“It’s a commercial.”
“Of course.” Why would his luck be any different?
“The other half is over there.” Rafael pointed again.
“The other half of what?”
He better mean the sandwich.
“The pen.”
Bastard.
“Someone make you the broken pen police?”
“No, I thought you’d get upset if you lost it. That’s the pen CB gave you for your birthday two years ago.”
Burke glared at him.
The older man cackled. “She’s lucky you love her, geez. Musta been
really
bad this time.”
“You wanna live to see the next commercial, ‘Fael?”
“Si,
jefe
.”
“Then shut up.”
Blessed silence reined for all of thirty seconds.
“We’re back and today’s topic is Friends and Lovers—”
Rather than scream—or heaven forbid, break another pen—Burke stalked out of his office and back to the repair bay. God save the poor schmucks working for him if they said one damn word about sex, Cass, the bet or anything else. In any language.
Burke clanged into the oversize chart of bets, times and names on a metal easel two steps out of his office. “What did I tell you guys about this goddamn pool?” he roared into the suddenly silent garage.
“What’s the matter, Halifax? Someone already got your slot?”
Great, exactly what I need.
Feeling murderous, Burke turned away from the fallen sign to face the open bay of two cars, a truck up on the lift, a world of metal weapons and an idiot dumb enough to walk into the place he was least welcome. Luke was looking a touch less purple and a hell of a lot more smug. What could possibly be going on now?
“What are you doing in my garage?”
Luke put up his hands in mock surrender. “Just bringing your boys the money I owe them for the pool.”
Burke turned to look at his traitorous employees, but they were still curiously out of sight. He returned his menace to Luke. “As you can see, no one is here to take it. Leave.”
“Don’t get your feathers in a twist, you already got what you wanted. I’m out of CB’s life once and for all. I did what you wanted, CB’s yours, free and clear.”
Burke’s blood pressure hitched upward. “You think I got rid of you because I wanted Cass for myself?”
How dumb can one person be?
“You were cheating on her. I got rid of you because you didn’t deserve her. You
never
deserved her.”
“Oh, and you do?” Luke’s laughter only rubbed salt in Burke’s already gaping conscience. If Luke of all people could see he wasn’t worthy of Cass, how long until
Cass
figured it out? “You think she’ll still see you as her hero when she finds out you’re the reason she got left at the altar?”
Probably not.
“Blackmail has a way of smudging all that shining armor she sees you in. I think it’s funny, is all. I mean, everyone thinks CB’s helpless, but she likes to do things for herself. You could have told her about me and the girl in the hotel room. She’d have done the rest on her own.”
Burke considered that option last year, but rejected it almost immediately. “You would have weaseled your way back into her good graces somehow. You always did before.”
Which was why he did it. Why he’d followed Luke after spotting him in the city after the annual Concept Car Convention. Cass had bowed out, thankfully, because of bookkeeping. Seeing Luke at a cozy looking outdoor restaurant with an even cozier looking blonde when he was supposed to be in Irvine interviewing for a coaching position with a school made Burke suspicious to say the least. Enough to wait a few hours after the duo checked into a hotel room nearby before knocking on their door. It wasn’t his fault the idiot answered the door in a towel while his date requested ice from the bathroom shower stall.
All of Luke’s transgressions, all of Cass’s hurts, reared up in his mind and that was why he took the man Cass loved and shook him like a rag doll. Because Luke betrayed her again. Because he couldn’t shake Cass for staying with someone like him; for not even
seeing
what Luke really was. There was nothing more important at that moment than severing those ties between Luke and Cass, once and for all.
It hadn’t been difficult to scare Luke into leaving. He loved himself and his face far too much to risk either one for Cass. No, the only trouble was not beating the whelp into an unrecognizable pulp. The next best thing to it was making him write that letter…
“I should be thanking you for what you did,” Luke continued, unaware of Burke’s dark thoughts.
Burke frowned at the almost genuine tone coming from the one person he thought wouldn’t know the word’s definition.
“Convincing me to get out of this hole was the best thing you could have done for me. I have a real future in LA. No one there knows everything about me. It’s good to have a little mystery in my business. Being with Sally, well, I don’t have to tell you what she’s done for me. Her father is the most influential producer in film today.”
So much for genuine.
“You marrying her or her father?”
Luke seemed to figure out Burke wasn’t interested in his bragging. But he wasn’t done yet, Burke could tell.
“Don’t you ever wonder?” Luke asked, his voice low as he pulled a pair of aviator’s sunglasses from his breast pocket.
Bait, if he ever heard it, but since Luke came there for a reason, Burke decided to get it out of the way. “Wonder what?”
“How Cass feels about you? Let’s face it, if you hadn’t gotten rid of me, you’d never be with her right now. If she’d gotten rid of me, you’d know. But the way it is now,” he added, “you’ll never know for sure which one of us she wants most.”
The truth coiled around him like a bleak fog. Truth he didn’t want to hear, truth he didn’t want to think about, but truth all the same.
“Get out of my garage while you can still walk upright.”
Luke’s star quality smile shone past the nearly faded bruises, his teeth glinting almost as bright as the mirror lenses on his glasses. The schmuck probably
would
do well in Hollywood.
“Tell your boys to pick up my money at Shaky Jakes. That’s where they’re moving the pool, isn’t it?”
“You knew and you came by here anyway?” Burke asked, his hands tightening into fists. What he wouldn’t give to bash the idiot’s head in.
“You know me, always ready to chat with a friend. See you at the wedding, Halifax.” A jaunty wave—
who the hell is jaunty these days?
—and Luke strolled out of the garage’s open doors. Leaving Burke with just one thing to do.
“Billy!” he roared, looking around until a hat rose from behind one of the cars.
“Yeah, boss?”
