Fiance by Fate (22 page)

That did it. The image of Sabrina lying in his arms was all the confidence-bolstering he needed. His arm shot out and he knocked.

Sabrina answered the door immediately, as if she’d been expecting him. Or more likely someone else, because although she wore the surprised look he expected, she was far from happy to see him. In fact, many emotions seemed to flicker over her face in that brief second, but he was pretty sure none of them was joy—at least as best as he could see, since she only cracked the door open three inches. The confidence he’d always prided himself on slipped a notch.

“Jack, what are you doing here?”

Oh, man
. Not even a hello. His confidence slipped another notch.

“I wanted to make sure you were okay. ” He smiled at her, hoping she’d smile too and invite him into her apartment—then into her life. None of that happened.

He cleared his throat. “And I wanted to apologize for whatever I did to make you run off.”

The line of her mouth didn’t bend, and he still remained standing in the cold, empty hallway. If his confidence fell any further, he’d trip on it.

“You didn’t do anything out of the ordinary,” she said. “I figured I fulfilled my part of the bargain long enough.”

Bargain? Did he misinterpret their kiss yesterday? He suddenly became tongue-tied. The situation was not going down as he’d planned. She hadn’t even removed the chain on her door yet.

“We need to talk. How about letting me in?”

Sabrina paused, then with a small sigh lifted the chain from the door and swung it open. He was slightly disappointed she wasn’t in those baggy pajamas of hers this time, but she looked good.
Too
darn good for wearing jeans and a red turtleneck, almost like a schoolgirl with the way her dark hair was smoothed and tucked into a matching headband. So tidy and orderly. So Sabrina. It made his hands itch to pull her close and rumple her all up.

“Jack, I really don’t have a lot of time. David will be here soon.”

“
David
? What the hell does he want?” She flinched, and he realized too late that he had shouted the question.

She looked at him without her gaze quite reaching his own. “Well, our plan obviously worked, like you said it would. David wants to get back together.” She hesitated. “Isn’t that great?”

Jack didn’t answer. He was way too stunned. But he imagined if he could croak something out, he would have told her it was about as great as a kick in the crotch. And about as unexpected as one, too. It left him standing there like an idiot, waiting for his tongue to shed a couple of hundred pounds so he could speak.

David wanted her back.
Of course
he did. What man in his right mind wouldn’t want her back? It was just that the whole time he and Sabrina had been putting their plan into action, Jack hadn’t ever really counted on it actually working. David didn’t love her. Not the way Sabrina deserved to be loved.

Damn. Jack shouldn’t have listened to his sister. He should’ve gone after her last night.

Gazing at her beautiful face, Jack searched for a clue as to what to say or do next. He noticed how tired her eyes seemed, almost as if she’d been crying.
Tears of joy
, he thought grimly. It made him want to break down and cry himself.

What was he supposed to say now?
I know you have trouble believing anything that flies out of my mouth these days, but don’t marry the man you think you love. Marry me instead.

Yeah, that would go over
real
well.

What could he do? This was what Sabrina had wanted from the beginning, wasn’t it? She’d made that clear enough to him on many occasions. She believed fate had led her to David. As much as it killed him, he was going to have to suck it up and do the noble thing. The funny thing was he didn’t realize until now he had anything virtuous like that in him. No, he wouldn’t make trouble for her. He’d step aside and let her be happy, even if it meant his own misery. Even if it meant her marrying a jerk face man, getting pregnant, and having a bunch of tiny little baby jerk faces.

His jaw grew tight. It was affecting him like nothing ever had, so instead of wailing, he did the next best thing. He got angry.

“Congrats,” he said tightly.

She looked away. “Thank you.”

“So when did all this good news take place? Before or after you put your tongue in my mouth?” Why should he bother hiding his sour attitude? He had nothing to lose now. Sabrina had already decided he wasn’t the better man.

Her body stiffened like stone. “Do you have to be crude?”

“Sorry. I’m just trying to put the sequence of events together here. Because you had me fooled. I never guessed you still wanted David after last night’s kiss.”

