Watch Me (Phoenix 1)

Betty gave a final wave and strode away.

Zoey leaned back against the grooming table and released the breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. The room swam a little. She shut her eyes and breathed past the panic creeping up her throat. She was done with lies. Having just told one made her feel like crawling out of her skin.

Her cell phone beeped in her hand. She expected Elise, but that wasn’t who texted her.

The guys and I are going for dinner tonight at Skyline. Interested in joining us?

She stared at the message from Rhys, feeling like the world was determined to keep messing with her. Was this a date? Okay, no, his friends were going. Did that make her one of his friends? Friends with benefits, maybe?

All the logical parts in Zoey’s brain fired off a hard response of “no”. Wasn’t it better to keep things strictly to Phoenix? But her head was spinning, her heart all types of confused. Both Elise and Hazel were working tonight, which meant she’d be left alone with her thoughts. Feeling a step away from falling back into that dark place she’d just crawled out of, she fired off her response. What time?

7:00 pm. See you then.

Zoey pressed her cell phone against her chest and exhaled. One breath after another, after another, after another. A few more weeks was all she had to get through. Then she could leave this city and her pain behind. Until then, she had Rhys…and his ability to help her forget everything.

* * *

Stars blanketed the sky later that night when Rhys answered his phone. “Hello, Mother.” He sat atop New York City’s hottest dinner spot, Skyline, a rooftop restaurant. Lights from the high-rises were gleaming as far as the eye could see.

“Rhys, my dear, how are you?” his mother, Alice Harrington, asked, her voice soft yet lacking the warmth Rhys had heard from other mothers.

“Things are good here,” Rhys replied, one arm stretched across the bench seating. “I take it you’ve been sent the quarterly report?” Earlier today, Harrington Finance delivered the report he knew his father had been waiting on.

“We did receive it, yes,” Alice said. “But that’s not the only reason why I’m calling.”

Yeah, right.

Rhys kept the thought to himself as Alice replied, “But since we are talking about it, your father was quite pleased with this quarter.”

“I’m sure he was.” Profit for the Harrington fortune was up ten percent for this last quarter. Rhys’ personal finances were up by twenty percent, something he kept to himself. Rhys took the Harrington fortune under his wing when he’d stepped into his father’s role at Harrington Finance when his father retired, but that stress became tiresome. Especially after Katherine’s death. Wealth had its advantages, but it could not buy happiness, and it certainly didn’t buy his. Now Rhys’ cousin William was CEO of Harrington Finance, and while Rhys was still involved in the decision making, he had taken a big step back to his father’s fierce displeasure. Now, alongside being CEO of the cigar club, he also invested his money as a silent partner in up-and-coming companies, hedge funds, new drugs and research for cancer, and real estate. Rhys had questioned his choice of walking away from his family’s powerful company, but the move had been a smart one. He now had full financial independence from his family’s wealth and zero of the stress. “Anything I need to hear on my end?” he asked, moving the conversation along.

“Nothing more than your father was pleased,” Alice said. “How’s the cigar club?”

“Profitable.” Rhys’ relationship with his parents was that of responsibility, business, and privilege. He didn’t fault them for it. He’d been raised by nannies and sent to boarding school. But he respected his parents. They were both good people, who gave back often to charities, and not only for the tax break. But the truth was, and always had been, his friends were his family.

“And a wife?” Alice inquired. “Any news on that front?”

“Nothing to report,” Rhys said in a dry voice.

She laughed softly. “I’ll take that as a no. Don’t take too long, Rhys. You do not want to be an old bachelor. You know what your father will say about that.”

Rhys didn’t comment. He never did. Some people, he owed explanations to, but his parents were not among them. As he saw Archer, Hunt, and Kieran approaching the table, he said, “I need to run, but before I do, tell me how the traveling is going?”

“Europe is beautiful, very magical,” Alice explained with an unusual sense of wonder to her voice. “We’ve been enjoying ourselves.”

“Glad to hear it. We’ll talk soon. Goodbye.”

“Goodbye, Rhys.”

He ended the call right as Archer took a seat to his right and asked, “How’s your mom doing?”

A soft laugh escaped Rhys, and he shook his head. His expression must have been stiff. Phone calls with his parents always brought Rhys back to that life on a very tight rope. When his parents retired and began traveling, the rope had stopped strangling him. “She’s well.”

Hunt took a seat next to Archer and gave a slow whistle. “Curiouser and curiouser.”

Rhys didn’t even have to look to know Zoey strode through the restaurant’s doors. He could see it written all o

ver his friends’ faces. But Rhys had already decided to break rules for Zoey. There was no going back, and even if Rhys was questioning his decisions, he wasn’t about to stop where life was taking him.