The Rebound Guy (23 page)

They were separated into teams of six. By some cruel twist of fate, Asia, Dexter, Cortland, Nina, and Gillian Daniels wound up on the same team, along with Lizzie’s younger brother.

The game was called to order and they began playing. Asia tried her hardest to follow the instructions Dexter had given her, but she often sent her ball sailing past the arched wickets. It didn’t help that, while she’d been taking her shot, she spotted Gillian sidling up to Dexter.

They had spoken in soft tones several times throughout the game, and even though Asia told herself it was a misplaced emotion, her stomach churned with jealousy. There was no reason to be possessive of Dexter. He wasn’t hers to keep.

Asia was standing off to the side while Dexter took his turn with the ball and mallet, when Cortland came to stand next to her.

Looking out at the field of players, he leaned over and in a smug voice said, “I told you.”

Asia glanced over at him, waiting for her ire to rise. But it didn’t. She just didn’t care enough.

“You’ve been with this guy for what, two, three weeks?” Cortland continued. “Not even a month and his eyes are already wandering. Tell me something, Asia. How many dates have you cancelled on him already?”

“Why are you even speaking to me?” she asked.

“I’m trying to help you,” he said. “If you want to keep a guy around, you’re going to need to pay more attention to him.”

Asia stared in amazement at his gall. She couldn’t help the shocked laugh that escaped her throat. “Cortland, you do realize that when it comes to relationship advice, you’re just behind my drycleaner on the list of people I’d turn to, right? Do the world a favor and get over yourself.”

She started to walk away, but he caught her by the arm.

“You don’t have to be so damn nasty about this,” he said. “We’re both adults, Asia. We work together. It doesn’t make sense for us to be at each other’s throats. If you want me to apologize for the way I ended things, then I will.”

“I don’t need an apology, Cortland, especially one that you’re giving because you think it’ll make things easier for you.” She put her hands up. “Let me make it
really
easy. When we run into each other at the office, feel free to pretend you don’t see me. I’ll do the same.”

The skin tightened over his clenched jaw. “Fine,” he bit out. “But...” His eyes darted toward Nina, who was taking her turn with the mallet. When he looked back at Asia, his brow was pinched in a frown. “I need that ring.”

“What?”

“The ring that I left at your place. I’ll take over the payments again.”

Asia’s eyes widened, and disgust pooled in her gut. “Are you seriously going to give poor Nina another woman’s ring? Goodness, Cortland, do you realize how tacky that is?”

Had she really considered marrying this asshole?

“I don’t give a damn how tacky it is,” Cortland said stiffly. “I’d already paid four thousand dollars on that ring. I can take back the one I bought yesterday and tell Nina it was only a stand-in for the real ring. Now, are you going to give it back to me or what?”

Asia folded her arms across her chest. “I guess this is the reason for the heartfelt apology?” She shook her head, amazed at how lucky she was to be rid of him, but blown away at how blind she had been. How had she not seen that Cortland was petty and selfish to the core?

“You can forget about getting the ring back,” Asia said. “Consider it payment for all the years I wasted on you.” Then she started toward the rest of her team, so buoyed by her confrontation with Cortland that she felt as if she were floating on air.

But Asia was soon brought back down to earth when she joined the others and saw Dexter once again conversing with Gillian. He spotted her and started straight for her.

“What did he want with you?” Dexter asked, gesturing his chin toward Cortland, whose expression was so dark it would scare small children.

“Nothing,” Asia said. “I took care of it.” She looked past Dexter’s shoulder, to Gillian, who was doing a poor job of hiding her envy. If the woman had only taken the time to notice, she would have seen Asia directing that same covetous look at her. The irony was absurd.

Suddenly, Asia was just...done.

She could
not
do this. She would not stand here, fielding looks of resentment over a man who didn’t even belong to her.

She turned to Dexter and affected an exhausted sigh. “Being out in the sun has given me a headache. I’m going to go back to the room and lie down for a while.”