Her eyes finally flashed to his, heated and firm. “Give me a break, Jack. I’m not as good an actor as you are. It wasn’t like that. David had been trying to get ahold of me all week. We finally talked this morning. The hospital has been pretty hectic lately.”

David talked to her this morning. And that quickly, they were back together. Jack wondered if he’d told Sabrina how he felt sooner, if it would even have made a difference. He was guessing not. Jack was just the side attraction. Dr. Too Good was the star of the show. He was an idiot to think she’d see something better in him and forget that fact.

“So he’s been busy at work, huh?” he asked. “A lot of people suddenly having heart trouble?” That didn’t sound so far-fetched. His own heart was suddenly experiencing some weird pangs, too. “Is that some kind of
sign
to you, too?”

She gathered her arms together and hugged herself. “I don’t want to argue about superstitions. There’s no point. I just want you to know that I’m really grateful to you for giving me a wonderful Thanksgiving and for all your help. Your…friendship has meant a lot to me. More than I can say. But we both knew the reasons we got into our agreement in the first place, and now thanks to you, David’s realized how he truly feels about me.” Sabrina paused and bit her lip. “Was there something else you wanted to talk to me about?”

Jack almost laughed out loud. She had no idea how close he’d come to making a fool of himself. How he’d almost declared love to a woman who wanted to marry someone else. He had to hand it to himself. When Jack Brenner decided to take the big plunge and fall in love, he did it right.

He heaved a frustrated sigh. “Yeah, I wanted to tell you that my dad is giving me the promotion I wanted.” He should’ve smiled when he told her that, but he felt dead inside. The news was pitifully secondary to what he’d really come to share with her.

Her face lit up with pleasure. It was the kind of reaction that tore at his insides, since it was for the wrong reason. “That’s so wonderful. Congratulations. Did you mention to him that we wouldn’t be getting married?”

He shook his head. “Don’t worry. I’ll figure out something to tell him and the board soon enough.”

“Right.” She frowned. “Well, I guess you’ll be wanting this back.” She took his engagement ring from her pocket and held it out to him.

His misery was a lead weight. He stared at the ring, knowing that when he took it back his fantasy would officially be over. So he waited an extra beat before finally reaching for it. “Yeah, you don’t want David thinking he lost his chance. That I beat him to the punch.” She didn’t crack a smile, but then again he knew his joke was flat before it left his mouth.

“If you want me to be there whenever you break the news to your father, I will.”

“No. I got us into it on my own. I can get us out of it on my own, too. I’ll take him to dinner on Friday and tell him then.”

She nodded and silence fell between them. He took the opportunity to scan every perfect feature of her face, from her sky-colored eyes, to her short straight nose, to her full and beautiful mouth.

It was excruciating.

Things wouldn’t be the same and he wasn’t sure how much more he could stand. It was torture looking at her and knowing she’d never let him touch her again—real or pretend.

“I should go,” he finally said, reluctantly tearing his eyes away and walking to the door. He was halfway through it when she called his name.

He turned around, and she rushed up to him with wide, probing eyes. “This is good, right?” she asked. “I mean, we both got what we wanted.”

He waited a moment before answering. This final lie was going to be one for the ages. Sabrina didn’t need him messing up her plans, and he certainly didn’t want her pity.

“Yeah.” He fingered the engagement ring a moment, then slipped it into his pocket. “Looks like we both got exactly what we wanted.”

She nodded, her gaze falling to the floor. “I guess we did.”

…

“What’s the matter, darling?” David asked. “Are you feeling all right?”

Sabrina looked up from her left hand where David’s engagement ring now sat and fought the urge to throw up.

“I’m fine.” She tried to smile. “I just can’t believe this is happening.”

The reality of her feelings jarred her like a car alarm going off in the middle of the night, and she stared at the man across from her as though he were a stranger.

“Well, believe it.” David smiled, pulling her close. “I was a fool to think we weren’t right for each other.” Tilting his head, he kissed her fully on the lips.

