The Merger (23 page)

All she could do was stand there and watch him walk away. A moment later both Tiffany and Pete were standing next to her.

“Did he hurt you?” Tiffany looked her over from head to toe? “Why was he here? What did he want?”

“God,” Pete interrupted. “Give her a chance to talk. Let’s all sit down.”

Julie shook her head. “I don’t want to sit. I want to go. I just want to go.”

Tiffany took Julie’s hands in her own. “I want to take you back to Spencer’s. I don’t trust your ex-husband.”

Julie picked up the envelope and opened it.

“What is it?” Tiffany looked over her shoulder.

“The house. He gave me
the house.”
She shook her head. “I’m the one that paid for it. I guess his sense of decency kicked in to sign over his half.”

“This is good, right? This is all he wanted to talk about?”

“No.” Julie forced a smile.

“What else.” She studied her. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I just have a lot on my mind. That’s all.” She wasn’t about to tell them what Steven had said. She had no idea what he was talking about and until she did she wasn’t saying anything.

“Let’s go.”

Pete threw a few dollars on the table and escorted them both out. “Where are you headed?”

Tiffany gave Julie a stern look. “I want her at Spencer’s. There’s security there.”

Pete nodded. “That’s a good idea. I’ll follow you downtown. Let me know when you’re in the building.”

Julie unlocked her car and Tiffany opened the passenger door. “You’re riding with me?”

“Pete brought me and you’re not leaving my sight.”

Julie slid in behind the steering wheel and closed the door as Tiffany climbed in the other side. She didn’t need to be protected from Steven, though she had to admit, having people look out for her was nice.

“He’s not dangerous,” she said as she backed out of the parking space.”

“He seemed genuine enough when he looked me over today and when he did the same thing to the waitress.”

Julie shrugged. “It’s just how he is.”

“And how did you end up with him?”

The very thought stuck in Julie’s chest. She’d been lonely.

Friends had come and gone over the years. Never had she really bonded with anyone. Then her parents passed on and she was alone. What young woman wouldn’t buy into an older, successful man telling them what they needed to hear?

The threat of tears stung her throat, but she swallowed that back. She was
woman
enough to admit she’d made a mistake.

“I’m not the first lonely woman to fall for a man who dressed nice or said nice things.”

Tiffany quickly turned her head to look at her and Julie could feel the stare burn through her. “Tell me that’s not what’s going on with you and Spencer.”

“Don’t accuse me of using him,” she said, her tone resonating her irritation at the accusation.

“Tell me you’re not.”

“I’m not.”

“What is this then? What is it between the two of you?”

Julie gripped the steering wheel tighter. “I don’t know what it is or what it’ll become, but I care deeply for him. I think I always have.” Those tears she’d swallowed down forced themselves back up. “I know he hated me. I don’t blame him. But for being a stranger that I put through the wringer he still is one of the only people—men,” she corrected, “that was ever decent to me.”

Tiffany laced her fingers in her lap. “I hate that I’m going to tell you this.” She let out a grunt. “About three months ago when he took me out to dinner I called him out because he was preoccupied. He wouldn’t pay attention to me and it was pissing me off.”

“Spencer always has something on his mind,” she said.

“Yes, well that night it was you.”

Julie slowed the car at
a stoplight
and turned to look at Tiffany. “Me?”

She nodded. “The words
I hate that bitch
slipped through when I quizzed him about what was consuming him, but it didn’t hold.”

“Well,” she coughed back those tears again. “Doesn’t that sound charming?”

“Let me finish.”

Julie eased through the green light and headed toward Spencer’s building.

Tiffany tossed her hair over her shoulder. “The reason he hated you was because he couldn’t identify the cause of his frustration. Mergers take time. And no one appreciates a thorough agenda more than Spencer. He never questioned the things you brought up. He might have been irritated, but he never questioned them.”

“Then why hate me?”

“Because you brought something out in him that he couldn’t lasso. I didn’t satisfy his need anymore. I have no intention of marrying him and he has no intention of marrying me. Spencer needs someone who can meld into his family and become his family. He needs someone who will love unconditionally and without fail. He needs you.”

Julie pulled into the visitor parking at Spencer’s building and threw the car into park.

“Are you kidding me? You tell me he hates me. Then you tell me he’s just looking for some wife?”

“No. That’s not what I’m saying.” She tossed her hair again. “His problem is he’s been attracted to you since the day he met you. You go after what you want—so does he. You were standing up for the Graysons because you believed in them. He stands up for his family in the same way. You were already married.”

“He hates me because I wasn’t single.”

“He hated that he never got
the chance.”

Julie opened the door and got out of the car. “This is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.”

“Why?” Tiffany argued as she climbed out of the car and they both slammed the doors. “You can’t believe he’s been attracted to you that long?”

“No. I can’t believe it.”

“I knew who you were the second I laid eyes on you. I would have known you in a crowd.”

“How?”

“Because he’d described you to me a million times. I knew the shade of your hair and the color of your eyes. I know that when you smile you have a dimple and when you’re mad your cheeks turn just a certain shade of crimson, like they are now.”

“You’re making this up.”

“I’m not. He watched you for five months. He obsessed about you for five months. Now you’re here and he’s still obsessing.”

Julie stood there and stared at the woman in front of her with her perfect body and wavy red hair. Why would she make it all up if she could have Spencer at any time?

