Her Charming Heartbreaker (21 page)

Time for a break, she
thought. She needed a break from both work and everything she’d
been thinking about. But on her way up to her apartment, her steps
faltered. She doubled back and stood outside her office. The
flowers Theo had sent her sat on her desk. Grace had delivered them
earlier that day and had known to bring a vase. When Eddie had
promised to return it, Grace had told her to hold onto it. Eddie
had thanked her but had silently thought she wouldn’t have much use
for it.

That morning’s burst of
elation had been good while it lasted, Eddie thought as she sagged
against the door.

Joyce had told
Theo…

He knew. And he hadn’t
said anything.

According to Joyce, he
hadn’t agreed to be the one to break her heart. Yes, but… he hadn’t
argued against it.

Eddie frowned. Theo
would find the whole idea ludicrous. No one in their right mind set
out to fail. Then again, she’d been afflicted by a bad case of
lust, bad enough to impair her thinking and make her believe in
outrageous theories. As if life could be that simple.

She pushed away from
the door.

I feel I’m being
used...

Theo had said that
right after Eddie had demanded they skip dinner and get on with
having sex. A part of her wilted, as if she’d expected better from
Theo.

She had no one to blame
but herself, and now it was too late to back out.

She couldn’t ask for
more, or expect more from Theo. That would be extortion, and she
wasn’t the type to dupe someone into wanting her.

With her belly twisting
into a knot, she strode toward her office desk and picked up the
card he’d included with the flowers. It was thick with an embossed
edge. The sort of detail Grace Cossington would think of. She was
everything Eddie wasn’t. Elegant. Petite. She wore her hair in a
tamed bob that highlighted her fine features. Her eyes always spoke
of calm and careful consideration.

If only she could be
more like Grace—

Cool, calm and
collected.

Pick you up at
eight for a cheese and crackers date.

Flowers. No one had
ever given her flowers. She ran her fingers along the smooth
petals. The light flush of pink made her think of how she’d felt
when his fingertips had caressed her cheek, his eyes watching her,
capturing her reaction, missing nothing as he made her whimper with
wanting and then with explosive satisfaction.

“You’re being silly.
Pink is pink.”

She swirled her finger
around the ribbon that held the blooms together. Fiery red. Like
the heat that had built up, rising from deep inside her…

Last night… The instant
flare up, the ripping off of clothes, the way she’d responded to
his touch, the mindless attraction…

It hadn’t just
happened. She’d been working up to that moment. Thinking about it.
Wanting it.

All along, it had been
nothing but easy, no strings attached, convenient... Pity sex.

She didn’t want Theo to
break her heart. She wanted him to be the one to stick around, to
turn his life upside down for her.

Too late for that, she
reasoned.

“Once you’ve gone too
far, it’s hard not to go all the way.”

Chapter Sixteen

“Am I forgiven? This
morning you rushed out of the café without saying a word,” Joyce
said and sunk onto a barstool.

Eddie checked a glass
for smudges and then poured some wine into it. “Joyce, I could
strangle you, but then I’d have to get someone to strangle me.” She
slid the glass over to her. “Of course you’re forgiven.” Eddie knew
Joyce hadn’t meant any harm. When Joyce had told her about the
conversation she’d had with Theo, Eddie hadn’t known what to make
of it. Had Theo only made his move after—

“I’ll never interfere.
Ever. Again. Promise. I don’t know what came over me...”

“Not what, but
rather... oh, never mind.” If Joyce wasn’t ready to admit there
were sparks flying between her and Bradford... Eddie sighed.
Frustration could be the mother of all monkey wrenches. She knew
that first hand. “That doesn’t mean you’re off the hook.” Eddie
spread her hands on the counter. “You owe me.”

Joyce stared into her
glass. “What are your demands?”

“For starters, Theo
can’t know that I know,” Eddie rolled her eyes and bobbed her head
from side to side, “That he knows.” Last night everything had felt
so right and now she was falling apart at the seams. If she could
pretend for a little longer...

Joyce gave a tentative
nod and slid a finger across her lips. “I’m all zipped up.”

