In Her Sights (The Thousand Words Series Book 2) (16 page)

“I spoke with Alastair.”

“Spoke with?”

“All right, I met with him. We had lunch.”

Kenny didn’t like it, but it was done –for better or worse. Worse he suspected. It was time to be supportive and deal with the fallout, again. He hoped this didn’t become a habit.

“I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess it didn’t go well.”

“Don’t be a cynic.”

“His daddy’s here to tell on you. Is that cynical?”

Paige turned in place to give him a look he couldn’t quite read. Kenny sighed.

“I’m sorry. Tell me how it went. Please.”

“I thought it was okay actually.”

“Really?” Kenny heard the sincerity in her voice, but having met Alastair a few times now, he couldn’t see how it could have gone well.

“Yes! He seemed to understand. I didn’t expect Hale to show up just before you did. Jeeves answered and then came to warn me.” Surprise, betrayal, even maybe tears were evident in her voice.

Kenny leaned forward and set his champagne flute back on the tray on the opposite seat. He relieved Paige of hers and it joined his. Trying not to jostle her overly, he pulled her onto his lap and wrapped his arms around her protectively.

“I’m sorry, honey.” Kenny knew Paige had reasons for the abortion that went well beyond simple ambition for her title. She wasn’t ready. Alastair wasn’t ready. They weren’t a couple anymore and a baby would make things difficult.

Alastair’s father was part of the reason she refused to consider him as a serious suitor, and one of the main reasons Paige didn’t want to have a child with Alastair. She refused to be tied to Hale in any way. Kenny suspected she was diplomatic about the handling of every point except for Hale, and chose to simply leave that point out when pitching her reasoning to Alastair.

Stroking her dark waves as she cried on his shoulder, Kenny let his mind continue considering the problem. So Alastair seemed to accept her explanation. Then he went home and told Hale, who didn’t accept it. Kenny wasn’t sure what he could do about that. What Hale told Gladys was out of his control. How Gladys reacted was also out of his control. There was nothing to do but await the consequences, and deal with them when they came. And comfort Paige.

After a month of theoretically jumping through hoops, Dev stopped to re-evaluate the plan. James’s reasoning sounded good on the surface, women were women and Lindsay was biologically a woman. Not to mention Ruby was an unknown influence that probably made Lindsay react more like a normal woman and less like Dev was used to.

All the same, emails and flowers felt too easy and were clearly ineffective. It was
normal
. It might work on one of James’s exes, but not on Lindsay.

He’d screwed up again, and wasted a month trying to fix things the wrong way. Dev thought back to his big snafus of the past.

In Chicago, Dev realized he hadn’t been listening to Lindsay about her needs. All the little things He’d been doing to show her how much he loved her were essentially worthless. He spent a small fortune over two years with less impact than letting her blow him would have been. Dev shook his head again at the revelation. If nothing else it showed him the value of paying attention.

Since then, he considered several times that he should have just married her, but he wasn’t ready. Dev stopped. He wasn’t, but maybe she was. Lindsay wasn’t pushing him on the subject. Did she hint and he’d missed it? No, they’d talked about it, but nothing specific. She mentioned repeatedly how much she hated being separated from him ... there it was.

They weren’t married, and they weren’t living together. She graduated, but nothing changed. A few weekends or a week here and there, but not enough real time together. Dev was still being pulled between the band, modeling, and school, but Lindsay had a lot more free time. She was taking a few classes to keep herself from going crazy, but mostly because he pushed her to.

He didn’t learn anything after all.

Dev picked up his phone and called James.

“Did you even consider the time before you called?” James answered.

“No.” Dev glanced at the time on his computer monitor, it was one-thirty in the morning. “You’re trying to tell me you were asleep?”

“No, but I was
busy
.”

“And you answered for me? Nice of you.” Dev grinned. He had no idea who James was seeing, only that James was taking unusual measures to keep the information from him. That James cared this time when he didn’t in the past piqued Dev’s curiosity, but only slightly. He had his own problems at the moment.

“Don’t get full of yourself. I’ve been worried. Problem?”

“Just came to the realization that this ‘wait her out’ approach isn’t working, and that I screwed up and missed something big.”

“What?”

Dev hesitated, he never told James about Chicago, or specifics about Lindsay’s history.

“High points,” James prompted.

“Long story short, she graduated and I left her sitting on her own in Seattle when I should have either brought her out to Boston or just married her. At least gotten engaged.”

“You said you weren’t ready.”

