Bargaining for the Billionaire (17 page)

M
addie opened her door later that evening to find the woman she'd seen with Grayson earlier waiting out in the hallway—the absolute last person she wanted to see. To find on her doorstep the woman who only hours ago had been competition, made her heart sink into her toes. She looked as perfect as the first time Maddie had seen her, too, with her cute, short hair and flawless makeup. Her floral print skirt showed off toned thighs and calves, and was topped by a baby pink tank that hugged a lot more than Maddie's sorry little handful.

She made Maddie want to hide in a closet. In a pair of faded jeans and a T-shirt, with no bra and no makeup to speak of, she felt ugly and plain in comparison. Her only saving grace at this point was that the woman was clearly nervous. Her brow puckered with anxiety and her hands were knotted together so tightly her knuckles had turned white.

Before Maddie could think of what to say, the woman extended her arm, holding out a card that trembled in the air. “I'm not who you think I am.”

Maddie glanced at the card. A business card.
Creations by Cassie
adorned the top in fancy lettering, and below that there was an address Maddie realized belonged to the exact shop where she'd seen her and Grayson.

The woman pulled her hand back, took a moment to stuff the card into the oversized Gucci handbag hanging off her right shoulder, and came out with another card. This one was her driver's license. She held it out long enough for Maddie to read her name. “I thought maybe we could talk.”

Maddie's heart sank into her toes. This, apparently, really was Grayson's Cassie. A sick sensation twisted in her stomach. Grayson's words earlier had left her speechless. The hurt written on his face had haunted her all day. The woman clearly was who she said she was. Had Maddie judged him unfairly? Allowed her fear to convince her—again—of something that wasn't true?

Maddie wrapped her arms across her stomach, her chest clenching with regret. She had. She'd done it again. And here was Cassie, extending an olive branch Maddie didn't think she deserved. She wasn't sure she'd have come over appearing quite so friendly if she'd been Cassie. “About?”

Cassie released a heavy breath and folded her hands again. “I told Gray he needed to introduce us earlier, that it likely wouldn't look right to you, given…everything, but Gray…” She rolled her eyes. “He's stubborn, and he has his own agenda. He's also afraid.”

Yeah, she'd heard that before. She should've listened. “Of what?”

Cassie's features seemed almost somber. “Losing you. It scares the hell out of him. To the point that he does stupid stuff in a desperate attempt to hold on to you.”

Maddie let the stiffness drop out of her shoulders. “You know, it bothers me more than a little that I don't even know you.”

“I know and I have no idea why, but it's partly why I'm here. To be honest, I'd wring his neck if I thought it would do any good. I told him this latest charade was a bad idea. We girls don't like discovering we've been lied to. It creates an air of distrust. The first time was good intentions gone bad. Somebody sabotaged him, and he was afraid if he told you the truth you'd end your relationship. I told him lying to you after that was a bad idea but, well, Gray's stubborn. He was also desperate.” Cassie shook her head. “To say he missed you these last three years would be an understatement.”

“Oh, sure, butter me up.” Maddie rolled her eyes but Cassie's words got to her. Grayson had told her something similar, and the knowledge did what it always did: seeped inside and wormed its way into all those places desperately in love with him. Her heart ached with the knowledge that she'd hurt him again.

Cassie stepped forward and laid a hand on her arm.

“No, I'm serious. He's in love with you.” She hesitated, looked down and shook her head before looking up again. “God, he'll kill me for telling you this, but he was shopping for jewelry this morning. For you. It's what I do. I design jewelry. He's a good guy, Maddie. A little misguided, maybe, but deep down where it counts? He's gold.”

Maddie didn't know what to say that. There was so much she didn't know about him, things he hadn't shared, and standing in front of her was a woman who probably knew everything. The knowledge ate at her in a way that didn't make her very proud; there was a hard knot of ugliness caught in her chest. She wasn't a jealous person. She just wanted to stop being lied to.

Maddie furrowed her brow and shook her head, helpless. “Why did you come? I wouldn't have if I were you.”

