The Schemer (Harbor City 3)

Sawyer nodded. “Sounds like it.”

“Fuck you.”

Sawyer just laughed in response. “Can’t imagine why a girl would go running from you when you’re such a nice, cheerful guy.”

Tyler all but growled at his friend, but the other man didn’t even flinch, which just amped up Tyler’s already raging temperament that had his blood pressure jacked sky-high. “She had a great deal in my building. Any other person in Harbor City would have jumped at the chance to keep it. Why can’t she ever do what’s expected?”

“Because then you wouldn’t be moping around your office instead of at our previously scheduled lunch.”

“Shit.” He glared at his laptop screen and the calendar reminder in the top right-hand corner alerting him that his lunch was supposed to start forty-five minutes ago. “I missed that?”

“You did. Lucky for you…” Sawyer grabbed the white bag next to his c

hair and plopped it on Tyler’s desk. The smell of bacon and cheese and an unholy amount of greasy goodness wafted out from it. “Vito’s has takeout. I drank your shake on the way over.”

Tyler didn’t miss appointments. He certainly didn’t miss ones for lunch at the best diner in Harbor City. He thought he’d been coping well with the whole Everly thing. He was wrong. Obviously. “I’m so fucked.”

“Pretty much,” Sawyer agreed. “But not on the Ferranti deal, from what I heard.”

Tyler froze in the middle of pulling out the aluminum-foil-wrapped burger from the bag. “What?”

“Yeah, word is the old man stuck up for you at the board meeting. Something about brilliant ideas and fiery commitment.”

That didn’t make sense. Alberto was firmly Team Everly on anything and everything. If she was pissed at him, Alberto should be, too. Why couldn’t these people make sense? Or, more likely, what had being with Everly done to his ability to know what moves everyone was about to make before they made them?

“Why would he do that?” he asked, taking the burger the rest of the way out and unwrapping it on his desk as he tried to unravel the riddle.

Sawyer shrugged and settled back into the chair. “Because he probably saw the same thing I’m looking at.”

Tyler glanced down at his lunch. “A double bacon cheeseburger with extra mayo?”

“Jesus, you’re dumb.” Sawyer leaned forward, propping his elbows on his knees and giving Tyler a you’re-a-complete-moron look. “An idiot in love and going about everything in exactly the wrong way.”

And he thought Sawyer might actually be onto something. Instead, he was just busting his balls. “Fuck off.”

The other man took the curse in stride. “I’ll take that as confirmation, and if you know what’s good for you, you’ll go after Everly.”

Yeah, right. Even if she were the kind of woman he wanted in his life, which she wasn’t (uh-huh, whatever you say, buddy), Everly had absolutely no interest in him. “She made it pretty clear she doesn’t want to see me. Anyway, the hotel pitch meeting is next week, and I have to finalize this presentation.”

Sawyer muttered something that sounded a lot like “clueless asswipe” under his breath and stood up. “For a smart guy, you sure are a moron sometimes.”

Tyler, the burger stopped halfway to his mouth, watched his friend stroll to the door. “You’re not eating with me?”

Pausing in the office doorway, Sawyer looked back at him. “After your no-show, I made a lunch date with my wife. Amazing how being around a woman you love will make your schedule open up and make you become more flexible. You should try it sometime.”

“Oh yeah, and next thing you know I’ll be fixing up flea market finds.”

“Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it, buddy,” he said. “Especially if it involves watching my wife paint in a bikini—not that you’ll ever get to see that vision.”

With a sickeningly sweet smile stapled to his face, Sawyer offered a quick wave and walked out of Tyler’s office, leaving him to stew about what in the hell was going on with his life and what he needed—not wanted—to do next.

…

The new Black Hearts Art Gallery was relocating in a month to the former industrial building that some investor had renovated into a kind of art mecca with several galleries sharing the street level and the next three floors housing art studios. Above that there were typical Harbor City small apartments at outrageous rental prices. She hated it, but she was determined to sign the lease. It wasn’t the space’s fault it didn’t come with an infuriatingly sexy know-it-all. Now it was her apartment’s turn. Yeah. There was nothing in the world as fun as unpacking hastily packed boxes that weren’t even labeled because she’d been too pissed to remember the basics of moving.

Kiki sliced through the duct tape (it was the only kind Everly had had in her old apartment) holding a large box closed to reveal kitchen stuff. Great. It was just the reminder she needed of what had gotten her here.

“Forget that one. I’ll get to it later.”