The Life That Mattered (Life #1)(6)

“Um …” I glanced up at Ronin.

“Sounds good to me.”

Lila excelled at making me think I couldn’t find dates without her expert help. She was my pimp. Just when I thought I’d found a guy all on my own, she swooped in and arranged a date. Had I not been so elated, I might have been pissed off at her.

“Me too.” I smiled at Ronin.

“Great!” Lila tipped her chin up, her grin beaming with pride.

Yeah, yeah … you’re an awesome best friend.

“What time, babe?” She tugged on Graham’s arm to get his attention.

“Six.” He glanced at his watch.

“Where?” Ronin asked.

Lila gestured toward the hotel. “The steakhouse in the hotel. Graham says it’s phenomenal.”

“I’ll be back around six.” Ronin winked at me. “Have fun shopping.”

My eyes widened, smile embarrassingly too exuberant, as I held my breath to keep from squealing like a seventeen-year-old girl who just got asked to prom by the hottest guy in school.

“See you soon!” Lila waved as Ronin stepped to the curb and slid into the back of a taxi. “Breathe! Oh my god … breathe, Evie.” She pressed her hands to my face, eyes wide with excitement for me.

“Are we shopping, ladies? If not, I have business I can do.” Graham waited at the back of the black SUV with a driver holding open the door.

“Shopping, babe.” Lila took my hand and pulled me into the back of the vehicle.

Graham rolled his eyes at me as I bit back my smile.





CHAPTER TWO





“Whoa, Evie! You are hot!” Lila flipped her champagne blond hair over her bare shoulder, looking rather hot herself in a simple black cocktail dress.

Graham was … Graham. Always in an expensive, tailored suit and freshly gelled hair. That night he chose a basic black suit. What was wrong with the one he had on earlier?

“It’s not too much?” I wrinkled my nose.

“Yes. It’s too much.” Graham smirked. “I spent way too much money on it.”

“I didn’t ask you to buy it. You just like to throw around your money so the world feels indebted to you. I’m going to give the dress to Lila after tonight, so you’ll have one less thing to hold over my head.” I sashayed to the elevator, brushing my hands over my rhubarb V-neck wrap dress with kimono sleeves. The flowing material softened my teenage-boy figure. As we stepped onto the elevator, Graham eyed my hair.

Asshole.

“I feel like the bird’s nest is no longer the trend. Am I wrong?” He cocked his head to the side.

Lila elbowed him in the ribs. “It’s a messy bun, and it always looks good on Evie.”

Once.

I had sex with Graham once in the two weeks we dated—if you could call it dating. We were under the heavy influence of alcohol. Lila knew. Hell, I called her the second I left his apartment on campus. She responded with, “Eww … come home and shower right away.”

The flowers, jewelry, stolen poetry … all led up to a night of passionless sex. It felt like having sex with my best friend, and that felt wrong. We crossed a line because I had a vagina and he had a penis. Just because you can … doesn’t mean you should. Wise words I learned a little too late.

Many years separated us from that epic mistake. I knew he loved my best friend, and they had a strong physical chemistry. Still … Graham gave me the I’ve-seen-you-naked look like it was something to lord over me. Yes, he’d seen the goods. That didn’t give him the right to judge them for the rest of our lives.

“Oh my god! There he is,” Lila whispered when the elevator doors opened to the lobby just as Ronin strutted with jaw-dropping swagger toward the steakhouse.

“Oh my god? Clearly, I didn’t fuck you hard enough earlier,” Graham grumbled.

I grinned, biting my tongue. Fine. Graham had seen my goods, but his fiancée drooled over the goods of my date. That magically made up for the visions in Graham’s head that I would never be able to erase.

“Whoa …” Ronin stopped on a second glance in our direction. His head jerked back as an appreciative smile slid up his chiseled face. I felt a twinge of disappointment that he unknowingly submitted to Graham’s starchy dress code for the night by wearing a blue suit. However, his red tie damn near matched my dress and that thrilled me.

Don’t get me wrong; he was hot as fuck, just like the look he gave me as we stepped off the elevator.

“Evelyn…” his gaze swept along my entire body, more than once “…you look incredible.” He held out his hand to take mine.

Okay … this is happening.

Seven hours earlier, I had met this stranger who looked like he had just stepped off an international modeling stage, and in a blink of time, he wore a suit and a grin that dirtied my thoughts.

Graham offered Lila his arm like she was lucky to be on it, also, so he could use his hands for texting. “Good to see you again.” My starchy Graham Cracker nodded at Ronin just before leading us to the restaurant. He earned more points for treating my date with a lot more respect than he gave me most days.

I received points because Lila was so enamored with my date that she couldn’t even articulate a greeting beyond a dreamy smile and some drool.