Cassie tugged on one of Maddie's hands and squeezed her fingers. “Because he's miserable, and I can't stand him when he's miserable. He's an ornery buzzard. I don't know whether to hug him or strangle him.” She let out a quiet laugh then sobered. “I also came because I've been you.”

Her eyes filled with an aching sadness that hit Maddie where it hurt. She stepped back, moving out of the doorway. “Come in.”

Fifteen minutes later they sat at the kitchen table, two cups of hot coffee in hand. Across from her, Cassie took a sip, peering over her cup.

“I won't tell you I don't love him, because I do, but not like that. Never like that. I think he had a crush on me in high school when we first met. He even kissed me once, in college. He came to see me for spring break, and we were both bombed at the time. We laughed afterwards, in hysterics, actually, because there was no spark. It was like kissing my brother. I've never looked at him that way.” Cassie sipped her coffee again before setting her cup on the table. “But I do love him, and I want him to be happy, and you make him happy.”

Maddie rose from her seat, using the excuse of topping off her half-full cup in order to avoid Cassie's direct stare. “So, what you're essentially telling me is I screwed up. Again. I've done it to him again, and this time I made him leave me.”

The thought went round and round in her head, taunting her, and tears flooded her eyes. Their entire relationship was in shambles, and the fault lay solely on her shoulders. The thought alone made her want to sit down and weep.

Cassie's chair scraped the floor behind her. A second later Cassie's subtle, floral scent floated around her, and a gentle hand touched her shoulder. “I won't give him this one. He made sure nothing he told you was a lie, so he's right on that front, but I can't blame you for not trusting him. I'm just saying that sometimes, when you love someone enough, you do things you regret out of fear.”

Cassie's touch left her shoulder, and Maddie turned, watching as the other woman moved around the island and into the living room. Cassie stared out the window, sadness hanging on her.

“I had a Gray once. Tyler was everything to me, and I lost him.” She sniffled and ducked her head, swiping her fingers beneath her eyes. “Trust me. You'll regret not having Gray more than you'll ever regret loving him.”

Maddie sighed, the heavy decision pressing her down, and wrapped her arms around herself as if, somehow, she could hold all the pieces together that wanted to come apart. “This whole conversation has me sick to my stomach.”

Cassie looked back over her shoulder, giving Maddie a soft smile. “I understand that, believe it or not. What it's like to have trouble trusting people. Which is why I'm here. Not to stick up for him. Grayson can hold his own. He's pissed right now, but I think it's mostly at himself. No, I'm here because I thought it might be better if we met without Gray in the picture. The look on your face when you opened the door also confirmed something for me. You love him, too.”

“Yes.” She couldn't deny it at this point. She had to hand it to Cassie. She was handling this way better than Maddie had.

Cassie patted her arm and strode for the front door. “I'll leave you alone now. Just think about it.”

“You said he was with you today because he was purchasing something. For what?”

Cassie stopped in the foyer and turned. She frowned, her bow-shaped mouth turning down at the corners. “I've said too much as it is. I'll just tell you this. I told you Tyler was my everything? I'm fairly certain you're Gray's.”

She left the apartment, closing the door softly behind her.

Grayson froze in the doorway, one hand still holding the doorknob. His heart hammered. When the doorbell had rung a minute ago he'd expected to find Cassie, come to insert her wisdom into his business again.

Instead, Maddie stood before him. She looked like hell, too. No makeup and red-rimmed eyes. The sight of her hit him like a meaty fist slammed into his gut. Leaving her had been the hardest thing he'd ever done, but standing on that sidewalk, seeing the hurt rise over her—it hit him hard where they'd ended up.

He'd spent the first two hours after leaving Maddie on the street hashing out the whole thing with Cassie, talking out everything that happened between him and Maddie over the course of their entire relationship. He'd made mistakes. Big ones. Cassie was right. This latest charade, pretending to be someone else, had done nothing but cause more problems. Except he couldn't get past one thing: It hurt, more than a little, to think she thought him capable of cheating.

He folded his arms. “Hey.”

