This Time for Keeps (Doctors of Rittenhouse Square Book 3)

by Jill Blake

  “I’m sorry, Jake,” she said. “I know it’s Friday night and you’ve probably got plans…”

  “It’s okay, Diz. I’ll cancel them.” He pulled up to the curb in front of her townhouse and killed the engine. “Tell me what’s really going on.”

  She rubbed the scar on her arm. “Today’s the day,” she said softly. “It happened a year ago today.”

  “Oh, Diz.” His warm hand covered hers and she clutched it like a lifeline. “Come on, let’s go inside. We can order pizza and watch reruns of Iron Chef. Okay?”

  “Thank you.” She gave him a watery smile. “Just promise me: no booze this time.”

  He shook his head at her veiled reference to the last time he’d spent the night, on the anniversary of his wife’s death. They’d vowed to avoid any activity that could result in a replay of either the massive hangover or the morning-after awkwardness.

  “No booze,” he said. “Got it.”

  Chapter 16

  Later, Luca would recall seeing the red Porsche parked in front of Bella’s house and thinking it looked out of place. Not the sort of vehicle that belonged in a genteel neighborhood of dignified old homes. More like the kind of toy an aging playboy with middle-aged spread and a receding hairline might buy in order to troll for ever-younger and more expensive women.

  The man who answered Bella’s front door did not fit that profile. He looked about Luca’s age, with a full head of hair, and not an ounce of fat on his well-muscled six foot two inch frame. And he was naked, or very nearly so. Droplets of water trickled down his bare chest and sculpted stomach, darkening the sea-green towel wrapped around his hips.

  “Can I help you?” he said.

  It occurred to Luca that maybe eight on a Saturday morning wasn’t the best time to show up unannounced. The fact that he hadn’t gotten any response by phone should have been his first clue. But he’d been tired of waiting, and eager to turn last night’s fantasies into reality.

  This, however, wasn’t quite how he’d pictured things unfolding.

  He glanced at the discreet plaque beside the door to make sure he had the right house. The number matched. No mistake, then. Luca turned back to the man, who was looking distinctly less friendly with each passing second. There was no doubt a logical explanation for his presence. A relative? Luca thought back to the photos he’d seen of Bella and her siblings. Aside from the dark hair, this man bore no resemblance to her brother. A cousin, perhaps?

  “Is Bella home?”

  “Who?”

  “Isabelle,” Luca clarified.

  The man made no move to step aside. “You must be the boyfriend. Liam, is it?”

  “Luca. Luca Santoro. And you are?”

  The man took his time studying Luca. “Izzy said you were busy with some work thing.”

  “I was,” Luca said, increasingly annoyed by the third degree. Who was this guy? “Now I’m not.”

  The man must have recognized Luca’s growing irritation, because he stepped back and swung the door wider. “Well, come on in, then. The name’s Jake Stein, by the way.”

  Luca couldn’t remember Bella mentioning any cousins named Stein. DiStefano, yes, Micali, Amira, even a couple McGorrys, but no Steins. Which still left unanswered the question of this man’s connection to Bella. And more importantly, what was he doing half-naked at her house so early on a Saturday morning?

  The obvious explanation was not one Luca wanted to contemplate. Isabelle was nothing like his ex-wife. Or was she? Could he really have been so wrong about her? Had she, in fact, been busy entertaining another lover, even as Luca was considering taking their relationship to the next level?

  She’d told Luca she wasn’t seeing anyone. Had that been a lie? Belatedly, he recalled her niece’s birthday party several weeks ago. The one she’d used as an excuse to turn Luca down, because she already had a date. Had Jake Stein been the one to accompany her? And if so, why would she have brought Jake to a family event, when every time Luca mentioned the idea of meeting her family she’d change the subject?

  “Sorry for not wearing a tie,” Jake said, tucking the towel more securely around his waist. “We weren’t expecting company. I’ll go see if Izzy’s awake.”

