The Risk: A Billionaire Romance (Wagered Hearts Series, Book 2) (14 page)

“You seem to know an awful lot about their schedule. Have you been keeping tabs on them?” I joked, but I was actually thankful Roman had dropped that little piece of information. I’d been trying to think of ways to see Mel again and running into her at the restaurant was the perfect opportunity.

“Hardly. Like I said, Lily and I don’t keep anything from each other.”

I shook my head in wonder, not for the first time, about the changes I’d noticed in Roman. If I didn’t know him as well as I did, I wouldn’t have noticed. From all outer appearances, he looked and acted the same as I’d always known him—cool, restrained, and always with an air of someone slightly bored, like he’d rather be elsewhere. But now that he was with Lily, there were times I thought I was talking to a complete stranger. Like the times he’d get a goofy smile on his face for no apparent reason.

I sat at my desk for several long moments after Roman left to contemplate everything we’d spoken about. Love certainly had a way of changing people. I thought back to the one time I thought I’d actually been in love and began to wonder if I wasn’t mistaken then. Maybe it wasn’t love at all, but just a young man’s infatuation?

Certainly, I never got that goofy grin on my face thinking of Kylie and I never had the desire to bare my soul to her or share all my secrets. Now that I thought about it, I had to admit that I wasn’t particularly heartbroken after we broke up. Angry and humiliated, yes, but never heartbroken. At the time, I thought it all went together, but now I could see there was a difference.

The realization didn’t come as a shock to me. It had been so gradual, I hadn’t even noticed. I couldn’t say one way or another if I was upset or relieved. There were so many years I had used the betrayal to fuel my success and drive. It stunned me that in the few short weeks that I had known Mel, I’d already felt for her more than I ever did for Kylie.

***

“Your sister’s here to see you.”

I don’t know how long I sat there lost in my thoughts. I pulled my gaze away from the swinging pendulum on my desk and lifted it up towards Natasha. She stood in front of me looking half annoyed and half worried. “I’ve been buzzing your phone for the past ten minutes. I told her you were in a meeting, but I don’t think she’ll wait outside any longer. Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” I answered. “I was just thinking.”

“So, should I send her away?” she asked, still eyeing me cautiously.

“No, send her in,” I said.

I wasn’t exactly looking forward to meeting with Helen. Lately, it seemed she only came to see me when she wanted something, but today the distraction would be welcome. Natasha walked out of my office in quick precise strides, and she looked back at me one last time before stepping out the door. Helen came walking in moments later, a look of displeasure on her face.

“What is it now, Helen?” I asked cutting to the chase.

Her face registered her surprise at my greeting. Maybe she thought I’d play along with her little charade today, but my patience was already on a thin line. She ignored my question as she slowly pulled out the chair in front of my desk that Roman had just vacated moments ago, and sat down on it primly. Once she had folded her hands over her lap, she looked up at me with wide innocent eyes that were all for show. I stifled an inner groan, wondering if I should have had Natasha send her away. This would be a long meeting.

“I heard you were in Vegas this weekend,” she began. I remained silent, waiting to see where she was taking this. “Why didn’t you ask me to go with you?”

“Why would I ask you to go?” I asked. “It was Roman’s bachelor party; you’d have been completely out of place there.”

“But I heard that woman and her friends and even Roman’s cousin Emma Benedict went along too!”

“Who told you that? Have you been spying on me?”

“Of course not! Now how come they got to go and I didn’t?”

“Because it was for that woman’s bachelorette party. Her name, by the way is Lily, and I’m sure even you know why you weren’t invited,” I snapped.

“That would be typical of her. I’m sure you footed the bill for everything and she didn’t even have the decency to invite your own sister.”

Helen had always been a little selfish and egotistical, thinking only of herself, but now she was being petty and mean and I couldn’t stand for it. “That’s enough Helen. How many times do I have to tell you Roman is never going to be with you. He wasn’t five years ago and he definitely isn’t interested now that he’s engaged.”

“Oh, I’m over Roman,” she said dismissively. “But he wasn’t the only one in Vegas last weekend. I know his cousins were there too.”

