“I don’t think she was,” Brett said, looking torn about something.
Dalton wasn’t sure he should ask, but he had to know. “Did she ever talk to you about me?”
“She said she thought you were a great guy, that she really liked hanging out with you.”
Ugh, that’s not what he wanted to hear. That made it sound like they were buddies and that’s definitely not how he saw their relationship. “Did she say anything else?”
“Not to me.”
“She said something to Carly?” Dalton had the sense they were finally getting somewhere and he had no intention of letting Brett leave until he’d extracted every last detail from him.
“They had a talk before Sophie left,” Brett confirmed, before taking a sip of his beer.
“Well…?” Dalton said, rolling his hand in a circle. “What did she say?”
“The last thing Carly and I want to do is betray my sister, but we don’t want to see her make a mistake she’ll regret either.”
“Then you think it was a mistake for her to leave Arlington?” Dalton was glad he wasn’t the only one who thought so.
“We think it may have been a mistake for her to leave you, man.”
Dalton took a deep breath and leaned back, closing his eyes. His was battling his emotions, along with the effects of the pills and alcohol and the last thing he wanted was to say or do something he’d regret tomorrow. “Watching her leave was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do,” he whispered. “It damn near killed me.”
“Then why didn’t you stop her? Any idiot can see you’re in love with her.” When Dalton couldn’t speak, Brett asked, “Have you told her how you feel about her?”
“I would have if she’d given me a little more time. Hell, I was tempted to tell her last night, before she told me she was leaving. After that it seemed pretty pointless.”
“Maybe you’re wrong,” Brett said, hesitantly. “Maybe that was the only thing that could have convinced her to stay.”
Dalton wanted to believe he had that much influence over her, but he had trouble believing he was more important to her than her career. He knew how he’d felt at the height of his glory days. There was nothing and no one that could have stopped him. Not even the debilitating pain.
“You really think it would have been fair of me to lay that on her when she already had one foot out the door? Come on, man. I couldn’t do that to her. I know how much this opportunity means to her.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” Brett said, sighing. “So, that’s it, then? You both just move on with your lives?”
Just thinking about Sophie moving on to someone else filled Dalton with rage. Even if they decided to sever their friendship because it was too painful to maintain their connection, Dalton knew he would still hear about the milestones in her life because of his friendship with Brett.
“I guess that’s the plan,” he said, clenching his teeth. “I wanted to keep seeing her, you know, try making a long distance relationship work, at least until she figured out whether this move was going to be permanent.”
“But she didn’t go for that idea?”
“No, she thought it’d be best to just cut ties.”
“I’m sorry, buddy.”
“Not half as sorry as I am.”
Chapter Three
Sophie cursed softly when the cell phone on her bedside table chimed. At first she thought it was her alarm, but a quick glance at the time told her it was two o’clock in the morning. Who the hell could be calling her at this hour? Her unknown caller better have a damn good explanation. She had to be awake in a few hours.
“Hello?” Her voice was still groggy, but she couldn’t summon the energy to care.
“Hey, baby. I miss you already.”
Dalton was drunk dialing her? She wanted to be angry, but she couldn’t deny she thought it was kind of sweet that he was so effected by her departure. “It’s four there, Mitch. Why the hell are you awake already?”
“I haven’t been to sleep.” He was slurring his words, sounding more emotional than she’d ever heard him. “Every time I try to close my eyes I think of you. I can still smell your perfume on my pillow, sweetheart.”
Sophie swallowed the lump in her throat, trying to remind herself it was just the ramblings of a lonely, inebriated man. “We can’t keep doing this.” She wanted to tell him they had to cut all ties, but it was difficult to imagine her life without him now. “We have to figure out how to-”
“Don’t say move on,” he growled. “Don’t even think about that.”
“But…” She paused when she realized he was jealous. She’d never known Dalton to be jealous or possessive and couldn’t decide how she felt about his attitude. “Maybe we should plan to talk tomorrow, when you’re feeling better. You have to work tomorrow, right? You need to get some sleep.”
“I can probably work from home, reschedule my meetings,” he muttered.
“Do you think that’s a good idea?” She’d never known Dalton to drink excessively, but then she’d never heard him sound so sad either, and she hated the idea of him sitting at home alone drowning his sorrows. Especially since it was all her fault. “It might be better if you went in to work. It’ll take your mind off of-”
“The fact that you won’t be here when I get home?” He cursed before heaving a sigh. “I can’t believe how much I took that for granted. I hate the thought of coming home to an empty house.”
They had settled in to a nice routine at Dalton’s house. Even though she refused to spend the night, maintaining she liked to sleep alone, they usually made dinner at his place or she brought take-out. They’d cuddle on the couch, watch some TV, and end the evening in his bed.
How had she managed to convince herself what she had with Dalton wasn’t a real relationship? It was ridiculous when she thought about it. It was probably one of the healthiest relationships she’d ever had, and the fact that Dalton was her friend only made it better.
