Passion Play

“No, thanks.” Donovan rubbed his forehead. “I don’t want to put anyone in the middle.”

“What do you want to do?” Xavier studied Donovan as they waited for his response.

He didn’t have an answer. “I think the reason she ended things is that she’s afraid to trust me.”

“Why?” Tyler’s voice held a defensive note as though he was the one being attacked.

“She doesn’t want to get hurt again.” Donovan blew a frustrated breath. “Rose broke up with her ex-fiancé when she found out he was cheating on her. She thinks I’ll do the same thing.”

/> Xavier arched an eyebrow. “Do you really want a relationship with someone who doesn’t trust you? You’ll have to prove yourself every day.”

Tyler sighed. “That would get really old really fast, Van.”

“I want a relationship with Rose.” Donovan looked from Tyler to Xavier. “That means I need to convince her to trust me.”

Xavier spread his hands. “How?”

“I don’t know yet.” But he had to try. He’d rather spend his future proving himself to her than spend his future without her.

* * *

“Why did you tell Van you weren’t going to your reunion?” Iris got straight to the point when Rose answered her cell phone on Tuesday evening.

Lightbulbs came on in Rose’s mind. “You’re the one who told Van I was still going.”

“Maybe if you’d let me in on your plan, I wouldn’t have given away your secret.” Iris’s response was wrapped in irritation.

“If I’d told you what I was going to do, you would’ve talked me out of it.” Rose imagined her sister curled up on her chunky emerald sofa—or perhaps her matching love seat—as Iris chided her.

Rose was certain she was right. Iris was faithful to family, but she also was loyal to friends. She would have tried to convince Rose not to mislead Donovan. But Rose believed what she had done was right for everyone in the long run.

“Why did you tell him you weren’t going?” Iris returned to the question at hand. She’d always been stubborn, even as a child.

“Things were getting complicated. I thought it would be easier for Van and me if we scrapped the whole reunion idea.”

“But you’re going alone.”

“That’s right.” Rose sat up on her black leather sofa and laid the romantic suspense novel she’d been reading on her coffee table. She hadn’t been able to concentrate on it, anyway. Thoughts of Donovan kept intruding: his voice, his smile, his scent, the weight of his body on hers.

“I thought you didn’t want to go alone. That was the whole point of my introducing you to Van in the first place.” Iris’s words brought Rose back to their discussion. “What happened? Did Ben and his wife get divorced?”

“Not that I know of.”

“Then what?”

Rose stood and crossed to her living room’s front windows. “I didn’t want to get involved with another player.”

“A player?” Iris’s voice rose in disbelief. “Van? How many times do I have to tell you he’s not a player?”

Rose planted her right hand on her hip and tightened her grip on her cell phone. “You may know Van as a friend, but I know him as a boyfriend. Well, a pretend one.”

“His character is the same. Van has loyalty and integrity. That doesn’t change when his libido switches on.”

Through the sheer curtains of her front windows, Rose stared at the quiet neighborhood outside her home in Columbus’s Short North area. The evening shadows were growing longer. She could see one of the entrances to Goodale Park.

Rose massaged the tense muscles at the nape of her neck. “Women ogle him wherever he goes.”

“He’s handsome, successful and charming. There’s a lot to admire.”