Her words froze me in my seat and I pinned Helen with a glare. “You need to get it through your head that’s never going to happen. They only tolerate you because you’re my sister, and then only barely. Stop obsessing about landing a rich husband or whatever it is you’re thinking about and move on with your life,” I said.

I hadn’t meant to sound so harsh, but once the words started to flow, it was hard to stop. It’d been building up for some time now and I wanted to leave Helen in no doubt about my disgust at her behavior.

I felt a little guilty afterward when I saw her polished façade crack a little and she looked devastated, but she got herself together so quickly, I thought I had imagined it.

“All right, Ryan. No need to get your panties in a twist. I promise I won’t even mention them to you anymore. There, are you happy?”

I wasn’t completely satisfied, but it would have to do. “So, tell me what’s been going on with you, little sis,” I said changing the subject.

At the mention of that, her face lit up, transforming it completely. I was a little taken aback by the sudden change, but glad to move on from talking about Roman.

“About that,” she began. “You know Emilia Holliday, right?”

I stared at her blankly trying to recall when I’d ever met someone by that name before. “Why don’t you remind me who she is?” I finally said.

“You honestly don’t know Emilia Holliday?” she asked staring me with her mouth agape. “The famous actress? She’s in those
Crystal Clementine
films.”

“Okay.” I still had no clue who she was talking about.

“Anyways, she’s filming a new movie in the Hamptons in a few weeks and I thought it’d be great if we could throw a little house party at the new place you bought there. It’d be a good way for me to network as well,” she added as an afterthought.

“All right,” I said.

“Really? Oh thank you, Ryan. I knew I could count on you,” she gushed, completely forgetting my earlier criticism. “I’m sure you’ll just love Emilia once you meet her. She’s just your type too—.”

“Don’t go getting ideas, Helen. I’m in no mood to be set up on a blind date,” I warned.

“It’s not a blind date, but I did tell her you’d escort me to the Vivienne Cabot launch party later this month. You will bring me won’t you?” she said, pleading with her eyes.

Maybe it was because I still felt bad for the harsh things I said to her, but I found myself agreeing to go along with her plans—first the house party and then the launch party. After all, it wasn’t too much to ask, I told myself. She was my sister and I did have a responsibility to look after her.

I held my tongue as I tried on yet another dark and somber silk taffeta gown. It was the third drab colored dress that I’d tried so far and we’d only been in the shop for less than an hour. I had to keep reminding myself that it was Lily’s wedding and if she wanted boring, lifeless bridesmaid’s dresses, then I’d support her. It was getting harder and harder to hold my tongue the more dresses I tried on, though.

It had always been a common point of contention with us. Where I preferred color and experimenting with different looks, Lily stuck to her more conservative style. It was either black, gray or beige with her. If she was feeling especially frisky, she might add a pop of royal blue or violet to her outfits, but for the most part, she was a monochromatic type of gal. She’d gotten a lot better with her wardrobe recently, and I even found myself envying some of her outfits, but today was not one of those days.

“Oh that’s nice,” she said as I stepped out of the dressing room and showed off the mud colored dress that did nothing to flatter my figure. It looked downright matronly with its conservative scoop neckline and capped sleeves embellished with pearls. Even Stella’s elegant and stately carriage wouldn’t be able to make this dress look good.

I felt a heavy responsibility to help Lily get the dress right since neither Candace nor Stella was here to help. Candace was assisting for a shoot down in Mexico and Stella had flown back to London, so it was up to me to make sure we didn’t look like total duds at the wedding.

The shop attendant busied herself with fluffing the sleeves and straightening the train at the back.
The dress had a train!

“What do you think?” Lily asked me.

I frowned at my reflection in the mirror. In the dressing room, I thought the dress looked ugly, but in the bright glare of the overhead lights, standing on the pedestal, it was even worse than I thought.

“Eh. It’s not my favorite,” I said tempering my words.

“Really?” Lily sounded surprised.

I looked at her sadly. This poor thing had no fashion sense and it was my duty as her maid of honor to steer her in the right direction, I realized. She might think she wanted boring and bland colors that didn’t stick out, but I knew better. After all, what good was it to work at a fashion magazine and not use that knowledge for good?