“We can head back,” Dexter said, reaching for her mallet and handing both his and hers to Chad Harrington.

“No, you stay,” Asia said. “It wouldn’t be fair if both of us bailed on the team. I’ll see if I can convince one of the other guests to take my spot.”

“Are you sure?” Dexter asked. He ran his hand along her arm, then tugged her toward him. He bent his head closer to her and whispered, “I didn’t come here to play croquet with the other wedding guests, Asia. If you need me, just say the word. Remember that I’m here only for you.”

Yes, because she was paying him.

The headache she’d feigned unexpectedly became very real.

“I’ll be fine,” she said, needing to be anywhere but here, as quickly as possible.

She left the south lawn and headed for the room she was slated to spend two nights in with Dexter. Once there, Asia leaned back against the door and shut her eyes, cursing the mess she’d gotten herself into.

Her first instinct was to reach for her company phone to check in with Helena, but Asia had vowed not to work this weekend. It was a promise she’d made Dexter, but one she intended to keep for her own sake.

Of all the things she had learned over the past few weeks, learning to take time for herself was the lesson Asia vowed to work on. Cortland was not the only one she’d sacrificed too much of herself for; she’d given away too much of her life to her job. If she were to drop dead of a heart attack—no doubt brought on by job-induced stress—Global Partners PR’s crisis-management division would not miss a step. She’d trained each of the members of her team, and they were all capable of stepping into her shoes if the need arose.

There was only one problem: Now that she’d decided to start taking time for herself, she had to figure out
how
to occupy it. She’d already vowed to attend more Yankee games, and maybe she could take that second trip to Napa that she had been putting off. But neither of those things would occupy her time right now.

Taking her personal cell phone from her purse, Asia kicked off her shoes, stretched across the bed, and dialed her mother’s number. The call went to voicemail.

She tried India, but that call, too, went straight to voicemail. Seconds later, she received a text from her sister saying that she was in an all-day study group.

So much for occupying her time.

Asia peeked inside her purse and caught sight of the green-and-white protective cover with the GPPR logo scrolled across it. She slipped her bottom lip between her teeth, contemplating.

“I tried,” she said, pulling out her company-issued BlackBerry.

She would work on finding better ways to occupy her time after this weekend. Right now, her job was just the escape she needed.

Chapter Fifteen

Dex rolled his shoulder, trying to work out the kinks swinging the croquet mallet had aggravated. It was nearly as bad as the mornings he walked Bruno.

He lumbered toward his and Asia’s room, a part of him hoping that she was still sleeping. They had avoided the conversation they both knew would eventually need to take place, and he wanted to avoid it a bit longer. He just wasn’t up for it right now.

Using the brass key, he quietly opened the door, but instead of finding Asia napping, he found the suitcase she’d just unpacked a few hours ago opened on the bed. Holding the phone to her ear with one hand, she stood over the suitcase with her arms full of folded clothing.

Dex stood there for a moment, completely stunned.

“Are you fucking kidding me, Asia?”

Her eyes darted to his as she continued talking to the person on the other end of the line. “It would take me only a couple of hours to get back to the city, but I think—,” She nodded. “Yes.”

“You are not going back to the city,” Dex warned her.

Asia glared at him as she carried the clothing in her hands back to the bureau, and he realized she wasn’t packing to leave.

“Has Lance started calling people on the scapegoat list?” she asked the other person on the line. “Perfect. That’s exactly the course of action I would take. I told you, Helena, you’ve got this. I have all confidence in you and the rest of the team.” Another pause. Then, “Yes, I will. Call if you need me, but I doubt you will. You can do this, Helena.”

Dex stood there, straddling the line between anger and disbelief, because even though she’d apparently decided against it, she
had
considered leaving. The half-packed suitcase proved that.

“Seriously, Asia?” he said as soon as she ended the call. “You were going to leave?”

“Yes, I was,” she said. “But then I decided that my team could handle the problem without me.”

“About damn time,” he said, some of his anger dissipating.

“Excuse me?”

