One Night of Scandal (16 page)

He responded with a light shrug. “I think this is the fling running its course, babe.”

Her heart plummeted to the pit of her stomach like a sack of bricks. “Are you serious?”

Another pause. Then he nodded.

Darcy was speechless. She stared at him, trying desperately to understand what was happening. She’d come here to tell this man she
loved
him, and now he was telling her it was
over
?

“It was bound to happen, Darce. I mean, you said so yourself, this was never going to lead to a relationship.”

His tone was so nonchalant she almost picked up an empty glass from the counter and hurled it at his smug, unfeeling face.

“I think it’s time we both moved on to greener and better pastures,” Reed said with another infuriating shrug.

And then, right in front of her wide eyes, he had the nerve to tilt his head in the brunette’s direction and shoot Darcy a wink.

As if they were two bros talking about scoring a hot lay for the evening.

“Are you
kidding
me?”

This time the incredulous shout came not from Darcy, but from Skyler, who appeared behind them just in time to catch Reed’s last remark and thoughtless grin.

Reed looked annoyed again. “What now?”

The younger woman charged forward and wrapped a protective arm around Darcy’s shoulders. “You’re a real bastard, Reed, you know that?” Skyler sounded livid as she glowered at him.

“Hell. This is why flings are such stupidly terrible ideas.” Reed sighed as he addressed Darcy. “Look, we had our fun, okay? Now it’s time to call it a day and have fun with other people.”

With that, he strode off in the direction of the brunette.

He didn’t look back. Not even once.

Darcy made a valiant effort not to cry, biting her lip so hard the metallic taste of blood filled her mouth.

“Oh my God,” Skyler murmured. “I can’t believe…” She gave Darcy’s shoulder a comforting squeeze. “I’m so sorry, Darce. I want you to forget every single word I said back at your place. He’s not worth it. I promise you, he’s not worth it.”

Her entire body had gone numb. Her gaze stayed fixed on Reed, who was once again leaning over the counter, a devilish grin playing on his lips as he flirted with another woman. When he reached out and tucked a strand of hair behind the brunette’s ear, Darcy’s heart officially shattered into a million pieces.

“Will you drive me home?” she blurted out.

Sympathy swam in Skyler’s eyes. “Oh, Darce.”

“Please, Sky.” She gritted her teeth so hard her molars ached. “Just take me home.”

With a nod, Skyler tightened her grip around her shoulders and quietly led her away from the bar.

Chapter Sixteen

A dark cloud loomed over him. No, wait. Make that
two
dark clouds.

Reed squinted from his perch on the couch, his head spinning like a carousel as he tried to bring his eyes into focus. The two figures above him slowly merged into one, as his double vision snapped back to normal. Christ. It felt like someone was pounding his temples with a chisel. How much had he had to drink last night?

A lot
.

No kidding
, he almost snapped at the sardonic inner voice. But even the act of
thinking
it made his head hurt, and a wave of nausea swept over him in response.

“Get up.”

The icy command was uttered by a familiar voice, and though it hadn’t been loud, to his aching head it sounded like a banshee’s shriek.

“Lower your voice,” he groaned, reaching up to rub his throbbing temples.

AJ didn’t sound at all sympathetic. “Jesus Christ, man. Did you drink all that? In one sitting?”

Reed’s gaze shifted to the coffee table, which boasted two empty pints of whiskey and a half-finished fifth of scotch. It was all the alcohol he’d had in the house, and the liquor cabinet had been the first thing he’d opened when he’d come home last night. His goal had been to drink Darcy Grant right out of his heart, and it looked like he’d succeeded. With the drinking part, at least. But exorcising Darcy from his heart?

He’d failed miserably.

The shame of what he’d done to her, combined with the agony of knowing he’d lost her, fused together and somehow turned into a sharp dose of anger, directed at the man hovering over him.

“You told me to prove it to her,” Reed accused.

AJ blinked in confusion. “What are you talking about?”

“Darcy. You told me to prove to her that I’d changed, to show her that I was someone she could fall for. Why the
fuck
did you say that?” Groaning, Reed heaved himself off the couch and onto his feet. His entire body immediately swayed, the floor beneath him and the walls around him spinning wildly. “Shit. I’m gonna hurl.”

Before he threw up all over himself—or AJ—he managed to lurch into the hall bathroom. On his knees, he emptied three bottles’ worth of alcohol into the toilet, then draped himself over the bowl, dry heaving until the vicious contractions of his stomach finally ceased.

He heard footsteps, cursing when AJ appeared in the open doorway. His friend wore a look of sheer disgust, mingled with a flicker of bewilderment.

“I have no idea what you’re babbling about,” AJ announced. “All I know is that you left us in the lurch on Friday night, and you didn’t bother showing up for work today, either.”

“Today? What time is it?” Reed said weakly.

AJ scowled. “It’s eight.”

