Page 48 of The Billionaire's Second Chance
“Hey, Sam,” Charlie said. His brows were drawn tight above serious eyes. “You seem…” He didn’t finish his thought, but he didn’t have to. I knew exactly how I seemed. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” I said politely. “Thank you.”
“Do you want to… I don’t know, get out of here?”
I did. I didn’t know which was worse, the feeling of his eyes on me as I spoke with a hundred of the most powerful men in the city, or the lack thereof as he did the same, ignoring me completely, but I knew that to leave was worse than either of those scenarios. “No. We need to stay to the end. Make the rounds, like you said.” I looked out over the crowd. There was Sebastian, talking to James and Edie. Was that why he was here? For the baby shower?
“Sam. Samantha, look at me.” I looked. His green eyes bored into mine, and I forced myself not to look away. “We don’t have to stay if you don’t want to. If you aren’t feeling up to it, we can leave. We’ve done our part; the party planner is here, she’ll take care of breaking everything down, getting everyone out. If you want…” he added, a glint in his eyes, “like I said, I know a hotel around the corner. I could wrap up here, meet you–”
“Stop it, Charlie,” I cut him off. I didn’t have time for his stupid little jokes, his teasing, his…Charlieness. “You think you’re really funny, don’t you,” I said, pressing my lips together.
“Well, James was always the smart one,” he replied instantly. “I had to have something going for me.”
He always did that. Deflected. Made the comment as if he were trying to anticipate someone else saying the same thing and beat them to the punch. As if he didn’t know that he was the richer, more handsome, more charming of the pair, as if he hadn’t told me a hundred times. It was so… My fists were clenched, and I had to take a deep breath, loosening my tense muscles. It wasirritating.
“I should make the rounds again,” I said once I was sure I had regained control of myself.
He said nothing, but I could feel his eyes on my face as I stared off into the crowd. There was Dr. Stevenson, the vice president of New York Lit, by the auction table. I’d said hello earlier, but he’d been in a crowd of people all jostling for his attention. I should speak to him again. Be sure he knew I was thankful for his attendance. I set off across the ballroom without saying goodbye to Charlie, and without looking back.
I didn’t knowwhathe would see in my expression, but I knew it would betoo much.
CHAPTER25
Charlie
“Nice place you’ve got here.”
Sebastian had looked appropriately formal at the gala in his tuxedo, but his suit today, a somber, charcoal gray thing, looked stuffy and outdated here in the shiny glass offices and meeting rooms of Veritech. Older, too. I’d seen him in the news, of course–the business section as well as the society pages–but it’d been a long time since I’d seen Seb Scott in person, and the frown lines between his eyebrows had deepened. I was older too, of course–I knew I was. But Sebastian…
He looked like his father. That was what people always said about James, too, and me, by extension, but our father had been dead before he reached James’s age; soon we’d both look older than he ever had. The late Mr. Scott had been in his sixties when he passed, and while Sebastian didn’t lookthatold, he looked just as humorless as his father always had.
Samantha wore it better.
“Thanks,” I said. “If you want to play some ping-pong, let me know.” I was pretty sure I managed to keep the smile from my lips; Sebastian was obviously not dressed for ping-pong. I checked the time on my monitor. “It’s a little early for a beer, but if you want to relocate to the lounge there’s coffee, too. Snacks.”
“Your office is fine,” he said, letting himself into the room and closing the door behind him. He probably pulled this shit in London all the time. Showing up unannounced, in a suit from Savile Row and a smile I hadn’t realized until now was quite condescending, expecting people to change their schedules for him and do what he said.
But this wasn’t London.
And it wasn’t even James’s New York.
This was Veritech, and Veritech was mine.
“Is this about why you’re really here?” I asked, and Sebastian cocked his head, standing opposite me.
“What, I can’t come into town for my oldest friend’s baby shower?”
“Youcan,” I said. “But I know you didn’t. Come on, I’ve known you for a long time, Seb.”
A long,longtime. He’d been James’s friend first, an older boy who’d come around to our house to pass a lacrosse ball back and forth after school. As often happened, I’d claimed him as my friend, too, eager as I was to hang out with James and his crew. And then… And then, when James was off doing his celebrity author shit, I’d thrown a party at his apartment, and invited Seb, and invited his sister, too, who I hadn’t seen since graduation. If she wanted to come. If she wasn’t busy.
And then I’d spent the night staring at her, Sami Scott, Seb’s little sister, watching her nurse a single glass of champagne as the rest of my high school friends, back in the city from Hanover and Cambridge and New Haven for winter break, got increasingly wasted, breaking first into James’s expensive liquor and then at least two of his crystal lowball glasses. Wondering when she’d gone from a pretty high schooler I’d teased in the library to the gorgeous woman who was there that night, smiling and flirting with my friends, all equally enamored with her deep brown eyes.
Eyes that had sought out mine, again and again, until at last…
“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about,” Sebastian said.I sure as hell hoped not.
Until at last, I had walked her out of James’s building, my jacket draped around her shoulders, my number in her phone, my scent on her skin. I’d returned to the party afterward, my legs feeling loose and my stomach filled with hopeful anticipation that had quickly soured to guilt as Sebastian eyed me from across James’s living room, the same dark brown as his little sister’s.