  In the living room, a takeout pizza box sat open on the coffee table, empty but for a half-eaten slice and a few burnt crusts. Two empty water bottles, some grease-soaked napkins, and a few distinctive black-and-red wrappers marked Amedei completed the picture. It was like adding insult to injury: she’d offered another man the chocolate which Luca had brought her just last week. He turned away from the evidence that said he’d most likely been played for a fool.

  Jake disappeared down the hall. Luca followed more slowly, hanging back as Jake tapped on the master bedroom door. “Diz?”

  Silence.

  Jake knocked louder. “Come on, Diz, rise and shine. You’ve got a visitor.”

  Her muffled voice came through the door. “I’ll be out in a minute.”

  Jake turned, saw Luca hovering nearby. “There’s coffee if you want,” he said, nodding toward the kitchen. “Help yourself.”

  Luca clenched his jaw, resenting the man’s presumptiveness in playing host. He couldn’t have made it clearer that he felt at home at Bella’s place. The only thing that kept Luca from decking him right there was the fact that Jake excused himself and, rather than entering the master bedroom, moved on to the guestroom down the hall.

  Maybe there was hope after all.

  Luca made his way to the kitchen. The espresso maker appeared untouched. A container of instant coffee stood open on the counter. The electric kettle was still warm. A coffee-stained mug and spoon sat in the sink.

  By the time Bella emerged, tying the belt of a thick terrycloth bathrobe, Luca had returned to the living room and was standing by the tall windows overlooking the street below.

  “Luca?”

  He turned at the sound of her voice, drinking in the sight of her sleep-mussed hair and makeup-free face. The robe gaped between her breasts, offering a tantalizing glimpse of creamy skin. She drew the lapels closed when she noticed his gaze focusing there.

  “How did everything go yesterday?” she asked, as if nothing were amiss.

  Luca ignored the question. “Who is he?”

  Jake, dressed now in a blue polo shirt and stone-washed jeans, appeared behind her.

  She glanced at him and smiled, then performed the introductions. “Jake is the head of Oncogene Technologies. He’s the one who hired me—”

  “Your boss?” Luca felt the sense of betrayal as acutely as a physical pain. It was like history repeating itself. “You’re sleeping with your boss?”

  He could read the denial in her eyes, before she masked it with anger. “What are you talking about?”

  Jake raised a cocky brow but had the good sense to keep his mouth shut.

  “I called you last night and this morning,” Luca said.

  “My cell, you mean?” At his curt nod, she said, “I left it at work.”

  A plausible excuse, but that still didn’t explain why her boss had spent the night.

  “Fine,” he said, stepping closer. “But you could have called me from home. Why didn’t you?”

  “I didn’t want to bother you,” she said, moving further into the room. “You had a big day. You still didn’t say how it went.”

  “Don’t change the subject, Bella.” Another few steps and they were nearly toe to toe. “We were discussing your friend here—”

  “His name is Jake.”

  “—and what he’s doing here, with you.”

  “I don’t like what you’re implying.”

  “For God’s sake, Bella—”

  Jake stepped in. “I think you should let go of her.”

  Luca glared at the man. Slowly, he released Bella’s arms and stepped back. He would never have hurt her, not even in anger, but this man didn’t know that. In a way, Luca found his defense of Bella commendable. If the circumstances had been different, if th
e man weren’t a rival for Bella’s affections, Luca might even have liked him.

  Bella’s huff of disgust brought Luca’s attention back to her.

  “Jake is a friend, okay? So back off.”

  “You haven’t slept with him?”

  Her hesitation had him clenching his hands and turning on his heel. The guilt in her expression was answer enough. He strode out toward the door, ignoring her cry of “Luca, wait…!”

  He didn’t want to believe it. And yet that split second of hesitation said it all. She’d slept with Jake Stein.

