Only Love (The Atonement Series) (11 page)

“You seem quite sure of yourself and the fact that they won’t be in and out of your life only you have forgotten one huge drawback.” Drake set his glass down and peered at me from across the table. “Colin has moved here to be with you and ‘help you with your business’ so to me, that doesn’t sound like a man who is throwing in the towel any time soon.”

“Yes, you’re right,” I replied before I leaned over and smiled in a slightly devious way. “However, he can stay here as long as he wants but he can’t stop me from falling for someone else if it just happens so what harm is it for him to stay if he wants to torture himself?”

“True, he can’t stop you from falling for another guy…but he sure as hell could make our lives unpleasant and difficult. Never underestimate what love will drive some people to do.”

I glanced up at Drake with a coy smile on my face as I finished up my drink. “Is that a subtle way of telling me you’re interested in me?”

“Well, I thought I’d made it quite obvious but if I haven’t then yes, I am informing you now that I would like to get to know you better. We are neighbors and I find you intelligent, warm, fascinating and kind. I know you might not be ready to hop from one relationship into the next so I can do the ‘friend’ thing for a while but my ultimate goal is to have you as my significant other,” Drake explained shortly before the waiter came over to take our orders.

I decided to have the center cut swordfish while Drake ordered braised lamb shank. We switched from cocktails to wine—he decided on a great year of Cabernet Sauvignon while I ordered a glass of Chardonnay. I wasn’t crazy about that particular white wine but the year was good enough I decided to try it out after all.

I still couldn’t believe he’d said that to me and I kept glancing from my furtive people-watching back to his pale greenish blue eyes.

They were part of the reason why he was so incredibly attractive. I had never seen anyone with eyes so pale and green yet they possessed a lot of blue as well as could go from the color of Colombian emeralds which were an intoxicating mixture of pale green and blue to aquamarine. However, more often than not, they always appeared to be more green than blue regardless what shade they were.

“You’ve been quiet. Is something bothering you?” Drake inquired in a soft voice.

I was snapped back into the present and smiled before I cocked my head slightly to the side. “Is this the place where you bring all the girls you are wooing at any given time?”

His dark eyebrows shot up. “No, not really, because the truth is I haven’t really been with anyone since Mikayla and we have been broken up for a while. I mean, don’t get me wrong—I’m a man so I’ve had my fair share of one night stands and quickie affairs since I have been single. However, you are the one person I have been interested in since Kayla. I do want to sleep with you—don’t get me wrong—but I don’t want it to be a quick wham, bam, thank you ma’am thing. I am truly interested in you as a person.”

I sipped from my Chardonnay before I questioned, “Why me? What the hell is so special about me?”

“You’re the whole package, Deirdre. You might not see that but men do and it’s hard to turn down someone as alluring as you are. I would be a fool not to be interested in you. You’re the kind of woman a man can imagine being his wife and the mother of his children.”

Drake swigged from his wine. “You know how old I am so I won’t repeat it ad nauseum but I have gotten to a certain age when I am looking for the woman I want to spend the rest of my life with and although I don’t know you very well, I hope to rectify that situation and hopefully, we do bridge that gap.

“I don’t want to move too fast because I know you just came out of a situation that has your nerves frazzled and you’re not quick to trust new people. I get that but I hope knowing I am Drew’s cousin puts you at rest. I am not an absolute, positively complete stranger. I would have him to answer to if I ever broke your heart. Besides, it’s not as if it’s the first time we have met. I suppose your memory isn’t as good as mine. I just happen to never forget a face.”

I searched my brain and the memory came back to me as if it had always been there and I hadn’t just recalled it. He was right, we had met before and I refused to recall our earlier acquaintance.

It was at a party Drew held at his parents’ house when we were still at Harvard. We were on our last year of our Masters in Business Administration and he introduced his wayward cousin who had just flown in from Paris and the exclusive Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. It turned out he’d been out of university for the past two years but had been cooking in restaurants around Paris for low wages just to finely craft his culinary expertise. His salary was paltry but the kind of experience he learned over that period of time in his life could never be duplicated anywhere else and had ultimately made him a better chef.

I remembered thinking how odd it was for them to be named Drew and Drake. They seemed more like twins than cousins but then their mothers’ were very close sisters and both christened their sons with names that started with a ‘D’.

“Now you bring it up, how could I ever forget? You were with a small petite blonde at the time but she was natural so I assume that wasn’t Mikayla?”

“No.” He laughed out loud. “That was Gisele and she was a Parisian woman I met while I lived there. We were very close and had a relationship for pretty much the whole time I was there. The only reason why we broke up was because she had no wish to come to the States to live and I knew I wasn’t returning to Paris. Neither of us believed in long-distance relationships. She is still one of my best friends and we speak often.”

“Is she still single?” I wondered out loud.

