Page 93 of Games We Play
“Yes. I’m sure you saw that I’m divorcing my husband.”
Leah nodded.
“He doesn’t know it yet, but I’m also leaving the company and going solo. I’m taking a good chunk of our investors and other business associates, too.” Sloan stood before an old poster left by the previous tenants. Some goth-minded brand that advertised studded jewelry and jackets. “It won’t be enough for me to make it on my own. So, I better get to investing in long-term businesses that I’m sure won’t let me down.”
“You would invest in me? Your ex?”
“Honey, I worked with my bastard of an ex-husband for years. I’m not above working with people who do good for my bottom line.”
“So you’rereallysaying that this isn’t a ploy to get me back?”
“Why? Do you want it to be?”
Leah looked around the darkened boutique. “No,” she finally said. “Not like this. I need time to think about it.”
Not once during this reunion did Sloan try to touch Leah. Her respectful distance was almost more off-putting than if shedidattempt physical contact.Doesn’t she want me back?Wait. Did Leah wantherback? No. This was too complicated. What was Leah supposed to do? Make all these decisions right now? Take Sloan back… accept her gift… move on with her life or become more entwined with someone else’s…
“By the way,” Leah said, before Sloan took her cue to leave, “I’m sorry about Chicago. I was… shocked. That’s all.”
“It was a lot to take in. We all have our secrets we don’t want to blab to everyone we meet, not even if we’re romantically interested in them.”
That felt too much like a direct attack on Leah’s secrets.There’s no way she knows about Karlie… right?Sloan probably had the means, but if she knew the truth, why didn’t she try to bring it up? Maybe Sloan wasn’t as vindictive as Leah took her for. “Still, I’m sorry. You revealed all that about yourself, and my reaction was to hop the next plane to leave.” She picked up the cake. Might as well take it home. “I probably would’ve kept it secret, too.”
“You were right, though,” Sloan said. “I was using you.”
Leah flinched. “Don’t know if I’m grateful that you admit it or not.”
Sloan hesitated before saying, “I’m an honest person, Leah, and I’ve always tried to be as open as possible with the people I date. I didn’t tell you about Aaron because it was a part of my past that made me too angry to think about. Finally getting rid of him will be like ridding myself of a hemorrhoid. It sucks right now, but I’ll feel better in the end.”
“Good luck.”
“Good luck to you as well.” Sloan returned to the doorway, where she stopped and glanced over her shoulder. “The only reason we lasted as long as we did… and the reason I decided to take a chance on you… is because you’re so strong and you’re not afraid to demand what you want. Don’t let people push you over because they misinterpret your submissiveness for weakness. Suppose that means I shouldn’t let my need to out-alpha every man in the room excuse my aggressiveness.”
Leah wouldn’t disagree, but at the same time, she wondered if what Sloan said was true.
“Give me a call if you decide to take up my offer. I’d hate to give this place to someone else, when I had you in mind.” Sloan released the door handle in her grip and disappeared into the rare winter sunlight.
Leah lingered a little longer. She wasn’t sure if she should worry about the place being locked, since she didn’t have a key, but the sight of Sean still sitting across the street let her release her pent-up breath. Sloan never let a detail go unnoticed.
Chapter 30
Sloan received confirmation that Leah was still at work before approaching the old house in Goose Hollow. It looked deceptively like the other old houses around it, except the background report showed that it was built two generations later and, at best, mimicked the style and architecture it chose to emulate. But this also meant that it wasn’t worth as much as the neighboring houses. Cheaper for the Vaughns to purchase thirty-five years ago, but they wouldn’t get much for it now. It was only worth the land it was on.That’s a pretty penny in downtown Portland, but wouldn’t allow them to move anywhere else around the area.
Sloan wasn’t in the market to buy Leah’s house, however. She was much more interested in ringing the doorbell and hoping the first person she saw wasn’t…
Damn. It was.
“Can I help you?” The teenaged girl looked fresh from school. Karlie Vaughn was the spitting image of Leah, all the way down to the dimples in her cheeks and the way the ends of her dark hair bounced in their natural curls.This really is her daughter, isn’t it?Sisters could look this much alike, but there was something about the mother-daughter genetic bond that made it stick out in ways sisterhood never could.
Sloan had to keep her cool. She was, after all, on a fact-finding mission and nothing more. “I was hoping to speak with the woman of the house, Janet. Is she home?”
“One second.” Karlie then called over her shoulder, “Mom!It’s for you!”
Does she know that Leah is her mother?Probably not. This girl wouldn’t so readily call someone else mother if that were the case.
Janet Vaughn was the type of woman Sloan knew how to handle, however. She was uptight, rigid, and so set in her ways that it took the changing of an age to convince her to update any of her opinions. No wonder Leah had turned out the way she had, teenage pregnancy or no.
After a brief introduction, including Sloan’s line of work and commenting that she was there to talk about Leah, they sat at the large kitchen table. Janet offered coffee, which Sloan accepted purely out of politeness. Karlie remained in the living room, where she flipped through a magazine and watched reruns of an old ‘90s sitcom on TV. The volume was low enough for Janet and Sloan to speak – and for Karlie to eavesdrop, if she wanted.