“I know it’ll take some getting used to, Mitch, for both of us. But give it some time.” She thought of suggesting he get back in the dating scene to ease his loneliness, but couldn’t force herself to say the words aloud.
“You really think time’ll make this hurt any less? I sure as hell don’t.”
Sophie had to believe it would. She hated to think of them both being sentenced to a lifetime of sadness because she’d made a bad decision. No! She refused to think of this move as a bad decision. It was the right call, for her and her career. And Dalton would just have to accept that and hopefully learn to support her.
“We let things get…” She searched for the right word, hoping she wouldn’t offend him by minimizing what they’d shared. “Too comfortable. We were only together a few months, but since we spent so much time together it seemed like-”
“Nine months.”
“Excuse me?”
“Nine months tomorrow, that’s the first time I made love to you. I’ll never forget that night.”
Had it really been nine months? She wanted to ask him how he remembered the exact date, but didn’t want to plunge the knife any deeper by encouraging him to talk about it. He wasn’t the only one who remembered their first night like it was yesterday. She’d had a crush on Dalton for years and while she told herself it was just the realization of an adolescent fantasy, he’d made it so much more than that.
“Still, it wasn’t like we were together for years.” She didn’t mean to sound so callous, but she had to convince Dalton it was best to put the past behind them so they could both move on with their lives. “We’ll get through this.”
“Are you so nonchalant about this because of your new partner? Is that why you don’t care about me anymore… because you have him now?”
He didn’t sound as drunk as he had when she first picked up the phone. Either he’d consumed some coffee or the anger was feeding his adrenaline. “This has nothing to do with Jeremy.”
“Why didn’t you tell me he asked you out?”
“You know it would have mattered to me.”
Since their arrangement was supposed to be casual, Sophie wasn’t even sure he would have cared and didn’t want to embarrass herself by telling him in case he blew it off. “Bottom line is I told him I was seeing someone else and he backed off.” But not before telling her to let him know if she ever changed her mind.
“Yeah, but how’s he gonna react now that he knows you’re single again?”
I’ve always been single. But she knew this wasn’t the time to remind him of her status. “I don’t know. It’s not like-”
“Are you attracted to him?”
She wouldn’t lie to protect his feelings. She felt she owed him the truth. “Jeremy’s a very attractive man, but do I intend to date him? No, I don’t. I don’t think it’s a good idea to mix business with pleasure. This partnership is very important to my future and I can’t afford to screw it up.”
“That makes me feel a bit better, I guess. At least I still have a chance to convince you to give this long distance thing a go before you write me off completely.”
Sophie fluffed the pillow behind her head and sat up, leaning her back against the white fabric headboard she’d had delivered before she moved in to her new apartment. “What would be the point of prolonging it, knowing it can never go anywhere?” She wished she were there to put her arms around him. Anything to soften the blow. The last thing she wanted was to hurt the man she’d grown to care about, but she wouldn’t lead him on either. That wasn’t fair to him.
“You don’t know that,” he said, sounding frustrated. “We could figure something out.”
“How? You’re running your family’s company now and we both know Sabrina’s not interested in having her old job back. She’d much rather reduce her workload and responsibility so she can spend more time with Dylan and those beautiful babies.”
“Do you ever think about having babies?” he whispered, his voice sounding low and suggestive.
Goosebumps rose all over Sophie’s skin and she pulled the multicolored duvet higher, trying to convince herself she was just chilled. “Sure, I’ve thought about it. Who hasn’t, right? But that doesn’t mean I’m ready. Honestly, I don’t know if I’ll ever be ready.”
“I didn’t think I was ready either.” His voice still sounded husky. “But when I went to see the twins in the hospital for the first time… I don’t know. It did something to me.”
Sophie knew Dalton was a great uncle who spoiled the baby’s rotten. She thought it was sweet, endearing to see a totally different side of him. She’d be lying if she said she didn’t imagine him as a daddy once or twice when he had his niece cuddled up against his burly chest. But she forced the thought from her mind, insisting even if he did become a father someday, it would be long after they’d said their final good-byes.
“That’s understandable,” she said, when she realized he was waiting for her response. “There’s something about a newborn baby that…” She didn’t know what to say without making it sound like she understood where he was coming from and shared his desire.
“That what?”
“Makes you think about what it would be like to have one of your own, I guess.” There, she’d said it.
“Remember when we were babysitting for Dyl and Sabrina last month?”
Sophie smiled at the memory. “How could I forget?” The twins had spent the night with their uncle. It was their first night away from mommy and daddy and the worried parents called every hour to check in. “We fed them, gave them their baths, and if I recall, you read them Cinderella and The Three Little Pigs.”
“And you sang them lullabies.”
“Yeah.” The tears welled up in her eyes, catching her off guard. “That was a nice evening.”
“I fell in love with you that night, Soph.”
Sophie closed her eyes, letting the tears fall, grateful there was no one there to witness them. “Please don’t say that.”
“Why not? It’s true.”
