A Valentine for Two

by Lia Davis

Hm.

  But then I reached the end of the pin-board and the part where it said, THEFTS STOPPED. That’s when I turned and found the two of them staring at me. I shrugged. “It seems the only time you weren’t stolen from is when you stopped using your electronics.”

  “Exactly.” Man she was adorable as she launched all fired up into the topic. “I was convinced that I’d been hacked so I hired one of the best IT security companies around.” She stood and then started pacing. I didn’t mind and one look at Sandy told me he didn’t either. While my gaze was drawn to her breasts, his was glued to her ass every time she turned. “In the end it cost me a fortune to find out that my spyware and firewall were doing their jobs.” She stopped and shot a look between us. “That’s why I’ve been killing myself working offline. What does that tell you?”

  “Vega knows your passwords.”

  Sandy seemed interested in that deduction, but Wesley wasn’t. “Unfortunately, no. That was the first thing the IT guy instructed me to do. To change them all and I did, but still he managed to rip off the cupcake concept.”

  “I really liked that one.”

  I gave Sandy a withering look over that comment. Then I addressed Wesley. “Okay, you changed your passwords on your computer and iPad, but what about on your phone?”

  “My phone?” She eyed her cell on the table and shook her head. No doubt she was going through the logistics.

  “That’s a good thought,” Sandy said. “When was the last time you saw Vega? He may have gotten a hold of your cell at some point.”

  “Not possible. Besides I changed everything. I’m sure I did. All my passwords, on all my accounts. Yeah, on everything...”

  She was frowning. I looked at Sandy and he looked at me. Then we both looked at her.

  “Except maybe the password on my password vault.”

  Sandy groaned and I felt like doing the same, but I persevered. “Is there a remote website access to your vault?”

  The look on her face gave me the answer, even before she did. “Yes. That fucker.” She stomped her foot and growled. “Shit. And Keith knows it, because he set it up. It didn’t occur to me to...to...damn.”

  “Look on the bright side.” I attempted to find the silver lining until she shot me down before I even got started.

  “There is not a bright side.” She looked between us and then she asked, “You guys see the truth, now, right? You believe me?”

  Sandy said, “Yes.” and I nodded. That’s when she lifted up her hands in mock defeat.

  “But nothing changes. You signed with Keith and after the attorneys you sent after...I mean hired...well...that...”

  Thankfully Sandy didn’t let her continue to hedge.

  “Don’t you mean the lawyers I sicced on you when you were being persistent to the—”

  “I know I was a pain, but I hate it when the bad guy wins.” She interrupted.

  Sandy didn’t miss a beat. “Try royal pain.”

  She leaned forward with her chin jutting out in his direction. “Do you blame me?”

  My buddy didn’t even blink. “No a bit.”

  That settled her down some. “Alright then.” She seemed to relax a little and then she stiffened, looking at him. “They made me sign a release. I can’t even sue him.”

  Not that I handled the legal shit but... “That’s crazy.” When I looked at Sandy he was frowning and I wanted to know why. “Is this true?”

  Sandy threw the pen he’d been holding onto the table and sighed. “Of course it’s true. If he got sued it would affect us. I thought she was—”

  “What? What did you think I was?”

  “Please stop interrupting me. It’s not polite.”

  Sandy’s soft admonishment caused her to wilt like a flower under the weight of a heavy snowfall. “Come on, man.” I curtly nodded in her direction and after Sandy got the hint, he dropped the stern tone that had a way of messing with a woman, and spoke more upbeat.

  “Look, there’s no crying in business,” he said with a clap of his hands. “It’s time to take the bastard down and this is how we’re going to do it. It will require Ty and me to be a little creative on the spin, and you,” He pointed to Wesley, “are going to have to burn some midnight oil coming up with a bogus concept for Vega to steal.”

  I didn’t need to question the setup. Sandy was a master in more ways than one, so I asked, “Timeframe?”

  He checked his cell. “How about a Valentine’s Day deadline?”

