Page 40 of Nigel

They wereentertaining and he had decided to spend the night. They could takein a Broadway show and have dinner in a restaurant he was thinking ofacquiring. Two birds, one stone.

And he would try andget some sleep. He had reached for the phone several times to callher but had decided against it. He was not going to give her any morepower over him. She had hurt him with words and had rejected him. Hewould leave her be for now.

His emotions were tooraw and he was bleeding from cuts and bruises no one could see andwas cursing himself for this predilection of falling so hard andfast. He was not a wide-eyed schoolboy but he had behaved just likethat.

Perhaps he should begrateful that she had cried pause or he would have been making aneven bigger fool of himself by proposing to her. He had been on theverge of doing just that. Fool that he was.

*****

"Earth to Ava."Her brother tapped his fingers on her forehead to get her attention."Where the hell are you?"

"Nowhere."She forced a smile. It had been almost two weeks since she had seenhim or heard from him and she was not even close to getting him outof her head. She had seen photos of him on the internet, on the jobsite of the hotel he was renovating and felt the pain sizzling insideher heart. "I am happy you and Dahlia worked things out."

They were having afamily dinner at Lionel's elegant apartment and were on the patio.The others were busy having a heated conversation about some baseballlegend or the other and she had taken the opportunity to slip away byherself. She should have known he would come over.

"Yeah. Anotherchild on the way and Chloe is a teenager. It's weird."

"But you arehappy." She had a can of beer in her hand that had not beentouched.

"We are. Happyand scared." He turned to face her. "You are not."

"I am justtired. Things have been hectic. The summer has started and I am inthe process of getting an investor on board-"

"It's not that.You love the job and the challenges it poses. This is personal. Whathappened with the guy?"

"It's over."

He frowned at her."He dumped you?"

A smile touched herlips. "I was the one who did the dumping."

"He was a jerk."

"Far from it. Hewas- God!" She put the beer on the table and rubbed her handstogether. "He said he was falling in love with me."

"That son of abitch. Want me to find him and beat him up?"

She gave him a dirtylook. "You are a riot. I could not take the chance of it notworking out. He would have discovered sooner or later that we werenot suited."

"So, you madethe preemptive strike. Got rid of him, before that happened. I neverknew you were psychic."

"You are beingan asshole."

"I am being thevoice of reason. Who the hell is this guy?"

"NigelHawthorne."

His eyes widened."Super-rich dude with the magic designs. Wow! You go big."

"So, you see whyit would not have worked. I am not his type and he can more or lessget any woman he wants. I had to do it."

"What did youdo, exactly?"

"I told him Ineeded time. And that he made a mistake. He could not be in love withme. That's ridiculous."

"You crushedhim."

She looked away fromhim and felt the familiar pain inside her head. She was unable tosleep, damn him. She was unable to concentrate on work or anythingelse for that matter.