desk the following morning, head in his hands. How did that go so wrong? He rubbed his jaw, still feeling the sting from Emmy’s slap. She hadn’t changed much. Still that curly red hair, still that sharp-tongued attitude that could put him in his place with a handful of words. Still that smile. Still those hypnotizing green eyes. His desk phone buzzed with Linda’s line. He ignored it. A moment later, it buzzed again, this time from Les’s office. He knocked the receiver off the hook and left it lying on his desk. Then he pushed back his chair and walked to the window.
Drake Isle hadn’t changed much in ten years. There was a new sandwich shop on Harbor Street, a fresh coat of paint on the police station, and the woman who owned the house on the hill had redesigned her gardens, but other than that, it looked the same as the memories inside his head. Same sky that went on forever. Same weathered homes, same curve to the road. He wondered if he followed it all the way to the old college, whether that remained the same too.
Someone rapped on his office door.
“Go away.”
Footsteps entered despite his warning. “Hey, ah, Blake? Man? Can I come in?”
His neck tightened. The junior attorney’s voice was the last thing Blake wanted to hear. Sometimes he wondered what Nikolas’s younger brother must be like, if Nikolas was considered the good one in the family. Serial killer, maybe. Or white-collar embezzler. “What do you need?” he asked, eyes on the skyline, mind somewhere far beyond it.
“Ah, well, my uncle just wanted me to stop in and see how it went yesterday.” Nikolas cleared his throat. “You know, ah, with the Drake Isle property. I know you took a drive down there.”
Speak a sentence without a half-dozen pauses in it, and maybe I’ll take you seriously. Blake took his time turning around, hands in his pockets, scowl on his face. “I’m working on it.”
“She’s not going to sell?”
“She doesn’t have to, not yet. The bank hasn’t even started foreclosure proceedings.”
“But –”
“Things like this take time. And savvy. You should know that. Business deals don’t happen with a single conversation followed by a signature.”
Nikolas’s dark eyes went a shade darker, and Blake wondered how many times the pretty boy who’d bought his way into college and law school had been reprimanded in his lifetime. “I’m fully aware how business deals work. I studied at Wharton.”
“That’s outstanding. I forgot that I asked for your dossier.”
Nikolas’s cheeks flamed and his jaw twitched.
“The next time you walk into my office without an invitation,” Blake went on, “your ass is fired. I don’t care who your uncle is or long he’s worked here.”
Nikolas lifted his chin. “Message received.” He paused. “But you might not want to be making threats like that as long as your father still runs this company. Anyone you fire, I’m pretty sure he can rehire before the end of the day.” With that, he stalked from the room.
Blake picked up a paperweight and considered chucking it at the door. He made a mental note to remind Human Resources to include him in all interviews of counsel and upper management. Eastefire didn’t need any more assholes like Nikolas trolling the hallways.
Linda stopped outside his office, one hand on a hip, brows lifted. Blake waved her in.
“Sir?” She handed him his morning coffee, light and sweet.
“Thank you. What meetings do I have this morning?”
“One with Simon at ten-thirty to go over the second quarter numbers. And your father asked to see you when you’re free.”
“Of course he did.”
Nothing in Linda’s expression changed except a flicker in her eyes, and Blake might have thought it was humor except it was gone before he could tell for sure. “What would you like me to tell him?”
He reached into his pocket for his cell phone. “Tell my father I’m busy all day. And reschedule with Simon for this afternoon, could you? Maybe for two o’clock?” He had to get out of this place for a few hours.
“Of course, sir.” She turned and was gone before he could blink.
Blake sent Trey a text, pulled on his jacket, and was jogging down the back stairs before anyone else in the office knew he was gone.
He spent two hours wandering the city, visiting the aquarium and the shops of Faneuil Hall before noon rolled around and he stepped inside Legal Sea Foods, the best restaurant in the city.
“Patio or dining room, sir?” the hostess asked.
“Bar’s fine,” he said, spying Trey already sitting there. Even on a Tuesday at lunchtime, the restaurant was half-full. Bostonians took their seafood and their harbor views seriously.
Trey greeted him with a hearty handshake and a pounding on the back when he walked over. “Blake! How’ve you been, man? It’s been way too long. Hell, what? A year? More?”
“I know. Sorry. Glad you had some time today.”
“Shit, I always have time. That’s the beauty of running your own company.”
Blake settled himself onto the barstool beside Trey. He looked longingly at the beer taps but settled for club soda instead. Then he ordered a burger to make himself feel mildly better. Cholesterol levels could take a hit today, he figured. Or every day. What did it matter?
Trey himself nursed a light beer and a plate of fries, and he nudged the plate in front of Blake. “Want some?”
“Sure.” He helped himself to a few and tried to remember the last time they’d hung out like this. He couldn’t.
“So what’s it like being CEO of Eastefire?”
“You heard about that?”
“Sure. Saw it in the papers, I think. Or maybe on Facebook. Who the hell knows?” He touched his glass to Blake’s. “Congrats, by the way.”
“Thanks.”
“What else is new?”
Blake shook his head. “Broke up with Hailey, but you probably heard that too.”
“I did. Didn’t want to bring it up.” Trey swallowed half his beer. “Should I say I’m sorry or tell you you’re probably better off without her?”
