Page 93 of Why Not Both?

“I was going to tell him last night, but then he didn’t come home,” she says with an eye roll.

A flash of jealousy and hurt sears through me. “He didn’t? Where was he?”

Her eyes widen a bit like she’s just said something she shouldn’t. “I mean he didn’t come home before I fell asleep.”

“Vic.”

She closes her eyes and sighs. “It’s nothing bad, I promise. It’s just something he wants to tell people later. Not today.”

“Okay.”

She hands me some keys. “You can take my car.” Then she hands me a piece of paper. “This is the address.”

“Really?” I ask, noting the Mercedes symbol on the key.

“Yes. Thank you for agreeing to do this.”

“Agreeing to do what?” Spencer asks, coming out of his room.

Vic turns toward him. “I asked Lis to go with you today. If you’d rather I come with you like usual, that’s fine. I just thought, she might help you more than I can.”

He turns to me with bleak eyes. He looks so haunted. Like the Spencer I’ve come to know has left and all that remains is his shell. My heart breaks for him and in a second I’m wrapping my arms around him, pressing my body against him, trying to soak his pain into me.

He buries his face in the space between my neck and shoulder, crushing me against him as though he needs me to anchor him to this world. I hold him back just as tightly.

“Are you sure about this?” he whispers.

And I know what he’s really asking. Do I want to continue the friendship we’d been building before I’d found out he owned part of Blue Vista? And I do. I’ve missed him so much over the past couple of weeks. Even if he hadn’t needed me today, I would have gone back to him.

“I’m sure. I’ve got your back no matter what. That’s the Blue Vista motto, isn’t it?”

He pulls back and gives me something resembling a smile.

“You look stunning, firecracker.” He kisses my cheek.

“And you look like hell. Here.” I let him go to get my backpack, reaching in for his hoodie and pulling it over his head. He bends down so I can manage, slipping his arms through the sleeves on his own. My heels today are only about an inch and a half so he’s still over six inches taller than me. Once it’s on him, I find the container with the cheese bread. “And I baked you this today.”

“You good?” Vic asks.

Spencer nods, holding the container. “I’ll be fine. Thanks, Vic.”

“I didn’t do anything but ask her. I have a meeting to get to. You guys—” She falters. “I guess you won’t have fun. But you know what I mean.”

She leaves and I ask if Spencer is ready to go.

“No. But let’s do it, anyway.”

We go down to the underground where Spencer leads me to a black Mercedes.

Great. Now I get to drive my boss’ hundred thousand dollar car. Not intimidating at all. I should have just brought the One Car.

We get in and start the drive. Spencer programs the address into the car’s GPS and I follow it to the Point Grey neighbourhood in Vancouver. When I pull up to a gated property, Spencer rattles off a code and I punch it into the keypad. The gates swing open and I drive up the driveway, my mouth dropping open as the house comes into view. I stop at the front doors and gape at the white mansion, all windows and columns with a marble staircase leading up to the front door.

After an awkward five minutes, I turn to Spencer, who hasn’t moved at all.

“Well, what are you waiting for?” I ask him.

“I just hate coming here.” He looks over at me. “What are you waiting for?”

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