“AM or PM?”

“PM, goddamn it!”

Shit. He’d been passed out on the couch for…his brain valiantly tried to do the math. He’d started drinking around ten on Friday…crashed around two…so that meant… eighteen hours. He’d been in an alcohol-induced coma for eighteen frickin’ hours.

The guilt rose fast, making him gag again, but there was nothing left to throw up.

“And don’t get me started on what you did to Darcy,” AJ was fuming from the door.

Like he could ever forget. Reed’s cheek still stung from where Skyler had slapped it. Gage’s girlfriend had driven right back to Sin after she’d left with Darcy, and like a mama lioness, she’d ripped into Reed good, so furious with him that Gage had been forced to step in and pry her off his friend.

That was when Reed had hightailed it out of the club, but he didn’t remember much after that.

“I did the only thing I could do to save my dignity,” he mumbled to AJ. “And you…screw you, man.”

“Screw
me
?” AJ echoed in disbelief.

Reed managed to stagger to his feet. “Yeah, screw
you
. I did what you said—I
showed
her. I showed her everything, every goddamn part of me, and you know what? She
still
didn’t want me.” He stumbled to the sink, where he rinsed out his mouth and splashed cold water on his face, then spoke again without looking at his friend. “Give me a minute to shower, and then I’ll head over to the club.”

“No way.” The response was swift and firm. “You’re not going anywhere until you tell me what happened. No more of this confusing babbling. Straight up, Reed—why the hell did you cheat on her?”

His jaw fell open, but he supposed he shouldn’t have been surprised by the accusation. He’d all but dangled that woman under Darcy’s nose, making it clear what he intended to do. But the fact that AJ thought he’d actually gone through with it only illustrated what Reed had been trying hard not to admit.

His best friends still thought he was a screw-up.

Darcy did, too.

And no amount of “proving” could change any of their minds.

“I guess I cheated on her because that’s what I do,” he said coldly. “Right, AJ? I cheat on women, and I hire drug dealers to work at our club, and I don’t stock the fuckin’ bar, but of course, right? It’s classic Reed Miller, isn’t it, AJ?”

The other man looked momentarily stunned. Then he cleared his throat. “Okay. Enough. Clearly, we need to start over.”

“Clearly, we need to get to work,” Reed snapped back.

He tried to brush past AJ, but his friend clamped a hand on his shoulder and glared at him. “You’re not going anywhere.”

Anger climbed up his throat. “AJ—”

“I mean it. You’re not taking another step until you tell me exactly what happened last night. From start to fuckin’ finish.”

…

Ice cream. Lots and lots of ice cream.

Darcy knew from experience that ice cream was the one and only cure for a broken heart. It was sweet enough that it made the bitter taste coating your throat easier to swallow, and if you bought the low-fat kind, you only had to worry about going up
one
dress size instead of the ten you’d gain once you reached your fifth carton.

Oh, and you could eat it for breakfast.

Which was just what Darcy did when she stumbled into her kitchen on Sunday morning. She bypassed the fridge, opened the freezer, and a minute later, she sat at the counter, devouring a pint of triple chocolate mousse right out of the carton.

She hadn’t heard from Reed since Friday night.

She didn’t expect to hear from him.

Nope, he’d made it more than clear that he was finished with her. Like she was a piece of trash to him, easily discarded and unworthy of any further consideration.

Well, at least she’d learned her lesson—always, always,
always
listen to your mother.

Her mom had told her this would happen. She’d warned her not to date a man Darcy didn’t see a future with unless she was absolutely sure of that outcome. Though, in Darcy’s defense, she
hadn’t
seen a future with Reed, not at the start, anyway. It wasn’t until much, much later that she’d begun to question herself.

God, she was such an idiot. For one foolish moment, she’d actually believed there might be more to Reed Miller than met the eye, that he
wasn’t
a self-absorbed, sex-crazed playboy with a no-strings mentality and a thirst for the chase.

But yep, he was. He totally was. And being right had never felt so awful.

Darcy shoveled another spoonful of ice cream into her mouth and groaned with pleasure. “Oh, Ben and Jerry,” she mumbled to the carton. “What would I do without you? Why can’t one of you be my boyfriend?”

The carton did not respond.

But for a split second, she actually thought she heard it say her name.

It took a few head-scratching seconds to realize that someone
was
calling her name, only the voice was coming from the front door.

Frowning, she slid off the breakfast stool and headed for the hall, where she heard a loud rap on the door, then another irritated, “Darcy!”

She swallowed a groan when she recognized AJ’s voice. Wonderful. Had her ex-boyfriend decided to stop by to rub her breakup with Reed in her face?

No, she realized. No way would AJ ever do that. It wasn’t his style.

Besides, he sounded more angry than gloaty at the moment.

Darcy opened the door and glared at him. “What do you want?”