“I think I’m falling in love with him,” Julie said, the words just falling out of her mouth as if someone else had put them there.

“You seem shocked by that.”

She was. She felt it in her chest and it resonated through her entire body. “I’ve never had anyone treat me like he does.”

Tiffany moved toward her. “I’m very sure he feels the same way. Now, tell me what Steven said to you.”

“He was let go from PLL.”

“Spencer fired him?”

“No. I just don’t know what’s going on.”

There was more, but she didn’t want to share that. She didn’t really understand the rest of what Steven had said to her. Until she knew what was going on that was going to remain her secret.

Tiffany
laced
her arm around Julie’s waist and they walked toward the building.

Julie followed Tiffany into Spencer’s penthouse while she spoke to Pete on the phone.

When they entered, Tiffany found a pair of sweatpants and a T-shirt for Julie to change into as she poured them each a glass of wine.

Curled up on the couch, as if they were old friends, Julie and Tiffany laughed over glasses of wine and pizza rolls they’d found in the freezer.

As the wine crept through
Julie,
she felt her eyes grow heavy and she couldn’t be sure if Tiffany
was
actually still talking to her.

The couch beneath her was so comfortable. Wouldn’t it be nice to relax right there in Spencer’s arms?

Spencer.

She smiled. She knew she loved him. Was there any one reason? No—she just knew she did.

Spencer looked down at Julie asleep on his couch. Her eyes moved behind her eyelids and a smile stayed on her lips.

“How much did she drink?” Spencer asked.

Tiffany held up the glass she picked up from the table. “I’d say four
sips
.”

“She’s just worn out,” he said wanting to touch her.

“Your ex-husband coming for you will do that.”

Spencer turned toward Tiffany and he could feel the angry heat ball in his gut. “He what?”

“Shhh,” Tiffany said pressing her finger to her lips. “Let’s talk in the kitchen.”

She stood from the couch and walked toward the kitchen and he followed.

“He was here? You saw him?”

“He signed over the house to her.”

Spencer wanted to feel relieved by that, so why didn’t he? “That’s all? He found her and signed over the house?”

Tiffany shrugged. “She said he did. I don’t even know if she looked. He met her at Village Inn, they were there maybe ten minutes, and then he looked as though he got scared and left.”

Spencer eased his hip against the counter. “The Grayson family asked him to leave PLL.”

Tiffany moved toward him. “He left?”

Spencer nodded. “I don’t know what’s going on there, but I think it’s time to ask the
Graysons
to move on. Perhaps easing them out isn’t necessary.”

“Do you think it has anything to do with Libby?”

Spencer nodded as he rubbed his hand over his unshaven cheek. “She came on to me this morning.”

Tiffany’s eyes grew wide. “You didn’t…”

“Don’t even go there,” he threatened. “You of all people know me better than that.”

“I know.” She sipped her wine. “That woman is trouble.”

“Something tells me she’s going to cause more if I don’t get her family out of there.” He held out his hand for Tiffany to hand him her wine. When she
did,
he took a long sip and handed it back. “I need to talk to my father.”

He looked down at his watch and realized it was too late to call him. Nothing would happen overnight. He’d talk to him in the morning. For
now,
he wanted to carry Julie into his bed and wrap his arms around her.

When Tiffany laughed behind her
glass,
he looked up.

“Give me your keys. I left my car at the site. I need to get home,” she said.

“You’re okay to drive?”

“I’m okay.” She moved in and kissed him on the cheek as he pulled his keys from his pocket. “You’ve been my best friend most of my life. I finally feel as though you’ll be taken care of now.”

Those words hit Spencer straight in the chest. “You think so?”

Tiffany nodded. “She’s the one, Spence. Who would know that better than me?”

He looked out into the living room and his entire body warmed as she stirred on the couch.

“Make me something.”

Tiffany’s eyebrows rose. “Make you what?”

“Design me something special for her. I want to give her something special.”

The smile that formed on Tiffany’s mouth was wide and as glorious as the sparkle in her eyes.

“How much do you want to spend?”

He looked back at Julie and then at Tiffany. “No price is too steep.”

She touched his cheek, flipped his keys on her finger, and left without another word.

Spencer stood in his kitchen and smiled. There had been a day, many years ago, when he couldn’t imagine not marrying that woman with
the long
red hair. Now when she kissed him he thought it felt sisterly. The thought struck him that if they had made it to bed the other night things might have been awkward.

Tiffany would always have his back and he’d have hers. He’d love her for the rest of his life, but it was a love just as he had for Darcy.

When he looked at Julie, on the other hand, his heart quickened and his body temperature rose significantly. If she’d have him, he was hers. And to think he’d wasted so much time convincing himself he hated her.

As he moved through the kitchen toward
her,
he stopped when he saw the manila envelope on the counter. Reaching his hand out, he touched it as if all the answers to the universe’s unsolved questions might instantly come to him. It would be wrong to look inside, but he wasn’t sure he was strong enough not to.

He lifted it from the counter as Julie stirred on the couch again. Watching her, wanting her, he pinched open the silver clasp at the back of the envelope. He hesitated, took a deep breath, and laid it back down.

When she was ready, she’d show him what was inside.

Spencer moved toward the couch. Kneeling down beside her, he gently moved a strand of hair from her face and brushed it aside with his finger.