“You’re finally realizing that you don’t have to solve every problem on your own. That’s what I’ve been trying to show you, Asia. I’m happy you’re finally seeing it.”

She picked up another set of clothing from the suitcase, but then dropped them and walked up to him. She placed her hands on her hips.

“I’ll concede that you did help to open my eyes to the fact that I need to let go of the reins at the office, but just where in the hell do you get off telling me that I can’t go back to the city?”

“Because you asked me to,” he said. “I’m here to make sure you enjoy yourself for a change.”

“You’re here because I
paid
you to be here.”

Dex let out a mirthless laugh, dropping his head back and staring at the ceiling, fighting to hold on to the last thread of his control.

“Fine,” he said. He held both palms up, surrendering to her claim. “I’m only here because you’re paying me. But that doesn’t mean I’m some damn puppet you get to manipulate. You leave me out there with
your
friends so you can come in here and work? And then you make plans to leave? What’s up with that?”

She crossed her arms over her chest. “You didn’t seem to have trouble making friends out there.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

She dropped her arms, her body deflating with the heavy, weary sigh she released. “I can’t do this,” she said. She started for the door, but Dex captured her arm, stopping her.

“Let go of me, Dexter.” Her voice held not even a whisper of the defiance it had just a minute ago. She looked depleted, utterly spent. It pulled at something in him, causing an ache to rocket through his chest.

“Asia, stop running away,” Dexter said, his voice hoarse with emotion. “We have to talk about what’s going on between us.”

She looked up at him, her enervated gaze lacking every drop of her usual spirit.

“All we have to do is make it through the weekend,” she said.

She pulled her arm from his grip and walked out of the room.

Dexter stared at the door for several minutes, fighting the urge to run after her and bring her back so they could hash this out. He found solace in the fact that she had
finally
learned to delegate responsibility at work. At least he’d been successful in getting her to see that much. But there was still the problem of what to do about this chasm that was rapidly widening between them. They had to move past this; forget the entire weekend, he couldn’t exist another hour in this state of sheer freaking agony.

He dropped onto the mattress and cradled his head in his hands. If he had known it would be this hard to be here with Asia, Dex wasn’t sure he would have come. Damn being a professional. This shit was
killing
him.

But what else could he do? If she was going to run every time he tried to get her alone to talk, there was nothing he
could
do.

Actually, there was, he realized, the thought weighing in his stomach like a lead anchor.

He could do just as Asia had suggested. Get through this weekend so they could get on with their separate lives.

***

Sitting with his back braced against the hard, bumpy trunk of a large white oak, Dex let his gaze wander over the people gathered around the open fire pit. He made no effort to feign interest in tonight’s festivities. His acting abilities only went so far.

He rested one arm on his up-drawn knee. The other he’d wrapped around Asia’s waist. They were back to playing the happy couple, drawing looks of envy from Gillian, who was apparently still buying the lie. Maybe his acting abilities were better than he thought.

Dex tightened his hold, pulling Asia more securely against him, dying at how perfect she felt in his arms. He tortured himself with her scent, inhaling that citrusy, honeyed fragrance, letting it seep deep into his lungs. He wanted it to sink into his soul, to guarantee that it would remain with him long after she was gone.

His chest tightened at the thought, but Dex had come to accept the inevitable. In less than forty-eight hours, they would part ways and never see each other again.

He swallowed back the ball of nausea that climbed up his throat.

He’d always approached the end of a job with a sense of accomplishment, knowing he’d aided his client in moving past her previous relationship, and put her on the path to finding happiness with someone else. At the very least, he could leave knowing that he’d helped to build her confidence and give her a fresh start.

Not this time.

For the first time since he’d started his consulting business, Dex dreaded to think of an assignment’s conclusion, looming over the horizon like a dark, ominous cloud.

It forced him to contemplate several things he didn’t want to think about, questions that, up to this point, had never been an issue. Before Asia, the thought of actually losing his heart to a client had never bothered him. He knew the risk was there, but never before had he considered it a possibility.