Lyric and Lingerie (The Fort Worth Wranglers Book 1) (32 page)

He was laying his heart at her feet and hoping she wanted to keep it. He knew that Lyric loved him too. She had to. They belonged together.

Because they were good together.

Because they were right for each other.

Because no one else would ever fit either of them as well as they fit each other.

For long seconds, she didn’t say anything at all. He could see the wheels turning in her head. She wouldn’t be Lyric if she didn’t have to think things over and analyze them near to death.

The more time passed, the more butterflies took up slam dancing in his gut.

The life he wanted was right in front of him. It was to be beside her, and he was putting everything on the line—his body, his heart, his very soul—in the hopes that she felt the same way.

Finally, he saw the answer in her eyes. And he knew, even before she said anything. “Please, please, Lyric. Don’t do this. Don’t walk away from what we have. Don’t—”

“I can’t.” There were tears in her eyes. “We can’t. I can’t. I—”

The tears destroyed him. “Lyric, please. I love you. I know you love me. We can make this work.”

“You don’t love me. You love an idea of me. You love the idea of you with me—Prince Charming rescuing the absentminded professor from her ivory tower. But that’s not real. This isn’t real.”

“It is real. We are real.” He struggled to get back up, ignoring the hand she offered.

“We’re not, Heath. We’ve never been real. When we were seventeen, you slept with me thinking I was my sister. And now, you’re with me because of a fake wedding.”

“That’s not why I’m with you—”

“It is. Oh, you may pretty it up however you want, but the only reason you’re here is because you got caught up in the drama and the story of it all. You got caught up in the make believe. But that’s not how the real world works.” She honestly believed that. It was written all over her face.

“It can be.”

“No.” She shook her head decisively. “It can’t be. Because in the real world, the prince ends up with the beautiful princess, not the absentminded professor. Once, I believed it could be different, and all that got me was a broken heart. I can’t believe it again. I won’t believe it.”

He’d done this to her, and now he was offering her his heart and she wouldn’t take it.

She blinked the tears away, then pulled herself up to her full height. “So, no, Heath. No, I won’t marry you.”

She turned on her heel and walked out of the garage.

His world stopped spinning as her words tattooed themselves on his soul.

She’d said no.

He couldn’t think, he couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t—

“That was the saddest damn thing I’ve ever seen.” It was a female voice, and she sounded anything but sad—gleeful, more like.

Everything froze inside of him as he turned around to find Shelby and her crew—complete with cameraman—staring back at him. “Quarterback wins at football but loses at life. Now that’s the real story here. Unless … you want to reconsider my offer …”

He turned away. He’d just had his heart destroyed, and she wanted to use the footage as a bargaining chip. Like he cared. By 6:05 CST, the world would know that he’d had his heart broken, and he didn’t give a good goddamn. She could plaster the story on every network in the country and he still wouldn’t care. He’d lost Lyric—no, he’d never really had her—and nothing else mattered.

Harmony came back in then—shit, he’d forgotten she was around; how much had she heard?—and started ushering the ESPN crew out. “Show’s over folks. Nothing more to see. Back into the house.”

“Not on your life.” Shelby smirked. “Keep the camera pointed on Heath, Josh, or start typing your resume.”

“I think you misunderstood me. I said to get back into the house. It wasn’t a request.” Harmony got in Shelby’s personal space and looked down her nose at the reporter. “Southern hospitality dictates that I offer you a cold glass of iced tea instead of punching you in your overly big, capped, white teeth. I’m willing to give you ten seconds to accept that glass of iced tea before I drop you on your skinny Yankee ass. What’s it gonna be?”

Harmony was fast becoming one of his favorite people.

Livinia stepped behind Harmony and glared at Shelby. “Get in the house or so help me God, I’ll shoot you for trespassing.” If she’d only had a shotgun to cock, the badass female image would be complete. He hadn’t known that Livinia had it in her.

The knowledge shattered what was left of him. Because if Harmony had it and Livinia had it … then Lyric had it too. Only she was too damaged, too broken, because of what he’d done to her all those years ago, to let her inner badass show.

Too scared of being hurt to take a risk on him.

