Then he stormed from the room, snagging his bag on the way out. She let him go, too numb to figure out how to fix it. Some relationship expert she was.
Dax’s ex-girlfriends had been wrong. He wasn’t cold and heartless and he hadn’t screwed Elise over. She’d done it to him, smashing his fragile feelings into unrecoverable pieces because at the end of the day, she hadn’t trusted Dax enough to believe he could really love her. She hadn’t trusted herself enough to tell him they’d been matched. And now it was too late to do it all over.
Happily ever after might very well be a myth after all. And if that was true, where did that leave her and Dax? Or her company?
The sound of the front door slamming reverberated in her frozen heart.
* * *
Dax nearly took out a row of mailboxes in his haste to speed away from the mistake in his rearview mirror. Astounding how he’d assumed he was the broken one in their relationship. Only to discover she was far more broken.
While he’d naively been trying to get out without hurting her, she’d actually been one step ahead of him the entire time, determined to break him. And she’d done a hell of a job. She’d matched him with the perfect woman all right—the only one capable of getting under his skin and destroying everything in her path.
It was late, but Wakefield Media did not sleep. He drove to the office, determined not to think. Or to feel. He closed it all off through sheer will until the only thing left was a strange hardness in his chest that made it impossible to catch a deep breath.
Shutting himself off behind his desk, Dax dove into the business he loved, the only thing he could really depend on. This company he’d built from the ground up was his happily ever after, the only one available to him. If he put his head down, maybe he’d come out the other side with some semblance of normality. Dawn came and went but the hardness in his chest didn’t fade.
At noon, he’d had no human contact other than a brief nod to Patricia as she dropped off a cup of coffee several hours ago. Fatigue dragged at him. Well, that and a heavy heart.
His phone beeped and he checked it automatically. Elise. He deleted the text message without reading it, just as he’d done with the other three. There was nothing she could say that he wanted to hear.
Morosely, he swiveled his chair to stare out over the Dallas skyline and almost involuntarily, his eye was drawn to the building directly across from him, where Reynolds Capital Management used to reside. Dax had heard that Leo left the venture capital game and had gone into business with Tommy Garrett, a whiz kid inventor.
It was crazy and so unlike Leo. They’d been friends for a long time—until Daniella had come along and upset the status quo.
Bad, bad subject. The hardness in his chest started to hurt and the urge to punch something grew until he couldn’t physically sit at his desk any longer.
He sent Patricia an instant message asking for the address of Garrett-Reynolds Engineering and the second he got it, he strode to his car. It was time to have it out with Leo once and for all.
Except Leo wasn’t at the office. Dax eyed Tommy Garrett, whom he’d met at a party an eon ago. The kid still looked as though he belonged on a surfboard instead of in a boardroom.
“Sorry, dude,” Tommy said and stuck a Doritos chip in his mouth. “Leo’s still on vacation. But I’m pretty sure he’s at home now if you want to catch him there.”
“Thanks.” Dax went back to his car, still shaking his head. Leo—at home in the middle of the day on a Monday. His affliction with Daniella was even worse than Dax had imagined.
By the time he hit Leo’s driveway, Dax was good and worked up. This time, he didn’t hesitate, but drove right up to the gate and rolled down his window so the security system could grant him entrance.
Leo was waiting for him on the front steps as Dax swung out of the Audi. Of course the state-of-the-art security system had alerted the Reynoldses that they had a visitor, and clearly Leo was as primed for a throw down as Dax was. Dax meant to give it to him.
“Dax.” Leo smiled warmly, looking well-rested, tan and not wearing a suit. “It’s good to see you. I’m glad you came by.”
Dax did a double take.
Who was this guy? Because he didn’t resemble the Leo Dax knew.
“Hi,” Dax muttered, and tried to orient. Leo wasn’t supposed to be happy. And he wasn’t supposed to be nice. They weren’t friends anymore.
“Please, come in.” Leo jerked his head behind him toward the house. “Dannie’s pouring us some iced tea.”