Dickhead walks in and I have to fight the overwhelming urge to go straight to him and punch him in the face. I stay behind my desk; it’s safer with a barrier between us. He walks to me and the idiot extends his hand for a shake. I look down at it and then back to him, my face clearly relaying my disdain as I fold my arms over my chest.

“What do you want?”

He lowers his hand. “I came to talk to you about Kate.”

“I’m pretty sure you and I have nothing to discuss in regards to Kate.”

“I just need two minutes of your time.”

“The clock just started. Say what you came to say and get out.”

Dickhead takes a deep breath. “I fell in love with her.”

“That’s what you came here for? You wasted your time, don’t waste any more of mine. I really don’t care to hear about your love life. I think you got the wrong brother.” I pick up a stack of documents for my next meeting. But the moron doesn’t take the hint. Instead, he sits.

“She doesn’t love me.”

I glare at him and say nothing.

“She loves you.”

“Didn’t look like it when she was leading you into that honeymoon suite.” The words taste as bitter as they’re spoken.

“It was an act.” Dickhead rubs the back of his neck. “We cheated. She told me about her family and why she really did the show. We pretended to be together because that’s what Miles wanted. I chose her so she could win the money.”

“So you didn’t spend the night together?” I have no idea why I ask, because anything but an unequivocal no is going to kill me.

“Dude, she made me sleep on the floor. Wouldn’t even share the big bed with me.”

“So the whole tension between you and Jessica and Kate was an act?”

“Well, not all of it.”

I glare at him.

“Turns out Jessica was on your brother’s payroll the whole time. He was paying her to stir the pot.” He shrugs. “Plus, I ended up sleeping with Jessica after I figured out I had no chance with Kate. Probably wasn’t the smartest move. I was wishing it was Kate the whole time.”

“Quit while you’re ahead,” I warn.

Dickhead chuckles. “Anyway. She’s a great girl. But I never had a shot. She’s in love with you.”

“A lot’s changed.”

“That hasn’t.”

Dickhead stands and extends his hand. This time I take it. He gets to the doorway before I call after him. “Hey.”

He turns.

“Thanks.”

He nods with a defeated smile.

“Maybe you’re not such a dickhead after all.”

Chapter forty-one

Kate—

1 day later

Today I’m reminded why I did the right thing. The smile on Kyle’s face when he returned home from spinal cord stimulation therapy is contagious. He’s regained a small amount of voluntary control of his muscles, enough so that he could “flex” for me as I helped him back into bed. His hope shined so bright, a little even warmed me today.

Ever since Flynn came by to tell me about his conversation with Miles, I’ve regressed back to the depressing state I was in right after Cooper and I broke up. I feel like I’m missing a few pieces of the puzzle still. Even if it’s true that Miles blackmailed Cooper into breaking things off, and he did it to save me from myself, how could he have turned to Tatiana so soon? Why wouldn’t he have come to me? I spend hours trying to figure out why I feel like something’s missing, but in the end the only thing I’m clear about is that I’ve lost a piece of my heart.

My phone buzzes and I smile seeing his name on the caller ID.

“What, you don’t call, you don’t write?” Frank’s jovial voice booms loudly through the car speaker.

“You miss me, don’t you?” I say.

“I do, kid. I do. Are you too big and famous to play cards with us anymore?”

“Is that an invitation or just a general question?”

“Can you come tonight? Eight o’clock.” There’s a smile in his voice. “Grip and Ben took all my money last time. I need you to teach the bums a lesson.”

I laugh. “I’d love to come.”

“All right, kid. I’ll see you later.”

I park and sit in the car for a few minutes outside the studio. The memory of the first night I played cards here months ago still affects me, even through my sadness. I had no idea who Cooper was, but the flex of his forearm almost had me losing hands a few times—my focus so thrown by the effect the man had on me from the moment I laid eyes on him.

Taking a deep cleansing breath, I push the memory to the back of my mind and lift the case of Stella out of the back of my Jeep and head into the studio.

“Frank?” My voice echoes in the cavernous empty hangar. The usual card table isn’t set up yet. The large room is perfectly still, an invitation to my mind to run off and daydream.

The heavy steel door clanks open loudly, then slams shut.

“I was beginning to wonder if I had the wrong night.” I turn, expecting to find Frank, and freeze—my gaze locking on brilliant green eyes. I ached to see him, dreamed of running to him, yet a tangled mesh of feelings stir inside me that keeps me rooted in place.

As he moves across the room with his usual confidence and grace, every emotion I forced down over the last month comes flooding to the surface all at once.