Page 106 of Spark

“I don’t know, Fish,” Colin says. “Amy had some diabolical tricks up her sleeve at the very beginning. You know, when I had my head up my ass. And it was only thanks to her scheming that I was able to figure out how I was feeling about her. I needed a wake-up call, you know? And I needed time. And that’s what I got.”

“That’s exactly what Ruby needs,” Savage says confidently. “A wake-up call and some time. And Kendrick’s providingboth.” He snickers. “One bribe of her building manager at a time.”

“Savage! What the fuck, man?”

Not surprisingly, everyone jumps in to ask what Savage means, at which point he gleefully tells the story of how I’ve bribed Ruby’s building manager,twice,in order to keep her at my house long enough to allow our forced proximity to work its magic.

“All’s fair in love and war,” C-Bomb grumbles.

“That’s exactly what I told him,” Savage says proudly. “Sometimes, the ends justify the means.”

I look at C-Bomb and Savage and suddenly realize neither man is a paragon of emotional maturity. If they both think what I’m doing is A-okay, maybe that’s a surefire sign . . . it’snot?

“Are we sure about this, guys?” Fish asks, giving voice to what I’m thinking myself.

“Well, whether what he’s been doing is right or wrong,” Savage says, “there’s no turning back now. He’s in it to win it, baby, so he might as well keep going now, till she’s madly in love with him.” He smiles at me. “Or she hates your guts forever for lying to her.”

“What?” I shout. “You never said she could wind up hating me!”

“Well, I mean, it’s common sense. Nobody likes to be lied to.”

I thwap Savage’s head, and he laughs.

“I was joking,” he says, rubbing his head. “Ruby could never hate you. She thinks you walk on water.”

“She could absolutely hate me, Savage. Shit. What have I done?” I lean back in my chair and rub my forehead. “I should go home and come clean to her.”

“Absolutely,” Fish agrees, while the rest of the table speaksover him to disagree. To say the time for that is not yet upon me. To stay the course.

“It’s not like I can keep her at my place indefinitely,” I say. “At some point, I’m going to have to let her leave and accept her feelings for me, whatever they are.”

“Okay, but is that momentnow?” Savage asks. “You’re so close, KC. Even Laila thinks so.”

“You told Laila?”

“Yeah.”

“Savage.”

“She’s mywife. You knew I would. I told you that.”

He’s right. He did. But I can’t resist teasing him about it, anyway. “You keep telling me to be a Doberman, but you’ve turned into as big a golden retriever as me.”

“Yeah, because she’s my wife now. Being a Doberman only applies when you’re trying to get the girl. Once she’s your wife, all bets are off and you have to be completely honest with her, always.”

The entire table exchanges amused looks about how desperately in love our former fuckboy rockstar has become. Truly, Adrian Savage is one of the biggest rags-to-riches success stories in the whole world, but not for the reasons the whole world thinks. Yes, his ascendance to worldwide fame and fortune has been one for the history books, for all the obvious reasons, but even more impressive than his acquisition of money and fame, at least for me, is the way he’s transformed as a person, thanks to the newfound safety, love, and connection he has with Laila.

“I swear on my life, Laila hasn’t said a word to Ruby,” Savage assures me. “She promised she’d keep your secret, and her word is gold, unlike mine. Actually, Laila thinks your diabolical plan is pure genius. She’s fully supportive.”

I feel emboldened by that. “Really?”

Savage nods. “She wants you and Ruby to get togethereven more than I do, and she thinks Ruby’s too clueless to get there otherwise.” He snickers. “But then again, Laila is diabolical herself, so take her support with a grain of salt. Her moral compass is a little wonky.”

We all laugh, along with Savage.

“Wow, if you’ve wanted Ruby from day one, then I really fucked you over badly, didn’t I?” Kai says, leaning back in his chair. “You know, when you came home from school, and I told you that lie about what happened at Ruby’s birthday party?”

I exhale. “That information definitely set me down a certain path.”

---