Page 56 of Any Cowboy of Mine
He chuckled, his smile reaching all the way to his eyes. There was a gaiety in the way he talked about Marjorie that she’d never felt when she was with him. It made her think of Brad, of his admission, of how he’d almost kissed her, of how close she was to getting everything she ever wanted.
“Alright, here’s the deal, Drew. I accept your offer. I’ll be over Monday to sign whatever papers you need me to sign, and don’t think for a minute I’m going to let you off the hook about the ‘honeymoon’ you mentioned. But there’s a perfectly lovely man I left at the party that I’d like to get back to now.”
“Of course, the author. Can I drop you back there? I need to talk to him, actually.”
“About?” Sophie asked, cautious again.
“He’s up against a pretty serious injunction that has the potential to stop all contracts on his books. Movies, too.”
Sophie gasped. How hadn’t she known about any of this? Jackie and Steve probably knew, but neither of them had so much as mentioned Brad to her in a week. Though she had no one to blame but herself.
“Who would do that? And why?”
“It looks like a jealous ex who is trying to claim his main character is a little too similar to her. It won’t stick, these things never do, but it’ll put him through the ringer in the meantime. What a shame. I like the guy’s writing, and if I was the ex, I’d never publicly admit I was anything like the main character. She’s a pretty harrowing woman. Anyway, want that ride?”
Sophie forced a smile. So Julia had slapped Brad with an injunction because he’d turned her down at the wedding. More and more of the pieces were falling into place. It was looking like Brad’s story was crazy, but true. She needed to get back to him, and soon. God knew how it must have looked when she left the party with Drew.
“Yes, please, and on the way maybe we can sneak in a few juicy details about the new woman in your life?” she asked, hoping to deflect the conversation away from Brad while she thought about how to handle that particular situation.
Drew chuckled again, seemingly comfortable with the whole showing-emotion-in-public thing all of a sudden.
“If that’ll make you happy,” he replied.
As soon as the warm air from the Mercedes hit her and she began to thaw out, Sophie realized how cold she was. She’d been so wrapped up in the conversation with Drew that she hadn’t realized the temperature was still middle-of-winter Montanan and she was dressed like a spring breaker in Cancun.
The conversation was as warm as the air, and for the first time since she’d met Drew, Sophie caught glimpses of a sense of humor hidden beneath all his posturing and tough exterior.
When they got back to Steve’s, Sophie stepped out of the car feeling better than any amount of champagne could have done. Finally, life was taking a turn for the better. She was worried about Brad’s lawsuit, but if he had Drew in his corner, it would be okay. That didn’t mean if she saw Julia stranded on the side of the road she would do more than find the nearest puddle to douse her, though. That woman grew more onerous in her mind the more Sophie became aware of her treachery.
Drew grabbed her hand before she could shut the door to the car. “Thanks, Sophie, for everything. Especially tonight. You showed me this offer is the best business decision I’ve made yet. Happy New Year.”
“You, too, Drew. See you Monday.”
Sophie tried to turn the handle to Steve’s apartment, confused about why it was locked. A few steps back onto the sidewalk confirmed that all the windows were dark. Did she have the right house? She looked at her watch, the answer staring her in the face, though she didn’t believe it. It was five in the morning.Five!
She’d been with Drew all night, and now she only had a few hours until the sun rose on a new, and what promised to be a fantastic, year.
There was no way she could wait to talk to Brad, to finish the kiss they’d started, to tell him she loved him in return. She picked up the phone and called Jackie, waiting for a light to come on, but nothing stirred above her and the call went to voicemail.
Disappointed but not willing to give up, Sophie decided to go home and call Jackie to get Brad’s number in the morning. As soon as she saw the nest of self-pity she’d built the night before, her eyes grew heavy and she nestled in, not even caring that she still wore her dress and makeup. She let her mind wander to how good a reunion kiss with Brad would feel, now that they were finally both ready to try this thing out for real, but was asleep before she could get past sliding her hands under Brad’s shirt and moving the kisses to his chest.
The next morning, Sophie awoke with the sense of coming out a strangely fantastic but realistic dream. One where she’d been given the man of her dreams and the career that she’d always imagined for herself, plus a killer wardrobe to boot. When she glanced down at the disheveled and crooked little black dress she still wore, and the killer heels at the foot of the couch, the events of the previous night came back to her in small, rapid images like a slideshow on fast-forward. It started with Brad and Drew at the party, then Brad’s admission that he was falling in love with her, Drew asking her to help with a client in an emergency, then the offer for partnership at the firm, Drew’s new girlfriend, and finally, ending up at Steve’s alone before dawn.
It had all been real, then.
She’d been given everything she’d ever wanted, and in one night to boot—she just had to go make good on the offer Brad had made her. She rubbed her eyes and raked her hands through her hair, feeling like she’d won the lottery and been hit by a truck all at the same time. It was overwhelming, really.
She tried Jackie again, but like earlier that morning, it went straight to voicemail. Her texts from Jackie the night before asked Sophie to call her, followed by 911, but nothing more.Damn.
She was running out of ways to get ahold of Brad. But then it hit her. His parents were old school. Sophie was pretty sure they were still listed in the phone book, if she could just find where she put that damn thing. She always cringed at the waste of paper put into such an archaic document every time it landed on her doorstep, but now she was thankful she’d held on to it “just in case.”
She found it buried under a pile of legal memos from her old and, well, future firm, and tore through looking for Connors.Connell, Connelly, Connors.A and M Connors. There it was, an address but no phone number. Sophie wasn’t sure if she had one piece of information to share with anyone publicly, that would be it, but she lived in a different time of social media and a complete lack of personal privacy. Brad’s parents probably reasoned that everyone local knew where they lived anyway, so what did it matter to have it in print on every doorstep?
Plus, she knew Brad lived above their garage. This trip might be a one-stop shop for her, and that thought made her heart race.
Sophie sprinted to her room, slipped out of the miniscule piece of fabric from the night before, and shrugged on some jeans and a flattering but not-too-fancy sweater. The last thing she wanted was to show up at Brad’s looking like she’d been out all night partying.
In no time at all, Sophie was pulling up to Mr. and Mrs. Connors’s home, surprised at its modesty. It was a large, but tasteful, craftsman style less showy than she imagined Marge Connors’s tastes. Still, she couldn’t help but marvel at the simple but charming design and landscaping. It was exactly what she would have done if given the choice, and she wondered if Brad’s father, Alan, was responsible for the good design taste.