  He felt ill. He should have seen it coming. He’d pushed and pushed, thinking that with time and persistence he’d overcome whatever qualms she had about entering into a committed relationship. What he hadn’t provisioned for was the possibility that she simply wasn’t interested. Maybe she wanted to play the field. Or maybe this was payback for the way he’d treated her three-and-a-half years ago. She didn’t strike him as the vindictive type, but what else was he to think?

  He drove on auto-pilot. Several times along the way, cars honked behind him, alerting him to the change of light from red to green. He almost missed his exit off the turnpike, and narrowly avoided sideswiping another car.

  The red and blue lights flashing in his rear-view mirror came as no surprise. Pulling onto the shoulder, he waited for the officer to approach. As he handed over his driver’s license and registration, then ran through the field sobriety tests as instructed, he tried to breathe through the tightness in his chest.

  “Hey, buddy, you okay?”

  He blinked and focused on the question. “Yes.”

  “You’re not having an asthma attack, are you?”

  “No.”

  “Maybe you should sit down. Easy does it. We’ll have the EMT’s check you out.”

  It was easier to go along with the request, and endure the subsequent poking and prodding, than to try to explain that the chest pain had nothing to do with his physical health, and everything to do with the dawning sense that he’d let something important slip through his fingers.

  ###

  “You want me to go after him?” Jake said.

  “No.” Isabelle forced herself to close the door. With slow, deliberate movements, she turned both locks. “If he can’t trust me enough not to jump to conclusions…”

  “It wasn’t much of a leap,” Jake said. “Some random guy answers your girlfriend’s door on a Saturday morning—”

  She retraced her steps and started gathering the detritus of last night’s dinner. “Don’t tell me you’re taking his side on this.”

  “I’m just suggesting you consider it from his perspective.” Jake said, moving to help her. “He rang the bell when I was getting out of the shower. I didn’t have time to get dressed.”

  “You opened the door naked?”

  “I had a towel on.”

  “Shit. No wonder he thought the worst.”

  “I think I’ve just been insulted.” He dumped the bottles into a recycling bin in the kitchen. “It’s okay, Diz, no need to apologize.”

  “I wasn’t about to,” she groused, wrestling with the oversized pizza box in an attempt to fit it into the trash.

  He plucked the cardboard out of her hands, doubled it over, and shoved it into the recycling bin. “It would have helped if you’d answered his question.”

  “And said what, exactly?”

  “That we’re not an item. It’s the truth, and you could have told him that.”

  “That’s not what he asked.”

  “For God’s sake, you think he’s interested in ancient history? He was asking about last night, not what happened before you started dating him.”

  “It’s an issue of trust,” she said. “And trust goes both ways.”

  “What if you went to his place and some half-naked chick answered the door?”

  “I wouldn’t have assumed the worst…”

  “Really?”

  She leaned against the kitchen counter and sighed. “Can we change the subject, please?”

  Jake studied her for a minute, then shrugged. “It’s your call, Diz. But for whatever it’s worth, I think you’re making a mistake.”

  Chapter 17

  Monday brought another round of media appearances. Ross checked in from home via live remote video-streaming, too spooked by a preterm labor scare over the weekend to chance traveling far. Luca drove in to New York, where he and Alex split up the roster of business and technology news outlets to ensure continued coverage of the company’s post-IPO progress.

  While the resulting media buzz wouldn’t have much impact on MegaData Analytics’ immediate bottom line, the publicity would certainly reinforce investors’ confidence and spread the word about the company’s software products. Drumming up clients with direct solicitation was fine at the proof of concept stage, but transitioning from startup to major industry player would require widespread brand recognition. Which meant putting on a game face and answering the same questions over and over on CNN Money, the Fox Business Network, MSNBC, and Bloomberg Business News.

  Rather than driving the three-plus hours back to Oakridge, only to turn right around the following day for another series of meetings, Alex booked a suite at the Ritz-Carlton in midtown Manhattan. There, he and Luca held a debriefing with several staff members, before heading out to dinner.

  Alex watched as Luca knocked back his second scotch. As the evening progressed, Luca became more withdrawn, going from monosyllabic responses to silence.