“And—”

“There’s more? You’re
going to turn this into a smorgasbord of comeuppance.”

“What do you think? You
broke the code. I told you all that rubbish about wanting a
heartbreak in strict confidence.” Eddie put her hand up. “Yes, I
know you were only trying to help.”

“All right. I get it. I
was bad… Very bad. Just don’t make me wear a koala suit in
public.”

“Now that you mention
it...”

“I don’t like where
this is going. There should be conditions to payback.”

“Something along the
lines of the punishment fitting the crime?”

“Fine, I won’t argue.
Um... So, what are you going to do about Theo?”

“A part of me thinks I
should go all the way. Enjoy the fling and then move on. Clearly,
that’s all he wants. You know... once you’ve gone too far, it’s
hard not to go all the way.” And if she said it enough times, she
might start to believe it. “To be fair to him, I did say I knew he
came with an expiry date. On the other hand, I’m feeling like a
coward, and thinking I should cut my loses now. I know it’d be like
deciding to start a diet halfway through my favorite bar of
chocolate...”

“It’s because I told
him.”

Eddie shook her head.
Although, him knowing did ruin the fantasy of possibly… maybe
something real developing between them. But that wasn’t something
Joyce needed to know. Eddie saw no point in making her friend feel
worse.

“Don’t worry about it,
Joyce. I’m not... not really.”

* * *

Over the following
hour, customers spilled into the pub. She flitted from one to
another, stopping for brief chats with Joyce who’d met up with
Sophie and Helena Wright for dinner. All the while, she kept an eye
on the door, half hoping to catch sight of Theo when he made his
entrance, as he was bound to do, while half praying he’d never show
his face around her again.

“How are you holding
up?” Joyce asked when she came up for refills.

“I’m doing fine.” She
shrugged. “But I’ll be better when he arrives.” She’d had a whole
day of being plagued by assumptions. A day of feeling numb because
last night had meant far too much to her and very little to Theo.
She closed her eyes against the thought.

They’d had a memorable
night together.

Today he’d sent her
flowers.

And now they had a
date. A cheese and crackers date.

She checked her
watch.

“He’ll be here,” Joyce
said.

Looking around the bar,
Eddie saw her father sitting at a long table with his Chamber of
Commerce buddies. Then she spotted her brothers. She did a head
count. They were all there, but had they been there all along?
“This is crazy. I’m picturing Theo all bloodied and bruised, face
down in the alley. I need a distraction—”

Helena rushed up to the
bar, her face drained of all color, her lips trembling. She
gestured with her hands as if trying to say something, and then she
gasped.

“Take a deep breath,”
Eddie suggested.

Helena nodded.
“Something’s happened.” Her eyes welled up. “Sophie. Sophie just
got a phone call. He’s gone. He’s skipped out on her. The wedding’s
off.”

What? No. Crap. Eddie
had wanted a distraction but not at Sophie’s expense.

Joyce jumped to her
feet.

“She’s outside and
wants to go home, but I’ve been drinking and—”

“Say no more, I’ll
drive.” Eddie signaled to her brother Mitch. “You have to take
over,” she said when he came up. “It’s an emergency. Tell Theo…”
She grabbed her car keys and jacket and with Joyce and Helena in
tow, took off. Outside the pub, they found Sophie holding her
stomach and crouching on the ground.

“I don’t understand,”
Sophie said.

Eddie knelt beside her.
“We’ll get to the bottom of this.”

Sophie held her phone
up. “He called.” Her voice sounded distant. “He eloped. All this
time there was someone else… someone he met in Melbourne. All those
business trips...”

* * *

It was late afternoon
the next day when Eddie finally returned to the pub. Sophie had
been inconsolable. They’d all stayed with her, comforting her,
trying to get their heads around the happiest couple they’d ever
seen actually breaking up. When she’d left, Sophie had still been
in a state of shock. It would probably take her days... months to
accept the reality she’d been forced to face.

Hell, Eddie didn’t
believe it.