“If you stay in that bed any longer, your ass is going to be permanently attached to the mattress.” Harmony smacked Lyric on the butt and then yanked open the curtains in Lyric’s bedroom.

“I like this bed.” Lyric dove under the nearest pillow. “It’s comfortable and steady and it won’t ever leave me.” She sniffled a little before she could stop herself. But that was just because the sunlight was burning her eyes. Or at least, that was her story and she was sticking to it.

“He didn’t leave you. You pushed him away.” Harmony crossed her arms and leaned against the dresser.

“No, no, no.” That was so wrong that Lyric pulled her head out of hiding just to make sure Harmony could hear her set the record straight. “He told me he couldn’t be with me until I trusted him. And then he walked out.”

“Which was your cue to go after him and tell him that you do trust him. It’s not quantum physics.” What did Harmony know about quantum physics?

Lyric loved quantum physics—she understood it and it understood her. It was this relationship stuff that she didn’t understand.

But Heath sucked at it too, she reminded herself as she reached for the stash of chocolate bars on her nightstand. Her mother had been replenishing it twice a day since Heath left her. It seemed that her mother no longer cared about Lyric’s thighs now that her daughter had dumped Texas’s most eligible bachelor on TV.

“No. No, no, no.” Harmony snatched the chocolate bar from her hand and threw it down on the dresser. One of the squares broke off and fell on the floor.

Lyric reached for another candy bar. She’d tried drowning herself in bourbon, but it didn’t go too well with the chocolate bars.

“No.” Harmony leapt across the room and grabbed the whole box of chocolate. She carried it across the room, opened the window, and tossed it.

“Are you crazy?” Lyric said. “That was Godiva. Mom’s gonna be so mad at you.”

“Get off your ass and go after him.” Harmony used her get-over-it-or-else tone.

Lyric ignored her as she reached for her phone.

“Thank God. You’re finally going to call him.” What was with Harmony? She hated Heath.

Lyric rolled her eyes as she dialed her mother’s number and then waited for her to pick up.

“What’s wrong?” Her mother sounded frantic. At least Livinia wasn’t yelling at her anymore.

“Harmony threw my box of chocolate out the window.” Lyric debated picking them out of the rosebushes and off the ground and eating them anyway, but it had rained last night, or maybe that was the night before last. Anyway, the chocolate would be a little muddy.

Livinia sighed heavily. “All right. I’ll go buy more after the garden club.”

“Thanks.” Lyric hung up, then rolled over and pulled the covers back over her head.

“Have you lost your fucking mind?” Harmony yanked the covers off the bed and tossed them on the floor. “You’re fighting with your fiancé and taking favors from our mother.”

“I already told you, he’s not my fiancé. He was never my fiancé.” Why did everyone have trouble remembering that?

“Yeah, well, I don’t think Heath knew that.” Lately Harmony’s whole purpose in life was to annoy Lyric. Just once, couldn’t she be comforting?

“He’s the one who thought up the whole plan.” To be fair, he hadn’t thought it up so much as blurted it out.

“He’s also the one who paid for everything with his Amex Centurion.” Clearly Harmony wasn’t on board with the whole leave-Lyric-alone plan.

“That doesn’t mean anything. Money doesn’t mean anything to him. Besides, once he cancels, he’ll only lose the deposits.” She didn’t feel bad about that—he was the one who’d got them into this mess in the first place.

“What if he doesn’t cancel?”

“He already told Momma and Gregor to do it for him. I saw the e-mail. He even called Gregor by the right name.” Tears burned her eyes. Why that detail was what finally had her breaking down in tears, Lyric had no idea. Harmony was right. She was pathetic. Too bad she had absolutely no interest in trying to change that.

Harmony sat down on the edge of the bed then, even ran a comforting hand up and down her back. The gesture alarmed Lyric. Chocolate from her mother was one thing. But sympathy from Harmony was something else. Was she dying and she just didn’t know it? How did they know it?

“This whole separation-and-wedding-called-off thing isn’t written in stone. You could call the wedding back on.” Clearly Harmony had early onset dementia.

“I’m pretty sure you need a groom to have a wedding. Or at least another bride. I don’t have either.” Not that she was in the market for another bride.

“Sure you do. You just have to get your head out of your ass and go get him.” Harmony made it sound so easy.

