The Rebound Guy (18 page)

“I’ll come get you. I’m going to rent a car before I pick them up from the airport. And, before you ask, yes, the lie does run that deep. Not only do I still work on Wall Street, but I make a large enough salary to own a car in New York.” He waggled his eyebrows. “I’m pretty impressive, aren’t I?”

“They must bore the neighbors with talk of you,” she said. She contemplated for only a second before she held up a finger. “One minute.”

Asia rounded her desk and retrieved her purse from the bottom drawer. She fished out her spare set of car keys.

Returning to where Dexter stood, she held out the key. “It’s the quartz-colored Infiniti G37 on the third floor of the parking garage across from my building. Slot 315.”

He shook his head. “I can’t do that.”

“Dexter, it doesn’t make sense for you to waste money renting a car when I have one that barely gets used. Consider it extra payment for joining me at the Yankee game.”

“You’ve already paid me for that, and more,” he pointed out.

She thought for a moment. “Well, consider it practice for this weekend. You’re driving us to Connecticut for the wedding. This way you can familiarize yourself with the car.”

His head shook with his resigned chuckle. “You’re good at spinning things in your favor, aren’t you?”

“It’s a part of my job,” Asia quipped. “I’ll see you tonight.”

She turned for her desk, but Dexter caught her by the arm.

“Did you need anything else?” she asked.

He nodded, his intense eyes boring into hers as he leaned forward and captured her mouth in a breath-stealing kiss. His tongue plowed past her lips, surging inside and tangling with her tongue. She captured the back of his head, holding him in place while their tongues continued to dance.

Asia wasn’t sure how much time had passed before he released her.

“Damn,” Dexter said, his chest heaving with his rough and ragged breaths. He took several steps back, as if he didn’t trust himself to remain within touching distance. He held up the keys. “Um, thanks. I’ll...uh...see you tonight.”

Asia nodded, still struggling to get her own breathing under control.

He backed out of her office, bumping into the door on his way out, his eyes never leaving hers. When the door closed behind him, Asia leaned against her desk, her limbs so weak with want they could barely hold her up.

Moments later, her door opened and Cortland walked in. All of the pleasurable tingles that had been fluttering along her skin after Dexter’s kiss dissipated.

“What do you want?” Asia asked, regaining her composure.

He held up a folder. “The legal department is done with this,” he said, tossing the file onto her desk. He pivoted on his heel, stalking toward her door.

He stopped with his hand on the knob, his back to her. “Maybe if you’d allowed me to do what he apparently gets to do, we’d still be together,” he said before leaving her office.

Asia stared at the partially open door, shaking her head.

It looked as if she’d achieved her initial goal; Cortland was definitely jealous. Ironically, she realized that she didn’t give a damn.

She’d given Cortland more of her mental energy than he warranted over the past few weeks. Over the past four years, Asia amended. She wasn’t giving him another second.

“Dexter was right,” she said. “He never deserved a minute of my time.”

But did Dexter?

Asia knew she was playing with fire with Dexter. The rules had been set from the very beginning. It was all a part of the services he offered. She would be ten kinds of a fool if she allowed her heart to make anything more out of his tender kisses and heated looks.

Apparently, she was ten kinds of a fool, because Asia couldn’t deny the inevitable. She was falling hard for her rebound guy.

***

“You should have seen the bass I pulled out of the lake, Dex. Could feed an entire village.”

Dexter grinned at his dad, whose hands extended about four feet wide. His mother sat next to him with an unimpressed expression on her face. She looked across the table at Dex and Asia and shook her head.

It was not that big
, she mouthed.

For the past half hour, his father had given a detailed accounting of every fish he’d caught so far this summer, which had all been big enough to feed an entire village.

When Dexter’s father excused himself to go to the restroom, his mother dropped her head into her open palm. “Why doesn’t that man ever shut up?”

“It’s your fault.” Dex laughed. “You should have known the fishing tales would start when you picked a restaurant that charges an arm and a leg for fish.”

“Raw fish,” Asia said, mimicking his dad’s deep voice. His earlier outrage when they had been presented with menus at the sushi restaurant of some famed chef his mother adored from the Food Network had been something to behold.