“Get over here,” he said, bending down to pick up the still folded easel. He scanned the pool chart, looking for the category he needed but it wasn’t there. “Bring a pen.”
Billy probably wouldn’t move as fast if his pants were on fire. Burke had barely finished snapping when the kid arrived. Smart man. Burke scribbled a new category at the bottom of the chart, and wrote his name next to it along with a high enough dollar value that it wouldn’t be missed. Billy’s eyes bulged when Burke handed him back the pen.
“Now get this shit out of my garage.”
A mumbled “yes sir” later and Burke once again had nothing to think about. Nothing except what he couldn’t have.
Dieting was definitely out. So was dinner with Burke. Cass left a message on his machine that she wouldn’t make it shortly after she gave up trying to find a dress with Alice, who didn’t go into labor. Since he was still at the garage, she was spared his indignation and demands. Sadly, her stomach wasn’t as gracious. It still wanted food and it wanted it now. Shoving a hat backward on her head, she tromped into Shaky Jake’s and slumped into a booth. A mushroom burger and a beer and she’d be able to think.
Well, she would if it wasn’t so quiet all of a sudden.
Peering out from under the light of the dangling overhead lamp, Cass realized everyone was staring at
her
. Which included the blond man in familiar jeans and jacket on the stool dead center of the bar.
Maybe it was the way he was staring at her, the way he used to, perhaps it was the full, frothy beer in his hand, but for one miniscule second, Cass remembered why she used to love Luke Hanson. The way he could command an entire room’s attention, the sheer beauty of him and the way he could turn all that focus on you as if you were the only other person there with him.
But the moment passed. He shifted. He breathed. He did
something
, because all at once, Cass could see right through the illusion and couldn’t find an ounce of substance behind his perfect blue eyes or artfully placed dimples. He was the same old Luke. A jerk. A pompous, narcissistic fool. A user.
No, what snapped her out of it was that there simply wasn’t enough of him. His hair was too light, his eyes too clear, his shoulders too thin. He wasn’t imposing. He wasn’t scowling. Like a photo negative, Luke was a poor shadow of what she had come to think of as perfect for her.
He wasn’t Burke.
Maybe that had doomed their relationship from the beginning. She always expected him to be something he never was. She’d tried to make him into Burke, forced him into school, and dragged him into things hoping he’d discover a responsibility he enjoyed. She’d done him as much wrong as he’d done her, only Luke had never realized it. Probably never would.
Luke’s voice interrupted her epiphany. “You and Halifax gotta be the weirdest damn couple in this whole state, CB.”
Cass looked up to find him lifting his beer with a fingertip hold around the rim, his weight on his back leg while he leaned down to be seen under the faux tiffany lamp’s glow.
Anything to make sure those pearly whites shine
. Why hadn’t she noticed this about him years ago either?
“Go away, Luke, you’re blocking my view to the waiter.”
“Oh, by all means,” he said, acting as if he were doing her a favor and sat opposite her in the booth. “I’m not dumb enough to come between you and your dinner.”
The number of things he
was
dumb enough to do made her eyes start to cross. “Don’t you have a fluffy fiancée around here somewhere? Someone who actually
wants
to spend time with you?”
His eyes flickered, his grip on his beer went slack and Cass could already tell she wasn’t going to get to enjoy her dinner. Too many times she’d seen this same look. Luke needed a shoulder to cry on.
“Why do you have to be that way, CB? I’m sitting here, friendly-like, and you have to go and be mean.”
The fastest way past his bull was to stomp right through it. “What do you want, Luke?”
“How about a little compassion, CB. I’m heartbroken here.”
Cass signaled May Belle at the bar, gesturing to her menu. May Belle nodded and tipped off a young man in a crisp, white shirt and green apron. He came, she ordered and within three minutes, there was nothing left to do but accept that her ex wasn’t going to leave.
“Why should I be compassionate to you? What could possibly have happened to you in the last week and a half that could make me care about you? Did you get a paper cut? Neighbor run over your dog? Your mother started in on you about having a
real
job again?”
“I think Sally’s cheating on me.”
Cass snapped her jaw shut.
“Can’t we talk like we used to? You know, when we were still friends?”
Cass rolled her head in a silent groan. From about six different angles, this was a bad conversation to have. “I don’t think so, Luke. Your relationship with Sally has nothing to do with me.”
“Who else am I going to talk to about it? Everyone and their grandmother are watching us like hawks in this place, waiting to see what will change the odds on their bets.”
Cass’s ears pricked. “What bets?”
Luke shrugged, tossing a thumb over his shoulder. “The one over there in the corner booth. It’s a pool on who’s going to win this bet at the wedding. They’re guessing how many times you’ll fall down as you run out the door. Even Halifax has a marker.”
“Burke wouldn’t bet on me like that.”
Luke didn’t appear to care. “It’s up there, you can see for yourself. If he wins, he’ll probably be able to buy himself a decent garage.”
“Luke—”
“Fine,” he raised his hands in surrender. “I won’t talk about The Holy One.”
Cass rolled her eyes at the old name.
“The point is, I can’t have it going around that Sally’s playing the field. Like I don’t have enough humiliation in this place.”
She could understand that. Sort of. “What makes you think she’s cheating?”
“Well, she went out by herself, for one. She’s been doing it a lot.”
“You’ve been doing it a lot, too. Plus, weddings don’t just come together on a whim, Luke. She’s probably doing a lot of leg work to organize it so fast.”
“I know, I know, okay? You think I don’t know that?” Defensiveness. Standard Luke response to confrontation with common sense. But it didn’t dissolve the lump of guilt forming in her chest because she knew Sally
was
wandering a bit. Once more, moral questions cropped up all over her mind, not the least of which was why she was sitting with Luke when she
should
be at dinner with Burke.