“He doesn’t want me, Harmony. He’s never wanted me. I don’t why that’s so hard for you to understand.” Her heart broke all over again as she said the words out loud.

“Oh, God, here we go again. Are we really back to the stupid tree house thing again?”

“Stupid tree house thing? He took my virginity and then called me by the wrong name. He hadn’t wanted to sleep with me. He’d thought he was sleeping with you.” Her ego and her heart couldn’t take more rejection.

“So the guy is an idiot—he’s a guy … they’re idiots. They can’t help genetics.” Harmony poked her in the ribs until she finally rolled over and looked her sister in the eyes. “He loves you.”

“He was just pretending—”

“Yeah, like you were pretending?” Harmony as the voice of reason seemed so wrong. “No one is that good. Besides, I saw the way he looked at you. You’re the one he wants. You’re the one he loves. You always have been. Plus, you should have seen him at the jewelry store picking out your engagement ring. He looked at every single ring, every single diamond, every single setting at least three times before deciding on that one. And then, with the inscription he had them put on it … I don’t get how you could still doubt him.”

“Inscription?” Lyric sat up. “What inscription?”

“What do you mean what inscription? Didn’t you even look at the ring before he put it on your finger?”

“I just put it on my finger.” Why would she have looked at the inside?

“Of course you did.” Harmony rolled her eyes.

“What? I thought it was just a prop for the fake engagement. I even asked him if he could return it when we were done with it.” Could your return an engagement ring?

“Don’t you mean a prop for the not-so-fake engagement?” Harmony watched her very carefully. “He had it engraved. That’s not fake or returnable, and that sure as hell isn’t temporary.”

Lyric wasn’t sure what to believe. If she believed her sister, then everything Heath had told her the day of the interview was true. And if it was true, then he really did love her. She wanted it to be true, but that didn’t make it true.

Harmony put her arm around Lyric. “What? I know you’re not telling me everything that’s going on in that gigantic brain of yours, so you might as well spit it out. Why are you so resistant to the idea that Heath could love you?”

“Because he’s Heath freaking Montgomery.” Why did she have to state the obvious? “
People
’s Sexiest Man Alive for four of the last five years.
Texas Monthly
’s Most Eligible Bachelor. He’s a legend on the football field and between the sheets. He’s slept his way across the Lone Star State. Hell, he’s dated most of the Kardashians … well, the female ones.” Lyric stared at the dirty mismatched socks on her feet. “And I’m me … just me.”

“And by just you, you mean Dr. Lyric Wright, renowned astrophysicist and all-around badass?” They both knew Harmony was stretching the truth.

“I think you’ve got me confused with you … well, you know, the badass part.” God knew Lyric couldn’t bake a damn thing.

“No, I don’t. You’re a total badass. You didn’t back down from that Shelby chick when she came at you. You don’t back down from Livinia. And you are one of the smartest people on the planet. That totally counts as a badass to me. And I’m pretty sure Heath feels exactly the same way.” Harmony not being bitchy—Lyric was pretty sure the world was going to end.

“I was his second choice, Harm.” All she’d ever wanted was to be his number one.

“When he was seventeen. And stupid. And fucked-up because his mom ran off and left him with his asshole dad. Of course he thought he wanted a perfect little cheerleader who baked cookies and had no ambition outside of dating a football player. He wanted a piece of ass who thought of him as a god and would follow him anywhere.” Harmony tucked her hair behind her ear.

“You were never that girl.” Lyric was pretty sure that Harmony had never thought of any man as a god, including their beloved father.

“Maybe not, but everyone thought I was. Including Heath.”

“Wow. Maybe he really was an idiot.” Hope, fragile though it was, started unfurling in her chest.

“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you. So, what are you going to do about it?” Harmony was relentless.

Lyric wasn’t sure what Harmony meant. “Why do I have to be the one to do something?

Harmony did that one-eyebrow-up thing. “Did we or did we not just establish that the man you love is a moron?”

“I can’t fix moron-dom. Besides, I’m still not sure that’s a compelling enough reason to put myself out there again. I mean, what if we’re wrong? Not about him being an idiot, obviously, but about him loving me.” A sliver of hope tingled through her system.

“We’re not wrong.” She sounded so sure.