“I know I’m better off. She is, too. She deserved someone a hell of a lot more committed than I was ever gonna be.”
Trey nodded.
“What about you? Anyone tying you down these days?”
“Only in the ways I like.”
Blake grinned. “You haven’t changed at all since school.”
“Why should I? I have a good time, make a shitload of money, keep Mr. Happy wrapped up, and I’m honest with everyone. Settling down is the last thing on my mind right now.”
Blake finished his club soda, decided the hell with it, and ordered a beer. Part of him wished he could be as cavalier as Trey was about, well, almost everything.
“I hear Eastefire is looking to expand,” Trey said as their food arrived.
“News travels fast.”
“You should know that better than anyone. So where’s the next expansion?”
“You won’t believe it.”
Trey chuckled. “No? Try me.”
“Drake Isle. Misterion’s satellite campus.”
Trey gave a long whistle. “You’re right. I almost don’t believe it.”
“We’re doing all the IT work for them. And we need a building for headquarters on the island, so my job this week is finding one to buy.”
“Real estate on the island still as pricey as ever?”
“It went through a slump a few years back, but we didn’t have our eye on it then, so we missed our chance. Now it’s up again. Thing is, we found a place that might be heading to foreclosure soon, so I went down there yesterday to check it out.”
“And?”
“Ran into a snag.” A snag. Like that came close to describing what had happened on Emmy’s back porch.
Trey chuckled. “What happened? You run into a group of grumpy ol’ crabbers who tried to run you off their boat with a shotgun?”
“That would’ve been less painful than what actually happened.”
“Oh, yeah? Tell me. I can’t wait to hear this.”
Blake wiped his mouth and took a long swallow of beer. “Remember Emmy Doyle?”
“From school? Of course. Don’t tell me she’s the snag in the deal.”
Blake gave a shrug.
“Holy hell. She’s still there?” Trey adjusted a silly-looking bun of dark blond hair atop his head, kept in place by a red elastic band. He’d always had long hair, even back in college. He dressed how he wanted, did what he wanted, skipped Delta parties to play in a local band, hung out with assistant professors one weekend and local fishermen the next. He was friends with everyone on the island and belonged everywhere and nowhere at the same time. A chameleon. A chimera. Blake had always been jealous of him for that.
“She is. And she owns the building we want to buy. She’s got a yoga studio on the first floor and lives on the second. She’s behind in her mortgage, which opens up possibilities.”
“Huh. Guess that does complicate things a little. How’d she look?”
“Good,” Blake said under his breath. Better than good.
“You talk to her at all since college?”
“Not until yesterday.”
Trey finished his beer and chuckled. “Then you’re an idiot. The first time your ex-girlfriend sees you in ten years is when you walk up the front steps and make a business offer on the place she owns?”
“Pretty much.”
“No wonder you hit a snag. Haven’t you learned anything since college?”
Blake bristled. “Meaning what?”
“Meaning I thought I taught you a thing or two about how to talk to women.”
“I know how to talk to women, thanks.”
“Do you? Because if you want something, you don’t show your entire hand in the first ten seconds. You warm up to the game, man. It’s all just sophisticated poker. You toss out a couple cards, draw some new ones. Watch her face. See if you can figure out her tells. Maybe even lose the first game just to get her to drop her guard. Then you move in for the kill.”
“It’s not exactly the same when you’ve got a deadline for a business deal.”
“No? Or maybe it’s not the same when you’re still in love with the person you’re trying to make the deal with?”
White lightning seared through Blake so fast he grew dizzy. “I’m not still in love with Emmy.”
“Bullshit. Then why’d you break up with Hailey?”
“She wasn’t the right one.”
Trey was shaking his head. “Maybe.” He reached for the bill. “And maybe that’s because Emmy was the right one, man, the cat’s meow, the best thing you ever came across in your over-achieving, born-with-a-silver-spoon-in-the-mouth life, and you know it. You letting her go was the stupidest thing you could’ve done.”
“I didn’t let her go. She broke up with me,” Blake said. “In case you forgot.”
“How hard did you try to get her back?” Trey asked.
He didn’t answer.
“That’s what I thought.” Trey signed the credit card slip and shook off Blake’s offer to leave the tip. “Well, if you’re not gonna try and get her back, at least take my advice about closing the deal.”
“That might be easier said than done. The last thing she did was slap me and tell me never to come back.”
Trey burst out laughing. “She hasn’t changed much, has she? Good for her.”
“Hey. You’re supposed to be on my side.”
“I am. So what’s your next move?”
“No idea. Any suggestions?”
Trey rubbed his chin, like he was giving the question serious consideration. “She’s pissed, and I don’t blame her. Next time you go back, try a different approach.”
“Like what?” They walked out into blinding sunlight, and Blake cursed himself for not bringing sunglasses.
“You said she owns a yoga studio?”
“Yeah.”
“So take a class.”
“You’re kidding.”
“I’m dead serious. Let her have the upper hand in her own environment. It’ll soften her up some, get her to drop her guard. Then you can pull out the big guns.” Trey gave Blake one last grin before climbing onto a sleek black motorcycle and revving the engine. “You weren’t ever the type to give up on the first try, Carter. Don’t start now.”