She tried not to stiffen, but feeling his mouth pressed against her own made it all too clear that something was different. It wasn’t like how she’d remembered his kisses. In fact, if she had to describe it now, it was a lot like kissing a pillow—soft, not totally unpleasant, but still a little…strange.

Oh, no. What had she done? She wasn’t in love with David anymore.

She was in love with Jack.

Two months ago she would have been doing an all-out full-on happy dance around her apartment at the mere
hope
of her and David getting back together. Now she only felt the raw sores of an aching heart—and on the verge of tidal wave after tidal wave of tears.

She’d been afraid her feelings for Jack were getting out of control and thought she’d done her best to protect herself. She even thought her feelings were skewed after seeing Jack this afternoon. But she was too late. David’s kiss and seeing his ring sit on her finger, with what felt like the weight of a bowling ball, made her realize it even more.

She pulled out of David’s embrace and resisted the urge to wipe her mouth. “Um, why didn’t you think we were right for each other?” she asked, trying to collect the gamut of emotions running through her system.

David raised his brows at her question and stared at her as though he didn’t exactly know the answer. He turned away and poured them both some wine.

She studied his back and didn’t blame him for not knowing. Maybe he’d felt back then what she was feeling right now. That what they had was just companionship but not a real connection. Jack had mentioned that, but she hadn’t wanted to listen to him at the time. She couldn’t accept his opinion that David wasn’t part of her fate. At the time, her judgment had made perfect sense. But now Jack had gone and thrown a monkey wrench into her beliefs.

Jack.

He’d seemed so selfish to her at first. But then she’d really gotten to know him. Although career-driven, Jack had a soft heart for his family. He’d been kind to her, too, and even had the ability to make her laugh—when she wasn’t ready to kill him. And now she’d fallen in love with him. The only problem was Jack didn’t love her, let alone want to marry her.

As much as she hated the alternative, she knew she couldn’t marry David now. She didn’t love him anymore. There was a part of her that feared she had never loved him, that she’d fallen in love with
the idea
of him as her destiny. Which made her wonder, was she so blinded by what she thought was fate that she’d ignored her own feelings? If so, she deserved to be alone. She was a total head case.

David took a sip of his wine and smiled. “I thought I’d just about go nuts when I thought that Jack Brenner, of all people, was winning you over.” He shook his head in disbelief. “
Anyone
but him.”

She regarded him more closely. “Was that why you wanted me back? Because you didn’t want Jack to have me?”

“N-no,” he stumbled. “Of course not.” He gave her a half-embarrassed smile, almost as if he’d realized his slip. “That’s ridiculous. I told you I want to marry you. We belong together.”

She calmly put down her wineglass and decided she was finally ready to hear the truth. “Why did you break up with me?”

With a fidgety hand, David took his wineglass and tossed the liquid back like a shot. “Um…well, darling, don’t take this the wrong way, but you were getting a little obsessive with the whole marriage thing. I thought maybe you were depending too much on me. It was stifling.”

Her eyes narrowed. “So you thought I was clingy and needy?”
Oh no
, she thought, holding her forehead in her hand,
that’s exactly what I was
.
Maybe even still am.

“No,” he said, then seemed to think his answer over. “A little bit.” He spread his hand up before she could speak. “But now I know you aren’t like that. You got involved with that Brenner guy pretty fast. Almost too fast. That’s why I was concerned at first. But then I realized how strong of a woman you are and how you weren’t relying on either of us for anything. You seemed so independent and passionate. It was so unbelievably attractive.” A smile slowly spread across his lips. “I couldn’t resist you after that.”

She closed her eyes and groaned. No wonder she was attracted to David at first. They were
both
head cases.

“Do you love me?” she asked softly, already knowing the answer.

“What?” he half laughed. “Sabrina, I care deeply for you. We’ll make a great team. I can’t imagine marrying anyone else.”

Opening her eyes, she repeated, “Do you love me?”

“I…” He paused, raising his wineglass again, and frowned when he saw it was empty. “I think so,” he said into it.

She slowly nodded.

Her gaze went to her left hand and she studied the ring glistening in the light. It was so ornate, certainly not as beautiful as the one that had been Jack’s mother’s.