  I directed to Wesley, “Does that work for you?”

  “Are we talking a sting-type deal?”

  Sandy nodded and then I did.

  She smiled. “I can manage it.”

  “Great.” Sandy scooped up the folder we’d wound up not needing, and headed to the door. When he got there he spun around. “Once we have all the details hashed out and finalized, we’ll need to touch base with you once a week away from the office. Most likely in the evenings. At your place?”

  The guy was good. I had to give him credit. He walked her right into that box and didn’t let her out of it.

  “Okay. That’s probably best.”

  His gaze flicked to me and then back on her. “Definitely best. In fact why don’t we get those arrangements set right now? Do you cook?”

  “I make salads mostly.”

  Aw, she sounded so sincere that I felt bad when Sandy shot her down.

  “So not really. That’s okay. We’ll bring dinner.”

  “We’ll?” I should have kept my mouth shut, but I was a little surprised Sandy was jumping the shark here.

  “You’ll both be checking up on my progress?”

  Sandy tapped the folder against his thigh a couple of times, before he answered, “Not together. We usually switch off with traveling commitments during the work week. When Ty’s in town on Thursday nights he’ll meet with you, and when I’m in town on those nights I will.”

  The silence that followed that pile of bullshit was deafening. I held my breath thinking that she was too smart to fall for such an obvious—

  She beamed. “Perfect.”

  —ploy.

  Sandy left and after I helped Wesley collect up her things, I walked her to the elevator. The minute we said our goodbyes and the doors closed, I went to find Sandy. He was standing on the veranda and I didn’t hesitate before I tackled him over jumping the shark. “You should have spoken to me before you went ahead with organizing our date nights.”

  “Not a chance. You’d want her all to yourself and that doesn’t work for me. You know it takes time for a woman to warm up to me. Where’s the harm?”

  “The harm is that she might do just that and warm up to you. Only you.”

  He was dead serious when he stared at me. “So let’s make a pact and agree we won’t let that happen.”

  I liked the sound of ‘we’. I’d missed it. “Agreed,” I said, as I walked over and stood beside him at the balcony railing.

  “There’s our girl,” Sandy whispered.

  I looked down to the street and watched as Wesley got into her car. While she cautiously pulled out into the traffic flow I told him, “She likes coasters.”

  “Nice. She doesn’t like to be intimidated.”

  That comment got my attention. I turned and studied his profile. Curiosity got the best of me and I had to ask, “What did you do?”

  “I gave her a test and she passed it with flying colors.”

  “Meaning?”

  He straightened and looked right at me. “A woman like her is perfect for us.”

  He hadn’t been willing to explore the option of this kind of relationship in nearly five years. Not since we tragically lost our best and closest friend. For some reason I needed to know why. I wanted to know how the situation with Wesley had gone from ‘may the best man win’ to ‘she’s perfect for us’.”

  “When did you come to that realization?”

  “The minute I saw that we needed to meet a challenge.”

  I would hav
e been offended on Wesley’s behalf if I didn’t know Sandy so well. I had faith in his reasoning even if I didn’t understand it yet. “What kind of challenge?”

  “It’s complicated as fuck. But the short of it is we have to convince our angel with a broken heart, to fall in love again.”

  Chapter Five

  Wesley

  I was so nervous I kept checking the time. Five more minutes and Ty would be here. I looked around my apartment and frowned. There wasn’t one thing out of place. Not one distraction for me to focus on. Great.

  Then I caught the sight of my coaster collection. What if he noticed that the one he gave me from the Bistro hadn’t been added to it? I couldn’t tell him it was still on my bedside table as a reminder of our night together.

  I thought about that night and wondered for the fiftieth time if that had been a date or something else?

  Then I thought of Sandy.

  He was a tough guy to figure out. Frustrating as shit and hard as nails sometimes and yet, other times when I caught him looking at me? Yeah, he was smoldering and sexy as fuck.

  Made me want to—

  Knock, knock.