  “Something bothering you?” Alex finally asked.

  Luca shrugged and signaled the waiter for a refill.

  “You might want to go easy on the hard stuff,” Alex said. “You’re booked tomorrow for the eight a.m. slot on Good Morning America.”

  “I’ll be fine,” Luca said.

  They ate in silence for a while, until Alex spoke up again. “The pressure can be a bit much. All that exposure, everyone wanting a piece of you. If you need a break, we can have one of the PR people sub for you.”

  “It’s okay, I can handle it.”

  “Good.” Alex cut another piece of steak and chewed slowly. “So what is it? Trouble in paradise?”

  Luca’s lips flattened in a straight line and his jaw flexed.

  Alex set down his silverware. “What did you do this time?”

  “Me?” Luca growled. “I did nothing.”

  “Obviously, you haven’t learned the first rule of any relationship.”

  “What’s that?”

  “The guy is always at fault,” Alex said. “Even when he isn’t. So whatever happened, just apologize, promise you’ll never do it again, and get on with your life.”

  Luca frowned. “What do you know about Jake Stein?”

  “Jake? You mean Isabelle’s Jake?”

  Luca tensed, fingers curling into a fist.

  “Whoa—what’s wrong with you?” Alex said, all pretense at humor gone.

  “He was with her Saturday morning.”

  “Okay…”

  “Naked.”

  That shut Alex up for a moment. “You mean, like bare-assed? No clothes on at all? That kind of naked?”

  “Almost. He was wearing a towel.”

  “Where was this again?”

  “Her place. He’d spent the night.”

  Alex thought about it. “Maybe he was drunk, and she didn’t want him driving. What did she say when you asked her?”

  Luca’s nostrils flared at the memory. “She slept with him.”

  “What?” Alex’s brows shot up. “No way. You and Isabelle have been back together—what, three weeks? A month? Exclusive, right? So something’s off. Isabelle’s not the sort to cheat.”

  “I asked her point-blank, and she didn’t deny it.”

  “Didn’t deny it? What the hell does that mean? What exactly did she say?”

  “Nothing, all right? She said nothing.”

  Alex shook his head. “Let me get this straight. You asked her if she’d sl
ept with the guy, she didn’t answer, and you assumed that was a yes? Tell me you at least gave her the chance to explain.”

  Luca scowled.

  Alex sighed. “Luca, my friend, you’re an ass. I don’t know what happened, but I know Isabelle and I’ve met Jake. He’s a good guy. He really helped Isabelle when she was in a bad way. When nobody else could get through to her, not Sam or Jane or Isabelle’s family, Jake somehow found a way. Got her out of her depression, gave her a job. If there was something going on between them, she wouldn’t have looked at you twice. The fact that she did—well, like I said, she’s not a cheater. So you figure it out.”

  “I know what I saw.”

  “Innocent until proven guilty, man. That’s the American way. Don’t tell me they do things differently back in Italy?”

  Luca swirled the remains of scotch in his glass. “What kind of explanation could there possibly be?”

  “Go back and ask.”

  “I’m not sure she’ll even agree to see me.”

  “So you’re just going to give up? Without knowing the truth?” Alex leaned forward. “You know the best piece of advice Ross ever gave me? He told me to get my head out of my ass and go after Sam, because women like that only come around once in a man’s life. You, my friend, have your work cut out for you.”

  ###

  They met at the park near her house. She’d turned down Luca’s offer of dinner, lunch, even coffee. At least she hadn’t gone back to wearing long sleeves. That was something. And he noticed she’d put on some lip gloss, so maybe she wasn’t as indifferent to him as she would have him believe.

  It was mid-afternoon, a balmy seventy-two. A light breeze rustled the leaves above them as they walked. Office workers lounged on benches lining the path, reading, eating, soaking up the sun. Couples picnicked on blankets dotting the wide expanse of lawn. A cluster of toddlers played under the watchful gaze of their mothers.