She wouldn’t tell him the feeling was mutual. She couldn’t. Not because she didn’t feel the same way, but because it wouldn’t be fair to tell him she loved him too. “This is so much harder than I thought it would be,” she admitted finally. “I knew it would be hard leaving my friends and family, but I had no idea how hard it would be leaving you.”
“Then come back to me.”
“You know I can’t do that,” she said, trying to suppress the urge to rush to the airport and buy a one-way ticket back to Texas.
“I know, I’m sorry I said that. This is your dream and I love you enough to want to support your dream, even if it hurts like hell.”
Sophie didn’t think a man had ever loved her enough to be that selfless. “You don’t know how much your understanding and support means to me. You’re the best, Dalton.”
“No, you are, beautiful.” He sighed. “I’ll let you go now. You need to get some sleep. Can I call you tomorrow?”
She knew she should say no, but she couldn’t bring herself to break his heart again. “Sure, I should be home by eight.”
“I’ll call you then. Good luck tomorrow, baby.”
***
Though Sophie’s day was long, it flew by, between meetings and visits to some of the boutiques Jeremy’s business partner owned, Sophie felt they’d made even more progress than she’d expected.
“How about dinner?” Jeremy asked, when he dropped her off in the parking lot where she’d left her car that afternoon. “To celebrate our partnership?”
The invitation seemed innocent enough and she didn’t want Jeremy to think she was blowing him off, but she’d been looking forward to hearing Dalton’s voice all day and he would be calling her soon. “Um, could I take a rain check? I’m pretty tired.”
“Not a problem.” He grinned. “I remember how hectic it was in the beginning, when I was trying to get my business off the ground. I swear I didn’t sleep those first two years.”
“Yeah, it’s been a while since I’ve had a good night’s sleep.” It was nice to have the input of someone who’d been where she was. She’d be happy with half the success Jeremy had realized as a designer, but didn’t dare vocalize that in case he thought she wasn’t ambitious enough.
“I hope you don’t think I’m putting too much pressure on you,” he said, his perfectly arched brows creasing as he curled his hand around her forearm. “This is still your business. You’re the majority owner and you call all the shots. I don’t want you to think I’m trying to railroad you.”
The thought had occurred to her a time or two throughout the day, but she quickly silenced the warning bells going off in her head, reminding herself that Jeremy was only trying to help her make her dreams come true. “I know that. Believe me, I appreciate everything you’re doing for me. I couldn’t have gotten my foot in the door at some of the places we visited today without your help.”
He smiled, relaxing his hand. “It was my pleasure.”
If Sophie had to describe Jeremy’s looks to a friend she would have likened him to a fashion model. His clear blue eyes, sandy blonde hair, endless summer tan, custom suit and perfect teeth rounded out his signature look. Most women would have thought she was lucky to share the same air-space with him, but Sophie had recently started to prefer rugged good looks to polished perfection.
Suddenly broad shoulders, jet black hair and dark eyes popped into her head, only to be edged out by the memory of a few strategically placed tattoos and faint scars.
“Penny for your thoughts,” Jeremy said, softly.
“Oh sorry,” she said, laughing self-consciously when she realized he’d caught her day-dreaming about Dalton. “I guess my mind was wandering. Did you say something?”
“I
was just reminding you about our meeting in the morning. Eight o’clock at my office. I’ll have my assistant order in breakfast. Do you have any preferences?”
“No, I’m not a picky eater.”
He chuckled. “You’re not one of those girls who watches everything she eats, are you?”
Sophie smiled as she removed her seat belt and collected her purse. “Haven’t you ever heard the saying about everything being bigger in Texas, my friend? That goes for food portions as well. Believe me, the word diet is not in my vocabulary.”
“So how do you manage it?” he asked, looking amused as he rested his hand on the back of his seat. “Staying so fit and gorgeous?”
Sophie tried to ignore the compliment, though his perusal made her uncomfortable. “I like to work out. It helps to relieve stress. I guess that and good genes allows me to eat more than I should and still be able to get away with it.”
“You never said how your boyfriend felt about your move.”
Sophie had expected this subject to come up, yet she still hadn’t decided how to respond. She didn’t want to lie to Jeremy, but she also didn’t want him to know she was available either. “Let’s just say we’re both still getting used to the idea.”
“Does that mean you’re going to try and make the long distance thing work?” He rolled his eyes. “I tried that with a girlfriend in college and believe me, it was a disaster.”
She resented the fact that he’d offered his opinion without being asked, but she was in no mood to argue, especially since she happened to agree with him. “I guess it’s different for everyone though, isn’t it? I’ve known a few people who’ve made it work.” A few may have been an exaggeration. She knew of one couple who’d made it work, while he was living in another state to go to medical school. But they were only apart part of the year and knew it was only a short-term proposition. For her and Dalton, there was no end in sight, no reason to prolong the inevitable break-up. Still, the thought saddened her, making her question all over again whether she was making the right decision leaving him.
Possession (Texas Titans #8) Page 3
