Casual Affair

“No, just at home catching up on some work.”

At least she wasn’t out with another bloke. Or he would probably have to hunt them down and kill the man.

“Okay. Well, if you’re not too busy, I was wondering if you’d like to come join me and my mate for a pint.” He glanced at Mike to see him giving him a thumbs-up.

Silence.

Fuck. Not good. She was probably panicking, unsure of how to tell him to bugger off without sounding bitchy.

“But I can hear you’re busy,” he rushed to say. “Sorry to bother you. Maybe another time.”

Just as he was about to pull the device away from his ear and hang up, he heard her blurt out, “Sure.”

More silence, but this time it was from him. Had she just agreed? “What?”

He heard her take a deep breath. “Sure, yeah. I’ll come have a drink.”

His thoughts were still going haywire, but he managed to get out, “Okay, great. Brilliant.” He rattled of the name and address of the pub.

“I should be there in about twenty,” she said, sounding…cheery? Happy that she was going to see him? Oh, he liked that.

“Smashing. I’ll see you then.” He hung up with a huge grin and drained the rest of his beer.

He was going to see her.

His mood did an immediate one-eighty.

“I take it that means she’s coming?” Mike said.

Zane just nodded. “Yep.”

“And would it have killed you to ask her to bring her sister along? Where’s the loyalty, mate?” He feigned a wounded expression.

“With her sweet, innocent sister.” Zane laughed. “I wouldn’t hook Felicity up with the likes of you.”

“Piss off,” Mike retorted with a laugh. “If you two go off tonight and have a bit of how’s your father, I’m taking full credit. You’ll owe me big.”

“Gladly.” Zane could only hope the evening would end that way.

Chapter Eight

Bea stared down at her phone, her mouth ajar.

Oh, no. No, no, no.

What just happened?

Had she just agreed to go out for drinks with Zane?

Oh God, she had.

“Who was it?” Felicity asked from her yoga position on the floor.

Bea’s brain wasn’t functioning well enough to come up with a lie. “Um…Zane.”

Felicity’s head snapped around. “What did he want?”

“He asked me to meet him.” Bea finally came to her senses when she saw her sister’s concerned expression. “Just to discuss some minor work stuff.” Lies! “That’s all.”

Felicity raised a skeptical eyebrow. “Should I come with you?”

“If you want.” Please don’t.

Her sister let out a heavy breath and jumped to her feet. “All right, that’s it.” She pointed an accusing finger at Bea. “Sit down and explain.”

It was hard for Bea not to laugh when Felicity got all bossy like that. Her head came to the top of Bea’s shoulders. And with her small hands perched on her hips as she attempted to stare Bea down, she looked like a little kid, upset that Bea had stolen her favorite toy.

“What are you talking about?” Bea asked, avoiding eye contact.

“Don’t act like you don’t know what I mean, Beatrice Elizabeth Paxton. Or that I don’t know exactly what happened that night at the club. You will tell me this minute what the hell you’re thinking.”

Oh shit. She knew?

Trying to hide her guilty expression, Bea walked into the kitchen and immediately dug into the cheese danish she hadn’t let herself touch all day. What the hell. If she was going to have to listen to a lecture from her little sister, she needed some calories to deal with it.

“So, I went home with a guy,” she said. “What’s the big deal?”

Felicity threw her hands up, aghast. “The big deal is who! How could you sleep with Zane Price, of all people?”

Yep, she knew.

“I, um—”

“The man is signing some pretty big paychecks for us right now, Bea. We’re about to pay back Daddy all of the money he loaned us, and if something goes wrong with the Envision project, there goes that plan.”

She and Felicity had taken out a loan from their wealthy father when they had been trying to get Paxton Designs on its feet several years ago. Next quarter marked the end of their payments to him, if everything went according to plan, which meant that Paxton Designs would officially be in the black. For Bea, that milestone signified years of hard work finally paying off, and gaining something she valued more than anything—independence. She hadn’t realized until recently how important that was, not only in her personal life, but in her professional one, as well.