What chance did anyone
have of finding a happy-ever-after if two people who’d known each
other all their lives, who’d appeared to be so much in love, didn’t
even make it to the altar? Ditched, two weeks before the wedding.
All the invitations had gone out, the venue had been booked months
ago, the dress...

Eddie scooped in a big
breath and strode into The Gloriana. She wasn’t due to start her
shift until later that afternoon. After the night she’d had, she
focused on dragging herself upstairs and straight into a hot tub to
wash away the layer of misery that had clung to her all night.

“Hey, Eddie,” her
brother Matthew called out from the end of the bar, “We were
starting to worry.”

Mitch emerged from the
kitchen carrying a plate stacked full of food, clearly his late
lunch. Eddie made a grab for the fries but he held the plate just
out of reach.

“Hey, go easy on me,
I’ve had a rough night.”

Mitch grinned. “Yeah,
okay. So how’s Sophie?”

She gave both Matthew
and Mitch a brief rundown, sparing them the gory details of tears,
sobbing and the resulting puffy eyes—the sort of information that
would have them switching right off. But then they surprised her by
hugging her.

“You’re suffocating
me.”

“You can pretend all
you like.” Matthew gave her shoulder a tight squeeze. We want you
to know we’re here for you, and if you have any questions, don’t be
shy about asking. We know you girls sometimes struggle to
understand how our superior brains work—”

“You should talk to
Theo,” Mitch said butting in. “We do a good job hiding it, but guys
are sensitive too.”

“Whose side are you
on?” Matthew asked Mitch.

“Okay, you’re scaring
me. I’ve no idea what you’re talking about. Explain yourselves.”
She watched them exchange a look that she knew spelled trouble.

Mitch shrugged. “You
stood him up last night and—”

“I did no such
thing.”

“He hung around the bar
until midnight waiting for you.”

A quiver of panic ran
down her spine. “Tell me you explained why I left in such a hurry.”
She dug inside her back pocket and pulled out her cell phone. There
weren’t any messages.

Matthew shook his head.
“We chose to serve a higher purpose. Here’s the thing. If you want
a guy, you can’t offer yourself up on a platter to him. You have to
make him work for it.”

“You didn’t tell
him.”

“We were about to, but
then he beat Mitch at pool.”

Mitch grumbled. “That’s
too much information.”

“What did I say about
you interfering in my life?” She swung away from them and ran up
the stairs to her private apartment. Slamming the door shut behind
her, she leaned against it, her gaze landing on a burst of
yellow.

More tulips?

Her eyes narrowed, as
if not quite trusting what she was seeing. She strode up to the
coffee table, her steps wary, measured, and plucked the card
nestled among the blooms, half expecting to read some sort of
goodbye message.

“His initials?” She
flipped the card over. Nothing. Pulling out her phone, she dialed
Mitch’s number. “I don’t want to talk to you, so just listen,” she
told her brother. “If a man wants to say goodbye, what would he
write on a card?”

“So long, and thanks
for all the fish.”

“Mitch, you’re already
on shaky ground. Be serious.”

“I am. It’s a quote
from
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
. When the
dolphins leave Planet Earth just before it’s demolished to make way
for a hyperspace bypass—”

She hung up, and then
dialed Matthew’s number.

“Eddie, come down and
talk to us.”

“Answer the
question.”

“If I wanted to say
goodbye, I wouldn’t send flowers.”

She hung up, and
grabbing hold of the tulips, she went into the bathroom. All the
worst-case scenarios taking shape in her mind settled down as soon
as she sunk into a steaming hot bath. She sat there, every now and
then peering up at the flowers. Then, with a burst of can-do
adrenaline, she tried calling Theo but only got as far as his
voicemail.

Just as she was about
to throw in the towel, the phone rang. Eddie nearly flung herself
out of the bathtub trying to get to her phone. When she answered,
her voice sounded husky and out of breath.

“I’m in Melbourne,”
Theo said.

He’d left? Was he
coming back?

“Hang on,” Theo said,
his voice distracted.

Eddie surged out of the
tub and grabbing a towel, she sat on the floor, her teeth starting
to chatter.

“I missed you last
night,” he said.

“Um, something
happened. Sorry. I had to rush out.”