“I’m not, but I think she might be. At least put it on the table. She’s alone out there. I’m busy, she’s not.”

“And now she’s listening to the wrong people, in your opinion, and you think this is the solution,” James said. Dev heard the disapproval in his voice and ignored it.

“Listen, it was always assumed, it was only a matter of timing. I left her hanging. Now she’s doing the same whether she means to or not.”

“From what I understand, Lindsay does little on accident.”

“True. So I need a ring, then I’m heading west. Where do I get a ring?”

“I haven’t done that one before,” James admitted. “I’m in New York. I’ll meet you at Tiffany’s at ten. We’ll figure it out. Do you know her size?”

“I have it here somewhere. What are you doing in New York?” Dev asked, wondering if James would actually tell him.

“Somewhere between ‘you know’ and ‘none of your business.’ See you in the morning.”

Dev met James at Tiffany’s & Co. in New York City at ten the next morning, and found nothing he liked in the way of engagement rings. Everything was close, but just wasn’t Lindsay. James shook his head and motioned for a middle-aged sales woman with a predatory way about her to join them. Dev almost ran for it.

“He needs an engagement ring, and he’s particular,” James told the woman, Liza by her name tag.

Liza took one look at Dev and escorted them both into another room. She offered them drinks, and Dev appreciated the effort she made to calm him down. She probably just didn’t want him to have a meltdown in the middle of her jewelry store, but it was nice of her anyway.

After what seemed like hours of questions, Liza showed Dev a computer model of a ring that he thought Lindsay would like. He glanced at the figure at the bottom that included the special order price and an up-charge for expediting the job. She’d better like it. Dev signed off on it

“It’s one of a kind, Dev,” James said, patting him on the back. “Women love that kind of thing.”

As Dev sat on the plane a few days later, playing nervously with the ring box in his hand, James’s words echoed in his mind. He hoped and prayed he was doing the right thing.

He loved Lindsay, and if this was what it took to get her back, he wouldn’t bat an eye. As long as it worked. Dev worried it was a patch though.
Why
hadn’t he invited Lindsay to Boston? He always suspected she’d hate it there, but why? He made friends, there was no reason not to think she would too.

He caught up with the rest of his class and would get his Bachelor’s on time. He would have gone through the graduation ceremony with them if he wasn’t cutting out early to fly across the country to make up with his girlfriend. His professors got a kick out of that. Whatever. Dev didn’t care about the ceremony and made arrangements for the work, so it was fine. Dev always planned on grad school. He got accepted, but he didn’t have to go.

It was all up to Lindsay.

○ ○ ○

“Lin, will you
please
come out and talk to me?” Dev asked. He didn’t want to have this conversation through her bedroom door. Becky walked by on her way downstairs, clearly stifling a giggle. He ignored her. Bryan stood a few feet farther down the hall and shifted his weight from one foot to the other. He was probably bored. Dev ignored him too.

“Please?” Dev tried again, and again received no answer. He knew she was in there. She ran upstairs and slammed the door when Becky let him in. Dev was familiar with the roofline and knew she couldn’t have climbed out her window to escape him. He had her trapped, although he wasn’t sure that was a good thing. She was a captive audience, but likely to be in a bad mood now.

He leaned against the wall and knocked softly. No answer. At least she didn’t have her TV on. She was listening even if she wasn’t answering.

“I didn’t sleep with Erika,” Dev said. He listened for any reaction.

“How can you not believe that?” Dev sighed at the silence that answered. “Lin, how can you know me and not know that?”

“Dev, just go away. It’s over,” Lindsay yelled back through the door.

That wasn’t the answer he was looking for.

“It’s not,” Dev told her and slid down the wall and sat on the floor by her door. “This, what you’re doing, I suppose I get it. You believe it, what Ruby convinced you I did. In retrospect that stupid marketing idea of Kenny and Alec and Mark’s was a bad idea. It’s over now. It has been since you left. The video went too far. I wasn’t paying enough attention, baby, and I’m sorry. I had it re-cut and toned down. Better late than never. I accept Ruby and Olly believe whatever they told you, but I haven’t slept with Erika.

“I’m sorry this hurt you. It’s frustrated me but it made me stop and think about a lot of things. It showed me my plan to wait to marry you might have been equally ill-conceived.

“Baby, I didn’t think you’d be happy in Boston, so I never asked you to join me. I didn’t talk to you about it, and I should have. I just knew you and made an assumption. But I’m graduating, I have my bachelor’s. I was going to go on to grad school, but you’re more important.” Dev took a breath, he was babbling.

