“I wish,” Noah chuckled. “I miss her insightfulcomments.”
“She misses youtoo.”
Noah’s hand clamped around Tristan’s shoulder. “I guess what I’m trying to say here is that life is too short. You’ve already spent fifteen years pretending you moved on, when you clearlyhaven’t.”
“You think I haven’t gotten over Izzie because I didn’t settle down? That’s not true. I had made peace with the past. I was fine until shereappeared.”
“If you had made peace with the past, you wouldn’t be hurting the way you arenow.”
Damn the man. Now he’s quoting Bruna. What thefuck?
Tristan shook his head. “You’re wrong,” he insisted, lessvehemently.
“You know I’m right. You owe it to yourself to set the record straight. That’s the only way you will make peace with the past. You should give Izzie a chance totalk.”
“When hell freezes over, I’ll think about it.” Tristan stood and left the living room, without so much as a glance Noah’sway.
He didn’t want to see his friend’s smugexpression.
Knowing Noah was right didn’t make it easy for Tristan to acceptit.
9
Izzie
Blowingout air a couple of times, Izzie rang the doorbell. She swallowed hard to make sure her heart wouldn’t climb out of her chest when the faint thud of barefoot steps on a wooden floor got closer. She held her breath when Tristan yanked the door open and glowered ather.
“I wasn’t going to open it, but I figured if you went to the trouble of convincing my mom to give you the access code to the penthouse elevator, you might even camp outside the door or something equally stupid.” He blocked the way, which forced Izzie to remain in thehall.
Craning her neck to make up for their considerable difference in height, and accepting the challenge in his defiant stare, she countered, “I didn’t twist her arm to get it. Truth is, Lil volunteered the information when I mentioned her blockhead of a son wasn’t picking up my calls or returning my messages. It’s been over two weeks, dude. Can we please act like the adults that weare?”
An angry flare lit up his blue eyes, then was gone. His animosity deflated, it left Izzie with an odd taste in her mouth. Not a bad one, though. She had come prepared to wrestle the proverbial bull by its horns and the sudden change in Tristan’s mood was as unexpected as it waswelcomed.
Half the butterflies in her stomach dropped dead. The others were alive and well and making her queasy each time her eyes swept over his broad bare chest, which Izzie tried her best toignore.
Not an easy task with his taut nipples right in her line of sight, taunting her. She bit the inside of her mouth to avoid gliding her tongue on her lowerlip.
Mouthwateringsight.
Tristan twisted his towering frame to the left and gestured for her to step in. As she found her way to the seating area, his deep voice followed close behind her. “Honestly, I’m just tired of running around in circles, or trying to convince myself you’ll drop the bone,” he muttered, his tone, drab. Izzie would take dull over surlyanytime.
Glancing around the spacious room, she rapidly identified which objects belonged to Tristan and which were Noah’s, since the former tended to become a neat freak when stressed. As if proving her point, Tristan rearranged a pair of brocade cushions three times before sitting on a chair facing the couch, where Izzie perched. She was too tense to enjoy a magnificent view of the shimmering waters of the North Bay, or Baía Norte as the locals calledit.
“Okay, I’ll cut to the chase. You’re right, I’m not going anywhere until you hear me out. I came to Brazil because I need your help, but first I owe you the truth. I lied to you,” Izzieblurted.
That piqued his interest. “You mean other than before I caught you and Mark?” His eyes searched her face, but he didn’t offer anything other than an archedeyebrow.
“Afterthat.”
He blew out a heavy breath. “Izzie, I mean it. I’m tired. I don’t want to play your little guessing games. They were annoying when we were young, they’re pointless now. What are yousaying?”
He wasright.
Again.
Every time she got insecure, she tended to stall, and that drove people crazy. They thought she did it on purpose, the telling stories in installments thing she did. Truth of the matter was that, most of the time, she was too nervous. Like rightnow.
The moment she dreaded and anticipated in equal parts facing her, Izzie eyed Tristan as she smoothed nonexistent wrinkles on herkhakis.