  Aw, man. How the heck had Ty gotten into the building without having to be buzzed up? “Coming.” I went to the door, and just before I reached for the handle I recited a silent one, two, three, and then opened it.

  “Hello, West.”

  I didn’t know which to be more shocked by. His use of the nickname I only let my closest friends use, or his appearance. He had a shadowy cloud of stubble covering parts of his cheeks and jaws while his hair was messed up to bad-boy perfection. I’d never seen him looking so untailored. I liked it. He reminded me of Sandy.

  “Hi.”

  “I’ve brought Italian.”

  Spying the huge bag he was holding, I asked, “Did you bring the army that’s going to eat all that? Jesus wept.”

  He grinned and popped his brows. “He sure did when I ordered a little of everything because I didn’t know what you liked. Word to the wise?” He winked, and my heart gave a little flutter. “I think his name was Hay-Zeus.”

  I laughed and then stepped aside, inviting him in. It wasn’t until a few minutes later that I realized he hadn’t been joking. There had to be one of everything from the takeout menu jammed in the bag that I was currently unpacking. “Hello. What’s this?” I held out a small container that had a clear plastic lid on top. Even with the transparent window to see inside at the contents, I didn’t have a clue. “It looks like a casserole.”

  He leaned down over my shoulder to have a look. “I’m going with baked ziti.”

  And I was dealing with shivers down my backbone with him pressing in so close to me. “Good call.” I didn’t turn because if I did, I’d be tempted to kiss him and now that we were business partners, at least for a time, I didn’t want to muddy the waters. “Why don’t you have a seat and I’ll make up the plates.”

  He nodded, but then didn’t sit at the countertop bar right away. Nope, he walked around my living room making me nervous, especially when he stopped by the custom iron piece that held my coaster collection. I kept shooting covert glances at him as I loaded our plates. By the time he returned to the counter I felt sure he was going to question me about the missing glass-mat, but he didn’t.

  Instead he launched into a conversation that was so far into left field I was frowning when I handed him his plate piled high with Italian fare of every variety. “Here’s a fork and knife. You may need it to cut the eggplant.” After he accepted the cutlery, I addressed the curious out-of-this-world topic he’d brought up. “Did you study aliens or something? You seem to know a lot about the subject.”

  “No. I do watch the documentaries though.” He waited until I sat beside him and put my plate down before he asked, “So yes, or no? Do we have intelligent life forms looking down on us from the stars or are we really this fucked up before we simply bite the dust?”

  I nearly choked on my ziti. After I swallowed the mouthful, I deadpanned. “Bite. The. Dust?”

  “Or become it. Personally, I’m all for cremation.”

  Alrighty. He wanted to have this conversation? I’d go with it. “Yes. I haven’t watched many documentaries, but I did study some of Erich von Däniken findings in high school. Truthfully, I can’t remember much of those ancient history classes except for the ones about the thousand-year-old hieroglyphics engraved on pyramid walls in Egypt that detailed strangely shaped men with helmets in flying machines. Proof to my mind, no?”

  With that comment, the conversation was kicked off in high gear. One minute we were talking about UFOs and in the next politics. By the time we’d cleared up from dinner, and hit the couch to enjoy some wine, Ty abruptly pulled the equivalent of a verbal handbrake.

  He brought up religion.

  Oddly, I couldn’t remember any guy ever doing that with me. Even Keith. Most guys were smart enough to know that this could mean the kiss of death for them.

  Funny, but I wasn’t worried. If anything the politically incorrect topic introduction, made me feel grown up somehow, probably why I didn’t sugarcoat my answer when he asked about my beliefs. “Oh, I don’t practice one religion, per se. I cherry pick my favorite parts from all of them and live my life by those.” His expression was comical. A cross between confusion and outrage. “I hope you don’t find that offensive.”

  His eyes softened and then he grinned. “Maybe I would if I understood what you mean.”