“Lin, baby, will you open the door. Please?”

“No.”

“Devin?”

Dev looked up to see Jack towering above him. He didn’t hear Lindsay’s father come up the stairs.

“Come on, I’d like a word. Give her a minute to have a bathroom break and think over what you’ve said so far. I’m sure Becky and Bryan can keep her from running off.” Jack turned and walked toward the stairs, no doubt with the expectation Dev would follow.

Dev looked at the ring box in his hand and considered leaving it at Lindsay’s door. He stood and took it with him, following Jack to his wife’s study.

“Close the door,” Jack said when Dev walked in. Dev paused, then nodded and closed the door.

He always felt a little odd in Sabrina’s study. The books were all about teen issues, usually focusing on sex. Lindsay’s mother made Dev nervous. He suspected it was because Lindsay was constantly engaged in all-out psychological warfare with her and dealing with Sabrina was akin to fraternizing with the enemy. He didn’t see Jack as the enemy. In fact, Jack was one of his lawyers and Dev viewed him as an ally, maybe even a friend. The study was enemy territory though.

His brain was really not up to whatever talk Jack had in mind, Dev realized as he took a seat in front of Sabrina’s paper-strewn desk. Jack sat on the edge instead of behind the desk, effectively towering over Dev, although Dev doubted he did it to intentionally make him feel uncomfortable. He was a lawyer, these things probably came naturally.

“So ... laying siege outside Lindsay’s door. Tell me how that came about,” Jack prompted. Dev cringed.

“You know she broke up with me, right?”

“I did not. How about you back up and tell me how
that
came about.”

“I wish I knew.”

“Not a good start. Try again.” Jack stood and walked around the desk to sit behind it, presumably so he could face Dev easier.

“She dropped in on me at school. It was fine, a surprise, but she didn’t seem to have anything particular on her mind. She sat in on a study group, which was pretty normal. We went to bed late. I woke up alone. She packed everything and left in the middle of the night. She even sat in a cafe by the airport waiting until there was a flight out.

“It took all day for me to reach her. She wouldn’t answer my calls or texts. When I finally got to talk to her, she was under the impression I was having an affair with Erika Atlas. I’m not. I told her that. She doesn’t believe me.

“You know about that whole PR thing ...”

Jack nodded.

“Right. I didn’t want to do it. I thought it was insane. Kenny insisted I should do it, and I should talk to Lin. She said I should, so I did. She didn’t ask me to stop, we never talk about it; just this. She just left.

“That was a month ago. She blocked my number, won’t return my emails –”

“So this is just to try to talk to her,” Jack guessed.

“Yeah. And I’m finishing my bachelor’s so ...” Dev suddenly realized he’d talked to Lindsay about marriage but he’d never asked Jack’s permission to ask her. It nagged at him he was supposed to do that. He stared at the small box still clutched tightly in his hand.

Looking up, he saw Jack was laughing softly.

“Devin, I take it you’re considering proposing?” Jack asked gently.

Dev nodded, not sure how Jack was going to take this news.

“Devin, I can’t think of anyone I’d rather have as a son-in-law,” Jack said. “You have my blessing. But from the sound of things, you don’t have hers.”

The enormous weight that started to lift at Jack’s words settled again as he finished. Dev leaned forward and rested his arms and forehead on the desk. Jack sighed.

“She’s stubborn, you already know that.”

“Yes, I do,” Dev answered. He shifted to rest his chin on his arms instead so he could look at Jack, hoping to see some inspiration in his face.

“Can I see?” Jack asked, indicating the ring. Dev handed him the box, the velvet exterior somewhat worse for wear from being gripped tightly for so long. Jack took it and brushed the box to re-align the crushed fibers. He opened it and his eyebrows rose slightly.

“Wow. That might make a difference.”

“You think?”

Jack nodded and closed the box, returning it to Dev. “It’s been my experience women in general tend to be more forgiving when flowers or jewelry are involved.”

“Flowers haven’t done the trick,” Dev pointed out.

“And now you have jewelry,” Jack said. “Go show her.”

○ ○ ○

Lindsay was in her room, either still there or back there, with Bryan talking to her through her partially opened door when Dev returned. Upon seeing him, Lindsay promptly closed the door in Bryan’s face. The click of the lock pounded in Dev’s ears like an exclamation point.

“Thanks,” Bryan said.

“Sorry,” Lindsay said through the door.