She wiped her palms several times on her jeans and looked down at the deck. At a little after three, the afternoon was surprisingly quiet. The lake's gentle waves rocked the dock beneath them; the soft sounds filling the neighborhood with a quiet serenity. The stillness contrasting with the tension all but crackled in the air between them. “I won't stay long. I didn't come to bother you. I just came to apologize.”

“For?”

She let out a bitter laugh and shook her head. “Geez, where do I start? For thinking the worst of you. For not trusting you. For not listening. But mostly, for hurting you.”

“I appreciate the sentiment, thank you.” It was all he could say. He
did
appreciate the sentiment. He appreciated, too, that she'd come all the way out here to say it to his face, but it didn't change things. She didn't trust him, deep down, and until she did, there wasn't a thing he could do about it.

When he didn't say anything, tears filled her eyes, and her lower lip wobbled. Her throat bobbed, and her fingers trembled as she clasped her hands together.

“Cassie came to see me. I like her. She's down to earth. I don't know what I expected from her, but…talking with her made me realize something.” She stopped to swallow again, and when she spoke, her voice cracked. “I'm the reason this doesn't work.”

Damn it all to hell. Did she know she had him eating out of the palm of her hand? That he was two desperate little seconds from dragging her into his arms for the need to make her stop crying?

“It hurts that you even think I'm capable of cheating on you, that you think I would
ever
do that to you.” It was the only card he had to play at this point, but it was the truth, and he needed her to know.

She sighed and looked up. “This isn't an excuse, more of an explanation, but…you can't tell me that if I suddenly started hanging with Cade or Sebastian you'd be okay with that. If some other guy put his hands on me, hugged me, kissed my cheek.”

Okay, she had him there. Every time she'd called him Dave during their chats it had turned his insides to knots. It hadn't mattered that he knew
he
was Dave. The thought of her in another man's arms made him want to put his fist through something.

“No. You're right. I probably wouldn't be comfortable with that, but I'd trust
you
.” He touched the tip of his index finger to her chest.

Maddie froze, staring at him, so still even her breathing seemed to halt. As if she were working it all out in her head. Slowly her eyes filled with more tears. How many had she shed in the last few hours? Maddie was a strong woman. To see her so open and exposed and clearly hurting cut him deep.

She blinked a few times and diverted her gaze to the deck. Defeat and dejection rounded her shoulders.

She sniffled, nodded, and reached up to swipe the back of a shaky finger beneath her right eye. “You're right. Trust is apparently a bigger issue for me than I assumed. I think maybe you're better off without me.” She looked up, her gaze pausing on his for a split second, then she hiked her chin a notch. “I didn't come here to bother you. I just wanted to apologize. I'll leave you alone now. Good-bye, Grayson.”

Before he could react, she pivoted and marched down the deck like she couldn't get away fast enough. Watching her hightail it away from him, his heart caught in this throat, and the words bubbled out before he'd even thought about what he
wanted
to say to her.

“You don't want to know what
I
think?”

She halted dead in her tracks at the end of the dock but didn't turn around. “No. I can see it on your face. You can call me a coward if you want, but I have no desire to hear you tell me how much I screwed up. I'm very aware right now how much I've lost, and I have to somehow figure out how to live with that. I can't change the past or alter the things I've done.”

“Duly noted, but I'm going to say it anyway. For the record, I don't.”

 She looked back over her shoulder, brow puckered in helpless confusion. “You don't what?”

“Think I'm better off without you.”

She dropped her face into her hands, her shoulders shaking as she sobbed, and some part of his brain told him to stop talking. He was airing his relationship problems to his damn neighbors, for crying out loud, but his mouth kept opening and words kept leaving.

“I'm also angry at myself. Cassie's right. This last charade was a bad fucking idea all around. Our relationship started on a lie and all I did was compound it and prove that you can't trust me.” He paused to take a breath, to judge her reaction, but she didn't move. She was sobbing into her hands, and watching her was a knife to his heart. So, he kept talking, scrambling to get the words out before she walked away again. “I don't think I'm better off without you, because I've tried that, and you know what? It flat out sucks.”