Matched to Her Rival

Yeah, he did. He ended relationships before he got invested. He left women before they could hurt him. No mystery there. The question was why he’d let his guard down with Elise in the first place.

Dax sipped his tea and decided to go for broke with Leo. “I came to find out why Daniella was such a big deal. I know you married her. But why her? What was special about her?”

Leo’s face lit up. “I love her. That alone makes her special. But I love her because she makes me whole. She allows me to be me. She enables me to be me. And I wake up every day wanting to do the same for her. That’s why Elise matched us. Because we’re soul mates.”

Dax nearly snorted but caught himself. The evidence stood for itself and there was no need to act cynical about it any longer. No one in this room was confused about whether he believed in it. But believing in soul mates and allowing a woman who professed to be yours to take a fillet knife to your heart were two different things.

“And that was worth ending a friendship over?” Dax asked.

Stupid question. Clearly Leo thought so and at that particular moment, Dax almost didn’t blame him. Look what Leo had gotten in return.

“Dax.” Leo sat forward in his chair. “I didn’t end our friendship. You did. You weren’t being a friend when you said disparaging things about my wife. You weren’t being a friend when you demanded I choose you over her. I was messed up, wondering how I could love my wife and still maintain the workaholic life I thought I wanted. I needed a friend. Where were you?”

There was no censure in Leo’s tone. But there should have been. Hearing it spelled out like that sheared a new layer of skin off Dax’s already-raw wounds. He’d been a crappy friend yet Leo had welcomed Dax into his home without question.

“I was wallowing in my own selfishness,” Dax muttered. “I was a jerk. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. It was okay as soon as you rolled up the driveway. I’ve been waiting for you to come by.” Leo held out his hand for Dax to shake, which he did without hesitation.

The hardness in his chest lifted a bit. “Thanks for not barring the gate.”

“No problem. I had a feeling you’d need a friend after what happened with Elise. It sounded rough. I’d like to hear about it from you, though.”

Dax watched a bird hop from branch to bare branch outside the sunroom’s glass walls. “Her computer program matched us. But she wasn’t interested in me or finding the love of her life. Or professional ethics. Just winning.”

“I watched the interview,” Leo said quietly. “You were ruthless. Can you blame her for bringing her A game?”

The interview. It felt like a lifetime ago, back when he’d been smugly certain he couldn’t lose the bet because love didn’t exist. He almost preferred it when he’d still believed that.

“She screwed me over. I can’t forget that.”

“You reap what you sow. You started out going head-to-head and that’s where you ended up. Change it if that’s not what you want.”

Leo sipped his tea as Dax shifted uncomfortably. “You say that like I had some fault in this, too.”

“Don’t you?” Leo tilted his head in way that told Dax the question was rhetorical. “I went into my marriage with Dannie assuming I wanted a wife who took care of my house and left me alone. And that’s what I got until I realized it wasn’t what I really wanted. Fortunately, she was waiting for me to wake up and see what I had. You didn’t give Elise that chance. You ended it.”

Of course he’d ended it. “I don’t make promises I can’t keep.”

It was an automatic response, one he’d always said was the reason he didn’t do relationships. But that wasn’t why he’d walked out on Elise.

The problem was greater than the fear of learning he was like his mother, faithless and unable to make promises to one person forever.

He also feared being like his father—pathetic. Mooning over a woman who didn’t actually care about him, waiting in vain for her to come back.

Elise hadn’t told him the truth and he could never trust her to stay. And if he let himself love her, and she didn’t stay, he’d be doomed to a lifetime of pain and an eternity of solitude because he’d never get over losing his soul mate.

Thirteen

When the doorbell rang, Elise’s pulse sprang into double time as she flew to answer it.