“Wow. That’s wicked rude,” he marveled. “I’m going to let it slide, though, because I’m about to be ruder.”

AJ pushed his way inside, his six-foot frame hovering over her as he folded his arms across his chest. “What the
hell
is the matter with you?”

Her jaw dropped. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me.” He shook his head in disapproval. “I’m really disappointed in you. Reed is a good guy, and to just throw him away like that? Dick move, Darce.
Dick. Move
.”

Shock crashed into her. “Are you serious?
I
threw
him
away? I hate to burst your self-righteous bubble, AJ, but it was the other way around!”

She spun on her heel and marched back to the kitchen, making a beeline for her Ben and Jerry’s. The nerve of him! To imply that
she’d
done something wrong? When it was
Reed
who’d been picking up another chick right in front of her Friday night?

Darcy stuck the spoon in the carton, scooped up some chocolatey goodness, and shoved it in her mouth. When she heard AJ’s footsteps in the doorway, she lifted her head so she could glare at him again.

“Your ‘good guy’ best friend dumped me Friday night,” she said through a mouthful of ice cream. “Get your facts straight.”

“He only did that because you decided he wasn’t good enough to be your boyfriend,” AJ retorted, accusation hanging from his voice.

She gaped at him. “That’s crazy.”

“He
heard
you, Darce.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Setting down her spoon, she matched AJ’s pose and crossed her arms.

Sighing, her ex-boyfriend approached the counter and propped his hip up against it. “It was total chaos after you left on Friday. Reed was moping around like the sky had fallen, but refused to tell anyone why, and then Skyler showed back up and flipped out on him, accusing him of some seriously nasty shit. Then
Gage
got caught in the middle, and eventually Reed just up and left the club—on our busiest frickin’ night!”

Darcy couldn’t conjure up even a smidgen of sympathy. “Gee, I’m
so
sorry.”

AJ scowled at her. “Anyway, he didn’t show up for work yesterday either, which is totally unlike him, so I went over to his place and found him shit-faced on his couch.”

The sarcasm continued to ooze out. “Oh no. Poor Reed.”

“Christ. It’s like dealing with children,” AJ mumbled, before his expression snapped back to somber. “Look, it took a while, but I finally managed to get the truth out of him.”

She faltered, the hard front she’d been putting on slipping slightly. “The truth?”

“He told me he came by your place on Friday right before the club opened. He overheard you talking to Skyler about how he’s not boyfriend material or some shit, and how you don’t want a relationship with him.”

Darcy’s breath hitched. “Wait, that can’t be right.”

“That’s what he says happened. And after he heard that, he decided he might as well end it with you before you ended it with
him
.” AJ sighed again. “It’s a guy thing. Self-preservation and all that stuff.”

She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Reed had come by on Friday? How was that possible? He hadn’t knocked, and she certainly hadn’t heard him come in. And if he really
had
stopped by, then why hadn’t he heard the
rest
of her conversation with Skyler? The part where she’d waxed poetic about how much she loved him and confessed her fear that he might not love her back.

“But…but I told Skyler I was in love with him,” she stammered, feeling a tad awkward to be revealing it to AJ. “How come he didn’t hear
that
?”

“I guess he left before you got to that part,” AJ said flatly.

“So he decided to get back at me by hitting on another woman?” she grumbled.

“He wasn’t getting back at you. He was just kick-starting the inevitable.”

The inevitable… Reed had thought she was going to break up with him. Despite her irritation over his heartless method of protecting himself, Darcy’s heart ached at the notion that she’d made Reed believe she didn’t care about him.

“I’m so stupid,” she blurted out, swallowing a lump of frustration. “Why did I keep calling it a fling when I knew it had turned into something more?”

AJ chuckled. “You were in denial?” he suggested.

“I was. I totally was.” She moaned in misery. “Crap, I need to go and talk to him. Do you know if he’s home?”

“No, he mentioned something about hanging out with some kid named Devon today. Or maybe it was Kevin?” AJ offered a blank look. “Can’t remember the name. I had no idea he was doing that Big Brother program, but it’s pretty cool, huh? Oh, I think they’re meeting at the park behind your school.”

Darcy was already dashing to the doorway. “Can you let yourself out?” she called over her shoulder. “I’ve gotta throw some clothes on.”

AJ’s soft laughter tickled her back, but she ignored it. Her mind was already a million miles away, every fiber of her being focused on Reed and what she would say to him when she saw him.

Yes, he’d acted like a total jerk the other night, and she certainly wasn’t letting him off the hook for it, but now that she understood where he’d been coming from, she couldn’t bring herself to stay mad at him. She loved him, damn it. And she was pretty certain he felt the same way about her.

Now she just had to find out if she was right.

Darcy halted in the middle of her bedroom, a smile breaking out on her face as she experienced a stroke of brilliance.

She knew
just
what she had to do.