smelled good. He always smelled good.
We sat in silence for a while until Adam said, “Just so you know, I barely remember what
I did with the catering girl. And I had no idea I said that to you at your party—calling you
beautiful and telling you I worried all the time about you. Fucking mixed signals. I was pretty drunk that night.”
“I know. But in the end you were right about Liam. He ended up cheating on me with
Allie.”
Adam tensed. “That’s why you stopped talking to Allie? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because you would have beaten the shit out of Liam.”
“True.”
I snorted. “Always fighting my battles for me.”
“With you, baby. With you, not for you.”
Liking that a lot, I turned my head and kissed him, loving the now familiar press of his
mouth against mine. I pulled back and cocked my head in thought. “I thought the year you
started to see me differently was the one after my eighteenth.”
“The one after…?” Adam’s eyebrows drew together in thought for a minute and then
instantly cleared as he remembered. “The almost kiss.”
While he’d been reading the last entry, I’d found the entry I’d expected him to allude to as
to the moment he started to see me as more than Braden’s little sister. I held the diary out to him and he took it with a small smile as the memories flooded him.
Friday, July 5th
Tonight I had my first truly grown-up, sophisticated and, well, HOT, date. I’m just not
sure who I had it with…
As Christian helped me out of the taxi I had to wonder if this was going to be “it”.
Christian was handsome, charming, a total gentleman and he had class. He had yet to make
me laugh but I was sure that would come as we became more comfortable with one another.
He smiled at me again as I pushed the hem of my black dress back down. It had shimmied
up while I was sitting in the taxi. “You look stunning.”
I flushed. When he looked at me like that I felt stunning. I was wearing a plain black
sleeveless dress that should have been somewhat modest considering its high neckline and
mid-thigh hemline. However, the dress hugged every inch of my body leaving little to the
imagination. It was a sophisticated dress with a splash of “hot”.
I’d bought it earlier that day specifically for Christian.
We’d met a week ago in the student union. Christian was pre-law, two years older than me
and from an obviously wealthy and well-to-do family. They had an actual “estate” in the
highlands. That had nothing to do with what attracted me to him of course. I was attracted to
him and how he’d acted upon our first meeting— with a fresh and open honesty that really
appealed to me. It made me feel like I could be just as open with him. It made me feel like I
could be myself.
Christian had told me that although his family had the estate, they also had a home in
Corstorphine, a busy suburb out in the west of the city. His parents had bought it when his
sister had moved to Edinburgh and started popping out children. She was pregnant with her
third and the entire family was living in Edinburgh to be closer to her. I thought that spoke
volumes about them and was more than a little excited to meet them already.
To my delight, Christian had booked us a table at La Cour for our first date. I didn’t even
get a chance to tell him it was Braden’s restaurant. He inherited it from our father. As we
entered I opened my mouth to tell him but Christian started speaking about the menu and
what he thought I should order. I was going to tell him I knew what I wanted to order, since
I’d eaten at La Cour more times than I could count, when I heard Adam call my name.
Christian and I drew to a halt as the maitre’d led us to our table, and I turned my head to
see Adam sitting in the center of the restaurant across a small table from a gorgeous brunette.
I ignored the flare of jealousy, squashing it, and reminded myself I was on a date with a
fabulous man, and that the gorgeous brunette was just one of many sexual partners for Adam.
He was a manwhore.
But he was my manwhore, and I couldn’t help but walk over to him, Christian at my side, with a huge smile on my face, because as always I was delighted to see him.
Adam grinned up at me, his smile dimming slightly as his gaze flickered to Christian. He
gave Christian a once over and then turned those beautiful eyes of his back on me. He
perused me with a small smile and when his eyes hit mine they were full of tenderness. “You
look absolutely stunning, Els.”
I didn’t just flush at his compliment, I burned. “Thank you,” I murmured and then gave his
date a polite smile. “Hullo.”
She glared at me.
Oh well.
“Adam, this is Christian.”
Adam gave Christian a taut nod and then flicked his hand to his date. “This is Megan.”
“It’s Meagan,” she corrected him waspishly, pronouncing it like ‘mee-gan’ instead of
‘meh-gan’.
I saw Adam stifle a long-suffering sigh. Uh oh. His date obviously wasn’t going well.
“We better get to our table.” Christian gently pulled on my elbow.
I gave Adam another smile. “Enjoy your evening.”
“You too, sweetheart.” I moved to follow Christian but had only taken a step to walk away
when I felt a tug on the hem of my dress. I glanced down, frowning, and watched Adam pull
off the price tag. I blushed as he winked at me.
I closed my eyes briefly. I’d left the price tag on. I was always doing stuff like that. God, I hoped Christian hadn’t seen it. Opening my eyes I deliberately ignored Adam’s date and
mouthed a heartfelt “thank you”. He grinned at me and I smothered a laugh at myself before
hurrying to catch up with Christian at our table across the room.
“Who was that?” Christian asked casually as we were seated.
“My brother’s best friend,” I replied equally casually. “We grew up together.”
Christian nodded and then ordered us white wine. I preferred red.
We chatted as we waited for the waiter to return, and Christian told me all about a charity
he was organizing. He stopped talking when the waiter came back and he began to order my
food for me. Deciding to think this was charming rather than overbearing I informed him this
was my brother’s restaurant and that I knew what I wanted. He was impressed that Braden
owned La Cour and for five minutes I told him about Braden’s other businesses.
After that we were back onto Christian.
By the time the second course arrived, my hope for this being “it” was diminishing
rapidly. Not once did my date appear to take any real interest in me, and the more I realized
how self-absorbed he was, the more aware I became of Adam sitting across the room from
me. Adam whose eyes glittered with interest every time I opened my mouth.
I had just picked up my fork to take a bite of my steak when a phone rang. Debussy.
Really? Even his ringtone was pretentious.
Yes, by this point the shine had definitely worn off.
Christian pulled the phone out of his pocket and answered it, his eyes going wide. “I’ll be
right there.” He put the phone back in his pocket and stood up.
I stared up at him in absolute shock. Was he about to leave me here? In the middle of a
date?
“My sister just went into labor,” he explained, and I watched as he threw a wad of cash on
the table. “Stay, finish your meal.” He leaned down and pecked my cheek. “I’ll call you.”
And then he was gone.
I couldn’t exactly hate him because he’d abandoned me on our first date to go be by his
pregnant sister’s bedside. At that thought I slumped against my chair. Christian was
obviously a good person. He just also happened to be incredibly self-involved. It occurred to