Chapter Nineteen

Geez, Wyatt. Get it together.

His heart was still hammering, and all she’d really done was look at him. Granted, that was no run-of-the-mill, everyday look. It was the kind of look a woman gave a man when she wanted him to kiss her. Even he knew that in his limited experience. He’d thought he saw it for a split second at the flower shop, but now he was positive. She’d wanted him to kiss her.

And, man, had he wanted to, more than anything else in the world. But he was used to that. He’d wanted to kiss her the night they met, before they’d even left the wedding, and about a million times since. He’d refrained, convinced the feeling would go away eventually. That it was better for everyone if it did. And he’d continued to keep it friendly. It was a lot easier to do when he was sure those feelings only went one way.

Not that it makes any difference. They still ran two competing companies, which meant anything beyond friendship would inevitably get messy.

Did it have to?

He’d been so sure of it before, but he seemed to have lost all conviction behind it. Actually, he couldn’t even remember the argument he’d made now.

Who said that things had to eventually go south? They’d already proven that they could be friends. Didn’t that mean something more could be possible as well? There was no guarantee that things would work out, but there was also no guarantee they wouldn’t. Wouldn’t it be worth seeing what was actually there? It sure had to beat wondering what could be for the rest of his life.

No, he didn’t want to wonder anymore. He was tired of fighting it, pretending that he wasn’t falling for Tori Schaefer. That he hadn’t already.

He needed to tell her that the chemistry between them—and there had been oceans of it even from day one—was real and bigger than all the risks that had been holding them back. And if she tried to fight him on it, which she was very likely to do, he would just have to try to convince her, every day, no matter how long it took, that what they could have was worth it. That it didn’t have to be a choice between their hearts and their careers.

“Uh, sir?” A Bambi-eyed teenager blinked at him from behind the snack counter, probably wondering why he’d been just standing there silently staring at her for the last five minutes. She held her hand up. “Your change.”

“Right, sorry.” He took the coins from her and shoved them into his pocket, then managed to grab the popcorn bucket, drinks, and the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups he’d gotten just for Tori. The clock on the wall behind the counter showed it was five minutes past. If he was lucky, the movie would be running behind like usual and he wouldn’t miss anything. “Thank you,” he told the girl before turning for the theater door just as it flew open and a dark-haired figure raced out.

“Tori?”

She ran across the lobby without so much as a glance in his direction and out the front door.

He dumped his armload of snacks and drinks back onto the counter. “Sorry, can you just hold on to these for me for one second?” He didn’t wait for an answer before racing after Tori.

He found her leaning against the brick wall outside, bent over. “Hey, did the movie scare you already?” he teased lightly, then regretted it as he noticed the way she was clutching her stomach. Her breaths came in and out in quick pants.

“What’s going on? Are you feeling okay?” He took a step closer, and she backed away. She stood to face him, and Wyatt’s chest squeezed tight.

She looked deathly pale, her eyes red and puffy. It reminded him of the night Astrid came home after her high school boyfriend of two years dumped her. He’d been furious then, but seeing that look on Tori’s face now, he felt like a jagged blade had been jammed into his heart.

“Tori, what’s wrong?” He set a hand gently on her shoulder, but she jerked away as if it had burned her.

“Don’t touch me.”

Now he was really starting to panic. This was not the same person he’d just watched run pink-faced into the theater minutes ago. Had something happened while she was in there?

That or he’d just completely misread the whole situation.

Tori’s chin wobbled. “What did you say to Danica?”

Danica? “What do you mean? When?” He hadn’t spoken to Dani in weeks. Not since they’d decided to go with Tori.

“You know how important it was to me that I earned this gig on my own.”

“And you did. Why are you—?”

“Don’t pretend you don’t know!” she shouted.

Wyatt held his hands up between them. “I’m not pretending anything, Tori. I’m completely lost here.”

“Did you tell Dani to pick me?”

What?

Her breath shuddered. She wiped at her cheeks, but despite the redness in her eyes, she’d yet to shed any tears. “Did you throw this competition to let me win?”

“Throw the competition?” Where was this coming from? And why was she asking him now after all these weeks? “Why would I do that?”

“You said it yourself. You would have been in way over your head.” She let out a huff, shaking her head frantically. “I was so sure you were going to win. I knew that look in Dani’s eyes. It made no sense when she picked me, but I let myself believe it anyway. That I’d gotten it on my own.”

“You did. Your ideas were better than mine.” Why was she being like this?

“Were they though?”

“Of course. Do you really think I’d lie to you?”

“I don’t know. Maybe? Isn’t that what you do? Stretch the truth, embellish it to make it more interesting? How do I know this isn’t just you playing out some story? Or worse, how do I know you didn’t throw your pitch just to make it easier for me to win? You might prefer to live in fantasy, Wyatt, but this job is my everything. It’s my life’s blood.”

Wyatt’s fists clenched at his sides, his concern shifting into a flickering flame inside him. He’d never been the type to let his own anger show, but that seemed to be another thing she brought out of him that no one else could. “You think I threw my pitch on purpose? Do you have any idea how insulting that is?” He’d worked night and day on that thing just to try to measure up to what he knew she was capable of.

“You think that’s insulting? Try overhearing the groom tell his brother that you were the second choice, but ‘someone’ convinced them to change their minds!”

“And you think I did that? That I’d give up just like that?” His voice boomed, harder than he’d ever heard it before. “I told you I needed the publicity. I wanted that job just as much as you.”

“Until it meant you’d actually have to work for it.”

His brows drew together. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means that one of us actually likes our job, Wyatt. You know, it’s one thing to know I came second to someone as passionate and devoted as I am. But you don’t even like what you do.”

“What are you talking about? Of course I do.”

“You’re not happy running a business like this. You hate it. Even I can see that, and I’ve barely known you a month. You should be doing something you want to do, not waiting around for things to fix themselves while the rest of us have to work so hard just to prove ourselves.”

“You have no idea how hard I’ve worked. Especially these last few weeks.” Seeing Tori run her business so smoothly had put even more pressure on him to be the kind of successful businessman his dad was. To prove it to her.

“Has it gotten you anywhere? No! Because Astrid is right. You don’t have what it takes. You don’t want it like we do. We like being in charge. We like running a business. And if you don’t, you should get out because you know it’s just making you miserable. That is insulting!”

Wyatt stood stunned. He had no idea what to say, mostly because no matter how badly he wanted to disagree with her, he wasn’t sure he could.

“You know what?” she asked, her voice low. Like the calm after the storm. Her shoulders slumped as the fight left her. “I don’t care if it’s about the story or out of laziness or whatever else. I may not have earned this wedding on my own, but I’m sure going to have earned it by the time this is all over. I’m going to make this the best wedding you or I or anyone else in this town has ever seen. And you…” Her voice cracked, and she sniffed once. “You are going to stay the hell away from me.”

She turned, abandoning him where he stood frozen on the sidewalk with his heart pounding and his chest heaving, and ran off down the street.