Then he opened the door and left, taking the stairs down and exhaling as soon as he got outside. He ran a hand over his mouth as he walked along the sidewalk in the direction of his parked car, and made it almost a block before he heard someone call him.
“Ford.”
He glanced over his shoulder and saw Victoria following him, walking briskly in her dress and heels and carrying a small leather purse. The sight pissed him off, because whatever this was, whatever she wanted to talk about—his semi-terse behavior, or perhaps the fact that he’d left without saying more to make Peter and Melanie feel “welcome”—he didn’t owe her any answers. “Go back inside, Victoria.”
When she kept right on following him, he shook his head and turned into the alley that led to the side street where he’d parked his car.
“Ford, hold on.”
He spun around. “What?” She stopped at his brusque tone, and stood a couple feet from him in the alley. When she hesitated, he gestured impatiently. “What, Victoria?”
She lifted her chin. “Are you dating that woman who was with you in the elevator?”
Fuck that. All his frustration boiling to the surface, he took a step closer to her. She had no right to ask him that, not anymore. She had kicked him out of her life. “Would it make any difference if I was?” he asked sharply.
Victoria held her ground, peering up at him and taking a moment before answering. “No.”
His shoulders slumped.
Well. He’d asked.
“That’s what I thought,” he said tersely. He spun around and started walking toward his car.
“Because I’d fight for you anyway.”
He stopped.
His heart pounding, he turned around to face her.
She stepped toward him, speaking determinedly. “This was not supposed to happen. My whole adult life I have avoided exactly this happening. I had things all mapped out, I knew what I wanted, and I was set. But then you came along, and you messed up all of that, with your little quips, and your jaw that twitches when you get protective, and the way you somehow manage to always be so infuriatingly unfazed no matter what I throw at you. And now I’m stuck. I can’t get back to my old life and, even crazier, I don’t want my old life anymore.” She held his gaze. “Because that life doesn’t have you in it.”
She moved closer. “These past two weeks without you have felt . . . wrong. And I miss you. So much.” Her lip began to tremble, but she swallowed and kept going. “I know I pushed you away. But not because I don’t care. It’s because I care so much that it scares me.” Her voice softened. “But losing you scares me even more. And I thought, maybe, if you felt the same way, that we could start over. Only this time . . . we’d do it for real.”
She fell quiet then, standing still as she waited.
His throat feeling tight, Ford needed a moment before he could answer.
If I ever were to go down this road, and let myself fall for someone, it can’t be halfway. I have to know that she’s in, too.
And that speech, coming from her, said everything.
He moved closer and cupped her face in his hands. “I love you.”
Her eyes filled with tears, her expression suddenly so hopeful and vulnerable it made his heart ache. “Really?”
“Yes.” He smiled softly. “Like, crazy, awful, miserable-without-you kind of love. Hell, even Tucker was trying to cheer me up.”
Victoria bit her lip. “But the blonde in the elevator—”
“—was just a co-worker.” Ford stroked his thumb across her cheek, wiping away one of her tears. “See, apparently, that’s how these crazy, miserable-without-you things work. It means you’re the only one I think about. Ever since the day I first knocked on your door.”
She smiled and touched his cheek. “You weren’t the only one who was miserable. Friday night, I had to sleep at Rachel’s because I couldn’t stand the thought of you with another woman.”
“Ah . . . Rachel’s. That’s where you were.”
In his head, he did a little victory dance.
“Where else would I have been?” She cocked her head. “Wait, did you think—”
He cut her off. “Still don’t want to think about it. Ever.”
Her lips curved. Then she looked at him for a moment, her expression softening. “You know I love you, too, right?”
He pulled her closer, his voice thick with emotion. “I do now.”
He bent his head and kissed her, tenderly at first, and then more heatedly as they leaned against the building, her purse falling to the ground, and his forearms pressing on the brick as he held her face in his hands.
When she finally pulled back, her cheeks were flushed. “I think we need to get out of this alley.”
His thoughts exactly.
Ford scooped up her purse and they hurried through the alley. But then Victoria stopped in her tracks when they got to his car. “Shoot. I forgot about Nicole. She’s still with Peter and Melanie.”
“Nicole will be fine.”
“I was so distracted when you left, I’m not sure I even said good-bye. Not my usual level of client relations,” she said with a sheepish grin.
He took out his phone. “I’ll text her and explain everything.” He read out loud as he typed. “‘Victoria left with me. She says good-bye.’” He hit send and winked at her. “Now can we go have make-up sex?”
A guy passing by them on a bicycle looked over sharply and nearly crashed into a parked car.
“Seriously,” Victoria said to Ford.
But he noticed that she climbed into his car lickety-split.
“I got a funny vibe from Nicole earlier,” Victoria said as she buckled her seatbelt. “Do you think she knew something was going on between us?”
As Ford got behind the wheel, his phone buzzed with a new message. He shook his head while reading it. “Well, at least now I know why she asked me to come tonight.”
He held out the phone so Victoria could see his sister’s reply.
You’re welcome. Now stop brooding.
* * *
IN HIS BEDROOM, as the evening summer sun filtered in through the shades on his windows, Ford kissed the back of Victoria’s neck. He slowly inched down the zipper of her dress, thinking how, a mere hour ago, he’d been going out of his mind at the thought of some other man doing exactly this. But now here they were.