rest of his life with someone who only wanted him if he met the requirements of some checklist? Someone who’d asked him to cut off a close friend? Someone, he suddenly realized, he barely tolerated? He’d rather be alone and dateless for the rest of his life.

  But something even more shocking hit him and the realization nearly knocked him over. He didn’t want to build a life with just anyone.

  He wanted it with Libby—and only Libby.

  He had to get to Kansas City and stop the wedding.

  Noah put a hand on the doorframe, blocking her entry. “I made a mistake.”

  “I know.” She batted her eyelashes. “And you rectified it, so let me in.” She opened her trench coat, revealing a sexy outfit of black lingerie. He felt absolutely nothing, which only strengthened his resolve.

  “No. I don’t think you understand.” Why had he been such an idiot? “Choosing you was the mistake. I’m sorry, Donna, we’re done.”

  She dropped the hold on her coat, her lingerie still exposed as she put her hands on her nonexistent hips. “Think long and hard about this, Noah McMillan. You’re never going to amount to anything without me. I was probably your one last chance to make something of yourself.”

  Maybe she was right, but he was willing to take that chance. “Then I guess I’ll be the low-life slacker I was meant to be, because I’m done.” Then he shut the door on her stunned face.

  How had he been such a fool?

  He ran to his bedroom to throw some clothes in a suitcase and grab the bag with his rented tux. He hadn’t canceled his flight, and if he hurried, he could still make it there in time to stop her from making the worst mistake of her life.

  Thankfully, Donna had left by the time he ran to his car and sped to the airport . . . only to discover his flight was delayed. While he waited, he opened his Facebook app and found a Tiffany Brown who lived in Seattle, went to Oregon State, worked for Scott Abrahams, and was in a relationship labeled “it’s complicated.” He sent her a friend request, knowing it was a long shot, in the hopes she could give him inside info about Scott Abrahams and the competition.

  After a delay on the ground, the plane touched down three hours late, which meant the wedding was due to start in just half an hour. But when he tried to call Lib to tell her he was coming and to hold off going down the aisle until he got there, he realized his phone was dead. The night before had been so intense, he’d forgotten to charge it.
/>   The rental car process seemed to take forever, especially since he had to take a shuttle to get there, but he finally headed out, following sketchy directions from the rental car agent, who looked all of fifteen. Amazingly enough, the directions were good, and when he saw the church up ahead, he went over his options. It was 5:15, which meant the wedding had already started. Maybe he could go inside and object, like everyone had done at Blair’s wedding.

  He’d boarded the plane with the aim of interrupting the wedding, but now he couldn’t help wondering what Libby would do if he objected. Would she be relieved? Would she kill him?

  He pulled into the parking lot and discovered the decision had been made for him. Libby was running out the church doors, Megan and Blair hot on her heels. Noah slowed down and drove toward them, his heart in his throat.

  Then Libby bolted again, running straight for his car. He hit the unlock button, watching in disbelief as she threw her bouquet into the crowd and then opened his passenger door. The sudden frenzy of women vying for the flowers reminded him of feeding time in a shark tank. Amazingly enough, Megan’s gram was front and center.

  The door opened and Libby scrambled into the passenger seat. The crowd streaming out of the church was growing by the second, and Mitch stood in front of all of them like he was their disgraced quarterback.

  She kept her eyes on the crowd as she shut the door. “I’ll pay you a hundred dollars if you get me out of here right now.”

  She was here. In his car. And from the look on Mitch’s face, she wasn’t married.

  “Only a hundred?” he asked, purposely trying to keep his tone light. “My plane ticket cost more than that.”

  Libby sucked in a breath and turned to look at him, anger in her eyes.

  Oh. Shit.

  Chapter Three

  Noah’s grin faltered, probably because he realized he was in deep shit. But getting away took precedence. She could kill him later.

  Mitch raced toward the car, and even the older guests had streamed out onto the lawn. “Libby!”