“I find it hilarious that neither of you eat sushi,” Asia added.

“I just wanted to say that I’ve been here,” his mother said, her eyes roaming over the dining room’s stark, serene design. Dex had to admit that it was impressive, especially the “bottle wall” made of what had to number more than ten thousand plastic bottles filled with water and shimmering with lights.

“The restaurant is just as fabulous as I thought it would be, although I’ll probably need a hamburger in an hour,” his mother concluded, gesturing to her barely touched plate. Unlike his father, she hadn’t asked the waiter to hit her sashimi with a bit of fire.

“Your hotel is in the Times Square area, isn’t it?” Asia asked. “I’m sure you’ll find a few places where you can get a burger or a slice of pizza.”

His mother waved a hand. “Never mind that. Asia, earlier you were explaining what you do for a living. I want to hear more.”

His mother listened with rapt attention as Asia explained her job at Global Partners PR, working behind the scenes, mitigating potential disasters. Dex could tell she was impressed with his new “girlfriend.”

“You must be privy to all sorts of juicy scandals,” his mother said. “It sounds fascinating.”

“It is,” Asia said. “It can get rather hectic, but it’s satisfying knowing that I’m helping to save companies from potential disasters.”

As Dexter reached for his wine and took a sip, Asia gestured to the glass. “Do you like it?”

Just to get a rise out of her, he lifted one shoulder in an apathetic shrug. “It’s okay.”

She fell for it hook, line, and sinker, and glared at him. She motioned toward him with her thumb. “I’ve been trying to introduce him to the glorious world of wines. So far, he hasn’t been impressed.”

His mother affected an exasperated eye roll—as if she knew anything about wines.

His father returned to the table and Dex asked, “What time does your ship leave tomorrow?”

“We have to be onboard by one p.m.”

“I’m going to miss seeing the Statue of Liberty again,” his mother said with a frown. “I doubt we’ll have time to make it there in the morning.”

“What about right now?” Asia asked. She looked over at him. “We can’t go to the island, but there’s a great view from Battery Park. It’s not too far from here.”

Dex’s hand stopped on the way to his wine glass, and he shot her a skeptical look. After the way his parents had both rambled on throughout dinner, he was sure she would be ready to escape as soon as possible. But she gave him a small nod, letting him know it was okay.

“Okay,” Dex asked, slowly shaking his head. He looked across the table at his parents. “Are you two up for this?”

“Of course,” his father said. “We’re on vacation.”

Dex settled the bill, trying not to grimace as he slipped his credit card inside the leather portfolio. He would have to walk a lot of dogs to cover this meal.

They walked down to the next block where he’d parked Asia’s car. As they made the ten-minute drive down Lincoln Highway, his mother gave Asia what seemed to be an hour-by-hour accounting of the itinerary for their 16-day cruise. The excitement in her voice brought a smile to Dex’s lips.

Once at the park that covered a portion of the lower tip of Manhattan, he found street parking and they all got out.

“The park isn’t closed is it?” his father asked. “I don’t want us to be picked up for loitering and miss our boat tomorrow.”

Panic widened his mother’s eyes.

“It’s not even ten o’clock yet,” Dex said, pointing to the sign that showed the park didn’t close until one. “I think we’re safe.”

“Just making sure,” his dad said.

They started for the waterfront promenade that afforded the best view of the Statue of Liberty. As his parents continued toward the Hudson, Dex held Asia back. He captured her shoulders and gave them a light, grateful squeeze.

“Thank you,” he said. “You have no idea how much I appreciate your doing this.”

“There’s no need to thank me. I’ve enjoyed tonight much more than I thought I would. Your parents are utterly charming.”

“My parents could win first place in a most words spoken per minute contest,” he said.

She gave him arm a playful slap. “Stop it. They’re wonderful.”

“Thanks.” He smiled. “I happen to agree with you, despite Dad and his fishing stories.”

They walked over to a nearby bench and sat. Asia automatically scooted closer to him, and Dex had to remind himself that he was, technically, on a job.

