“For what?”
“Um . . . what I just said. That was insensitive.”
He grinned wryly. “Tess, there’s plenty of times I think the same exact thing. I just never act on it. No worries.” He leaned in a bit to hold her gaze. “Don’t walk on eggshells around me, okay? It’s not like if you mention beer I’m going to go running to a bar to get one. It doesn’t work like that.”
“Of course.” She nodded. “Thanks. I didn’t mean . . .”
“I know you didn’t. It’s fine. Hell, if I ran into an ex-fiancé who was a jackass like that guy, I’d want a drink too.” He picked up his menu. “If you want a drink while you’re with me, have one. Not just now, but anytime. I’m not Jekyll and Hyde, I’m not going to turn into a monster and start frothing at the mouth if a drink is near me. Honestly. Okay?”
“Okay. But no, I won’t. I haven’t had a drink since Christmas. Body cleanse, remember?”
They lapsed into a comfortable silence as they pored over their menus. But after a few minutes, he had to ask.
“Tell me something,” Logan said. “I have to know. How’d someone as amazing as you end up engaged to a tool like that?”
“Because he’s a world-class liar and manipulator,” she said plainly. “And I was too trusting and blindly in love. At least I found out who he really was, and what he was really after, before I married him.”
“What was he really after?” As soon as he said it, he was sure he knew the answer.
“You really have to ask? My family’s money. I was the easy in.” Tess didn’t skip a beat as she turned her smile up to the waitress who appeared at their table.
After the waitress took their orders and walked away, Tess leaned back in her chair and said, “Want to hear the quick story?”
“Yes, actually, I do,” Logan said. He folded his forearms on the tabletop and gazed at her. “I’m all ears.”
Tess swept her long curls back over her shoulders so they wouldn’t rest on the table. “I met Brady at a charity benefit at the Met,” she began. “He was an investment banker for one of the biggest firms in Manhattan. He approached me, we hit it off, and he swept me off my feet. I found out much later that he knew who I was; it was no chance meeting. He’d heard about me and went to the party with the specific intention of meeting me. He’d targeted me as a desirable mark.”
“I already hate this story,” Logan rumbled. “And him.”
A flash of a grin swept across her face, but didn’t reach her eyes. “We were engaged after eight months. He wanted to get married right away, but I wanted a long engagement. I’d like to say it was because deep down I knew he was a scumbag, but that wasn’t it. I was so in love with him. . . .” She shook her head. “It was solely because of pressure from my father. He’s the one who insisted on a longer engagement, and back then I was still easily influenced by him, so I did what he wanted. Brady wasn’t going to give a man like my father grief, so he relented.”
“From what I’ve heard today,” Logan said carefully, “your father sounds like a . . . force of nature. In a typhoon kind of way.”
“A very tactful way of putting it,” Tess said. “Gold star for you. We’ll talk about him some other time, but you’re not wrong. Anyway . . .” She reached for her glass, took a long sip of water. “Brady and I got—or should I say, I bought—an apartment on Central Park West. God, I loved that view. Overlooked the whole park . . . I thought we were happy. He put on a great show. Had a short temper, and sometimes we argued, but nothing crazy. No relationship is without that stuff.”
Logan nodded. “That’s true.”
“So. Two months before the wedding, I had to take a business trip to France. I was working for the Harrison Foundation by then.”
“Okay.”
“I left for what was supposed to be a week, but I came home two nights early. Thought I’d surprise my loving fiancé . . .”
Tess took another sip of water, pleased to note that telling the story didn’t make her stomach turn or her chest get tight the way it had for years. She really felt nothing for Brady anymore, nothing at all, and that was a blessing. Yet she could still recall, clear as day, walking into the penthouse that evening . . . seeing his wallet, keys, and phone on the marble counter . . . “I heard the shower running. So I went in to surprise him. Only I got the surprise.”