“Why don’t we look at some different colors?” I suggested. “Since it’s a summer wedding, I think some brighter, more vibrant colors would work better than these muted browns and grays and blacks.”

Without waiting for her reply, I stepped off the pedestal and walked towards a rack of deep purple and lilac colored frothy dresses and began looking them over. I had to wade through several before I found a style and color that would complement all of Lily’s bridesmaids, since we all had different coloring, from my red hair to Stella’s blond and Candace’s raven locks. Finally, I spotted a dusty violet chiffon gown. It was a strapless floor length dress that had a sweetheart neckline and a ruched bodice.

“This is the one,” I said pulling it out triumphantly.

Lily eyed it appraisingly, pinching the soft flowy fabric between her fingers and then holding it up to my neck as she tilted her head and looked. “My wedding planner would probably have a fit, but you’re right,” she said. “This dress is much better than the ones she had suggested.”

“That’s my girl,” I said. “This is a wedding after all, not a funeral. Besides, it’s your wedding so she’ll just have to deal with it.”

“Ha ha funny. You know, you’re really good at this,” she added after a short pause.

“What?”

“This,” she said waving her hand in the air in front of us. “You’ve got a knack for knowing what looks good.”

“Well, it is sort of my job,” I laughed.

She shot me a withering glare. “Don’t be fresh. You remember that red dress you wanted me to wear to that gala? And I thought you were out of your mind at the time?”

“Yeah, as I remember it, you changed your opinion once Roman got a glimpse of you,” I teased.

“That’s what I’m talking about. You’ve just got an eye for knowing what looks good on people. I seriously think you’re wasting your talents working for your mother,” Lily said.

I sighed and tried not to roll my eyes at her. It was a conversation we’d had many times before. Lily was always trying to get me to strike out on my own and “get out from under my mother’s thumb” as she would say. She thought the pressure of working for my mother was finally getting to me and affecting my mental wellbeing. While I appreciated her concern, I was starting to get just a little tired of her constant harping about the subject.

“Don’t look at me like that,” she said frowning at me. “I see that glazed over look in your eye like you’re trying to tune me out, but I’m being 100 percent serious here. You’ve got to start thinking about yourself. You have too much talent and potential to squander it hidden away at some back cubicle picking up dry cleaning and sorting out the samples,” she said.

“Have you and Candace been talking about me behind my back again?” I laughed nervously. I tried to brush off her words like I usually did, but she wasn’t so easily put off this time.

She waved aside my comment like an annoying gnat flying in front of her face. “When you’re not walking on eggshells around your mother, you really have this confidence and a sort of aura around you,” she continued.

“Er—thanks,” I said.

I didn’t know that I had been giving off that impression, and it startled me to realize that there was some truth to what Lily said, now that I actually stopped to consider her words.

“I mean, are you happy, Mel? No, don’t answer yet,” she said, holding up her hand. “Really think about it before you answer.”

I had been about to tell Lily that I was happy—my normal conditioned response, but her words gave me pause. It didn’t take much soul searching for me to realize that I wasn’t happy at my job. In fact, I hated it. I dreaded going in to work on Mondays and relished every minute away from the office.

There were aspects of the job that I did like. I genuinely liked some of the people I worked with, as well as helping with the photo shoots and overseeing our blog. The only downside, I realized with frightening clarity, was working for my mother. She was impossible to please and it felt like I was dodging bullets whenever I saw her. Our relationship as mother and daughter had never been close, but I felt like working for her had really strained it beyond enduring, at least for me.

“My life’s not perfect,” I finally said. I knew I was chickening out with that response and I didn’t know why I still couldn’t admit the truth to Lily.

“Neither is mine, but I’m happy,” she said.

“Yeah but you’ve got Roman,” I blurted. “I’m sorry, I don’t know why I said that.”

“No, don’t apologize,” Lily said. “It’s true, Roman does make me happy, but it’s more than that too. I’ve got a job that I love and that challenges me, and I’ve cut out people from my life who are toxic and energy drains. That gives me time to just focus on myself and I’m in a much better place than I was a year ago, even without Roman.”