It had been hard not to imagine that this was real. Sitting across from his parents tonight, playing the role of a new couple happily in love, it was all too easy to picture it being so.

It was also dangerous.

He had not gone into this blindly. In fact, he always embarked upon a job with his eyes wide open. Dex knew better than to indulge in the fantasy of imagining Asia was anything more than a client.

But just because he knew better didn’t make it any easier to prevent it from happening, especially as Asia scooted even closer and rested her head on his shoulder, despite the hot, sticky air of a July evening in New York.

“Your parents are so lucky,” she murmured. “It’s wonderful to see two people so in love after so many years together. My parents’ marriage only lasted a small fraction of that time.”

“How long were they married?”

“Seven years. Want to hear something funny?” Her voice held zero humor. “They were married seven years, yet both of their kids were born out of wedlock. They got married after I was born and got divorced before India arrived.”

“At the Yankee game you mentioned that you haven’t spoken to your dad since you were a little girl.”

“Not since the day he left. I’ve never spoken to my other siblings, either.” She raised her head a fraction to look up at him. “My father has a set of twins. They’re two weeks older than India.”

“Ouch,” Dexter said with a whoosh of air. He hadn’t been expecting that.

“Yeah,” Asia said. “I think there’s a younger son, too. He friended India on Facebook, but I’m not interested in being friends with my father’s other family.” She cleared her throat. “He’s a history professor at UCLA Berkley. That’s all I know of his life since he’s been gone.”

Dexter put his arm around her and pulled her closer to his side, moving her head so that it rested on his chest. He didn’t even want to think about how good this felt. How right it seemed to have her snuggled against him, providing her comfort and strength.

They were silent for several minutes, the pounding feet of a couple of late-night joggers providing the only break in the stillness. When Asia spoke again, her voice was so low he could barely hear.

“He devastated our family when he left,” she said. “My mother had no idea that he had been seeing one of his students. He moved out three months before India was born.”

“Has she ever met him?”

Asia nodded. “Back when she was in junior high school. She and my mom flew out there because she wanted to meet him. I was away at college at the time. Although it’s not as if I would have joined them on the trip,” she said with a mirthless laugh. “India still keeps in contact with him. They call each other a few times a year.

“For the longest time she kept it a secret from me because she thought I would be upset with her.”

“Were you?”

She blew out a breath. “If my mom isn’t upset anymore, why should I be? She’s the one who was hurt by the bastard.”

“Your mom wasn’t the only one hurt by him, Asia.” Surely she could see that.

But maybe she didn’t, Dex thought. Especially after the way she lifted one shoulder in a light shrug and said, “I’ve moved past it.”

Did she really not see how her father’s betrayal still affected her? Even if he hadn’t read through the dozens of psychology books cluttering his bookshelf, he would have seen the signs.

And to have her ex-fiancé do the same thing to
her
that her father did to her mother?

Dex tightened his hold on her, wanting to shield her from the heartache she had been through.

They sat in cozy silence, watching the lights of the downtown high-rises glittering across the Hudson. A few moments later, Dexter let out a painful groan as his parents engaged in the kind of kiss a couple shouldn’t even remember existed after forty years of marriage.

“Oh, they are so adorable.” Asia sighed.

“They’re sucking face like a couple of teenagers.”

“That’s how it should be,” she said, snuggling closer to him.

After about ten minutes, his parents started toward them. Dexter and Asia both stood as they approached. He rested his hand at the small of her back, unapologetically using every opportunity to touch her.

“We’ve got a long day tomorrow,” his mother said. “We should head back.”

Dexter turned to Asia. “Do you want me to drop you off at your place before taking them back to their hotel?”

“Of course not. I don’t mind taking the ride to midtown. Unless you want some private time with your parents.”

His mother waved a hand. “He had eighteen years with us; he doesn’t need any private time. You come along.”

Dex rolled his eyes for what seemed like the hundredth time tonight.

As they made their way to his parents’ hotel near Times Square, the two of them remarked on everything under the sun—from the amount of traffic at this time of night to the fact that there seemed to be a Duane Reade pharmacy every few blocks.