“I don’t know what she would consider her status because she was married to a man who was from Quebec City and they had a two-year-old son but they’re in the middle of an acrimonious divorce. It’s been really hard on her and we have spoken a lot about the situation.”

I smiled shyly and he turned toward me before he changed the subject and switched to a more pleasant subject.

That was our night together and I loved that about him already. He had a habit of not really judging people and he certainly wasn’t melancholy in the slightest bit. He was incredibly happy-go-lucky and seemed to have no idea how good looking he was though he could look at me and literally make my heart melt at times.

I liked his self-depreciating attitude and his easy going disposition. What was there not to admire about him and whether I wanted to admit it or not, I was starting to fall for him. No matter what happened between us, we were bound to get hurt in the process and that’s what began to break my heart even if it hadn’t happened yet.

Chapter Ten

Colin

Colin’s days were a lot more predictable than Deirdre’s though that didn’t make him miss her any less. The first few days at the coffee shop, he spent his time getting to know the employees and when he was not busy teaching them how to make proper lattes and espresso shots, he found himself on the phone with Drew.

Their conversations were always the same. Bardot’s was doing just fine and his only objective should have been trying to get Deirdre back.

“Listen, Drake is my cousin but I know as sure as the sun always sets, he’ll break her heart. He doesn’t know what he wants but there is a threat he won’t even see coming and it’ll shatter Deirdre’s world. You need to finesse your way back into her life—do what ever it takes.”

Colin rolled his eyes. He sat at one of the outside tables at Ground Beans and nursed a fat-free latte and a cigarette. He had cut down until he found himself in the same city as Deirdre yet again but even though he now knew where she was, he still smoked like a fiend. A pack was nothing for him to go through in a day. Although he could somewhat assuage his guilt at such an awful and disgusting habit by the fact that he ran four miles along the beach every morning, it didn’t make him feel much better.

“What are you suggesting?” he inquired as he flicked ash and raised the filter to his lips.

“Listen, there is a woman Drake is still in love with but it didn’t work out and I know for a fact she is going through a divorce with some drunk Canadian she married. The divorce has cost her everything, including her business and her self-esteem. She would do anything to change the way her life has turned out. Give her the money to relocate—you can
afford
it,” Drew explained in a cold and heartless tone.

“So you’re suggesting I just deliver this woman here and throw her at Drake? Isn’t that a bit underhanded?”

Drew snickered on the other end. “Hey, man, everything is fair in love and war. Do you want Deirdre back or not? If he cheats with this woman then you know for a fact she would leave him and where would she go? She’d be right back there with you. Whether you two come back to Seattle…I don’t know if that is such a good idea. Too many bad memories. Maybe La Jolla is a better match for you two.”

“I suppose you are going to give me this woman’s name and address.”

Drew informed his friend of the needed information and Colin stared at it for a long time after their conversation ended. He felt conflicted because although he’d participated in a man’s death, he could use the excuse he was high on Bath Salts at the time. This was plain devious and underhanded behavior but did he want the woman he loved to end up with another man?

The answer to that question was a resounding “no” therefore the decision seemed simple enough.

“Hey, can I bum a smoke?”

Colin suddenly looked up to see the most attractive barista in front of him who happened to work for Ground Beans. He thought her name was Cassie or Kelsey. He wasn’t exactly sure except he did know she was very beautiful with deep olive skin, warm brown eyes and a mole on her cheek. Angular with gorgeous features, a slim, small-boned build, she had told him she was the product of a Italian and black mother while her father was Scottish, originally from Glasgow though he’d been in America for over twenty-five years and a citizen for twenty of those years. She was only twenty—dangerous and definitely a threat—but what Deirdre didn’t know couldn’t hurt her either.

Yes, he did want his former fiancée back but he also needed to get laid and this young lady fit the bill perfectly.

Colin handed her a Camel Crush and she took it from him, her fingers brushed against his before she sat down across from him with an espresso shot. “Do you have a match?”

He handed her his Zippo lighter and she lit the cigarette with expertise before she handed it back to him. “It’s Cassie, right?”

She scratched her nose with a perfectly clean and manicured fingernail. “Short for Constanzia but Cassie is easier to pronounce and I would vomit if people called me Connie…it reminds me of the chick from
The Godfather
movies who always let her husband beat her like it was goin’ out of style and she always had to call Sonny to save her dumb ass.”

Colin laughed out loud. “Are all of you okay with yet another person bossing you around? I realize this is sudden but Deirdre needed a partner and I stepped in. I hope I am not pissing anyone off.”

Cassie glared at him with cool brown eyes. “We don’t really notice as long as we get paid. The former owner had an issue with that and I think everyone is just happy to have owners who remember employees don’t work for free. It’s just a gig until I finish up at UC San Diego. Not that I have a clue what I am going to do with a freakin’ journalism major now that everything has gone to shit.”