  I put my glass down and turned toward him. As precisely as I could without sounding like a complete nut-job I said, “Well, I agree with stuff like, don’t covet your neighbor’s wife, don’t lie, steal, etc, that’s from Catholics.” I raised my hand with a smile. “Guilty as charged, I was raised Roman Catholic so I’m good at the guilt stuff. Of course, you can be absolved by confession which I never agreed with, hence the cherry picks.”

  “You don’t agree with being absolved?”

  Man, his hair was calling for a finger combing. If only... “No, confessing your sins to a man who will then know them? Yeah, that’s kind of crazy don’t you think? When you hear the saying knowledge is power, you need look no further than the person who collects people’s sins. That’s why I chose the Jewish faith for my peccadillo philosophy. The Jewish people believe that prayer is to be directed to God and no one else. The way I figure it, confession is a form of praying. So no unloading on a priest who would then know my transgressions – not saying he’d use it/them against me, but why take the chance?”

  His eyes sparkled and his voice was deep. Really deep when he said, “Indeed.”

  Man, oh, Manischewitz. My heart was pounding as a shot of nervous adrenaline coursed through me. The surge of euphoria prompted me to continue speaking. “What child needs that kind of stress? Seriously, growing up I clearly remember numerous times I prayed, but only so that my parents wouldn’t find out about whatever bad thing I’d done. Which brings me to Hinduism.”

  Ty blinked and then laughed. “This is like opening up a set of Russian nesting dolls. Just when I think we’ve gotten to the last of your explanation, you continue to surprise me.”

  I liked the idea of that. It caused me to beam. “Great. Buckle up. It’s a bumpy ride from here on out. As I was saying, in Hinduism it’s believed that a person’s present position is directly caused by the actions they took in their past life. Makes sense to me, so this one definitely made the cut for my religious doctrine.” I leaned sideways and playfully bumped my shoulder against his. “The way I have it figured I must have broken a pretty big heart in my past life to be screwed over so thoroughly in this one. You know what I’m saying?”

  He wasn’t smiling now. “No. I don’t know what you’re saying.”

  I’d obviously said too much. Damn. Now to get out of this corner... “Religion to me is like a great recipe. You find the best ingredients that work for you and you live by them. The chosen components should be interchangeable, because ultimately, as we’ve already d
iscussed, there is a higher being somewhere. Whether that being is an alien lifeform or a spiritual deity.”

  When he looked like he was going to bring up my comment about being screwed over in a past life, I quickly added.

  “Unless you’re an atheist.” I affected a huge sigh and then said in my best forlorn tone, “Unfortunately I can’t find anything to borrow from that school of thought, so maybe I did.”

  He got the joke. It wasn’t very good, poorly delivered, and thinly veiled at best, but he got it. I absolutely adored a smart man. And a second later I realized my expression must have hinted at the fact that I was crushing on him, bad, because he put his half empty glass down and then stood. “I should really get going. I didn’t mean to stay so long.”

  So long? Not long enough to my mind. I was just about to say as much when it hit me. I looked up. “Aren’t you forgetting something?”

  He frowned and tilted his head. He was staring at my mouth in such a way... Damn.

  I licked my lips. I didn’t mean to, it was more like I had to. “Ty. You haven’t even looked at what I’ve designed for the dual campaigns so far. Wasn’t the advertising storyboards the whole reason you came here?”

  His frown disappeared and he looked around, clapping his hands together. “Right. Where are they? I should probably have a look at them.”

  “Probably?” I stood, ready to confront him. “What do you mean by that? Is there another reason you’ve come here besides the boards?”

  “Yes there is.” I expected him to elaborate, to lie, or make some lame-ass excuse as to why he’d brought takeout to my home and then grilled me during our dinner on every taboo subject that went against the status quo, but he did just the opposite.

  He was quick.

  Without pretense of any kind.

  He remained strong and silent as he pulled me into his arms just before—God.

  He kissed me.

  I was relieved and worried all at once, caught up in a certain excitement mixed with an addictive panic that took hold of me and wouldn’t let go. Every fiber of my being screamed this wasn’t appropriate.

  I closed my eyes, seeking to remind myself.