Page 3 of See You Maybe

Look at me, Olivia silently implored him. Her pulse jack-rabbited as she anticipated his reaction. He had to know she was here. Declan would have done the same due diligence on Armstrong as they had done on Bloom Capital.

Her picture was on the website…

Would he want to talk afterward? Maybe get a drink? Was he single?

The blogs referred to him as a bachelor, and Olivia hadn’t seen a picture of him recently with one of the models normally on his arm… She’d checked.

Declan’s violet gaze met Richard’s, and his lips lifted in a cool smile. “I apologize. A family emergency popped up. I’m sure you understand.”

“Of course,” Richard agreed. “Thank you for hosting us here today. We’re looking forward to sharing a full picture of Armstrong Electronics’ capabilities and exploring how we can move forward in partnership.”

Declan nodded.

Anxiety threatened to make her squirm, but Olivia curled her toes inside her heels, reminding herself to stay still.

Richard continued, “Let me introduce my team.”

Olivia straightened, her eyes on Declan.

This is it. He will hear my name, look at me and…

Olivia’s heart fell to her feet when not even a flicker of recognition crossed his face as her name was announced. Declan simply rested the same vaguely uninterested gaze on her as he had when it was Stuart’s turn.

The voices continued as Bloom Capital’s acquisition team was introduced, but Olivia was having a hard time breathing. Raw pain speared through her chest, and her blood thumped through her veins so hard she felt light-headed.

Declan was the love of her life, and he didn’t remember her.

CHAPTER TWO

Atlanta—Present Day

Declan had steeled himself for this moment, but nothing could have prepared him for how it felt to have her standing in front of him again. She was thinner, too thin, and the dark circles under her sapphire eyes spoke to long hours. Her dark hair was shorter, but the shiny waves were as beautiful as he remembered. Declan’s fingers twitched. He imagined the strands would still be as soft and rose-scented as they had been the last time he ran his fingers through them.

Four years ago, when he was still CEO of Bloom Communications, Declan heard rumors of a lightning-fast microprocessor being developed by a small electronics company in Atlanta. The company didn’t have a prototype yet, but he’d put them on his radar. A processer as fast as the company promised would make the streaming services that the Bloom Communications’ Digital Media Division sold the best in the industry.

For a moment, when he’d opened the dossier his team had compiled on the key stakeholders at Armstrong Electronics, Declan thought he was hallucinating. He opened dozens of these folders a week—a perfectly ordinary action that rocked him to his core in seconds.

Her first name was different, but the wide smile and mesmerizing eyes, looking up at him from a nondescript vanilla file folder, were the same. Eyes he’d last seen swimming with tears in the crowded Shannon airport.

“’Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, but bears it out even to the edge of doom,’” she quoted the passage to him with a watery smile.

“Sonnets? Have you given up on the Romantics?” he teased. Declan tucked Rose’s dark hair behind her ears, unable to resist the urge to touch her one last time.

“I don’t want to say goodbye,” she choked out.

His eyes stung and the bridge of his nose prickled. Neither do I. “How about ‘See You?’” he joked, trying to resist the impulse to grab her hand and run back to the rental car.

Her lips twisted in an attempt to smile even as tears slipped over her cheeks. “Maybe.”

His Rose.

But Rose wasn’t her name. Not her first name anyway.

Olivia Rose Adler.

After the initial shock, Declan was amused to discover she hadn’t been completely honest with him either. Even with a false name, Declan could have found her at any time over the years. He hadn’t tried. Couldn’t let himself even entertain the thought because that way only led to pain—the what ifs and the maybe somedays…

There was no place in his life for someone like her. She deserved better.