Sydney didn’t seem to have the same concern. “I can sleep on the plane. Honestly, I can sleep anywhere. It’s a talent.”
“One of many you seem to possess.” Reese chided herself for what she had to accept was a flirty tone. Where had that come from? No one would ever accuse Reese Devereaux of beingflirty. Practical, yes. Dedicated, sure. Flirty? It was incongruent with who she was as a person, but she watched as Sydney’s brows lifted anyway, her lips teasing into a grin of their own.
“We never finished our conversation,” Sydney said, stepping forward so they stood directly facing one another.
Awareness skittered across Reese’s skin. “About what?”
Sydney’s eyes were laser-focused on Reese. “On the tennis court, we had what I would call amoment,” she said, enunciating the word before adding, “And then again in the dressing room. I’m just trying to figure out before I leave for a week and spin myself around in circles whether I was mistaken or not.”
No one would ever argue that Sydney King was not forthright, and Reese was both turned on and intimated in equal measures.
Heat, and not from the balm of a warm summer night, spread across her skin, her spine tingling as Sydney continued to look at her intently.
Reese cleared her throat to buy herself a few useless seconds. Of course she was attracted to Sydney. Anyone with a pulse would be. Standing in front of Reese, dressed in a loose button-down that exposed her clavicle, tanned skin contrasting with the bright white of the fabric, Reese felt her resolve waning by the second.
Megan floated through her mind, not as a reminder of something she missed but as part of a realization that her feelings for Sydney were oh so different.
She and Megan had made sense. Two halves of a whole in how they’d run Checked. Comfortable together, even at the beginning.
Sydney was nothing like that. She was vibrant and fiery one moment, then soft and guileless the next. She was consistent in her support and attention, but she constantly kept Reese on hertoes. There was raw attraction, something that had never kept her awake at night with Megan.
If Megan could hurt Reese so badly, what could someone like Sydney King do to her?
That was the real question, and it made Reese stay rooted in place, finding it impossible to close the slight distance between them.
Sydney held her hands in front of her, palms facing outward. “I’m not saying we need to do anything about it. I just need to know, for myself, whether it’s all been part of the show for you. I haven’t had the best track record this last year of knowing where people really stand,” Sydney said with a self-deprecating smile.
“I got out of a bad breakup about five months ago,” Reese said before she’d realized the words were coming out of her mouth. She found that she liked it, being honest with Sydney like she had last weekend, so she kept going. “We were business partners. We started Checked together in our last year of business school. I always thought that, even in spite of our differences, we were on the same page. That we wanted to see where the software could go.”
“Sounds like you weren’t?” Sydney asked tentatively, giving Reese physical space as she continued to stand still.
“Together, we had a majority share, so I never worried about the software being sold. But she sided with the board, and together, they had the shares to accept the offer from a larger competitor.”
Sydney’s whole face softened, her brows knitted in clear sympathy. “That sounds awful. Feeling betrayed by someone who was both your business partner and your girlfriend.”
“I didn’t realize she was going through with it until we were sitting in the board meeting and she cast her vote. Ifeltblindsided, but that was my fault. I knew she wanted to sell. Take the money and run. It’s the dream in a start-up scenario, to be acquired once you build a great product.”
“But you didn’t want that.”
“It’s stupid,” Reese said, running her hand through her hair. God, she must look like a mess.
Sydney took the smallest step forward. “I don’t think it’s stupid, if it’s important to you.”
“Ilikedwhat we were building. I didn’t see the company as a means to an end, which maybe is silly given the industry I’m in.Wasin. I wasn’t ready to give it up, and I don’t know why, but I thought that Megan would back me; it’s not like we needed the money. We drew salaries from the company like employees. It could have really been something.” Reese sighed, acceptance washing over her. “And now, I’ll never know.”
Sydney nodded, absorbing Reese’s words seriously. “It’s a hard thing to come back from, learning to trust people again.”
“You seem to be doing okay with it,” Reese countered, genuinely curious to know how Sydney managed it.
Sydney laughed then, running one of her hands against the back of her neck. “After Grant, I threw myself into tennis, and we all know how well that went. After tennis, I gave myself a few weeks to wallow, but I’m just not a pessimistic person by nature. I can be avoidant sometimes, sure, but I have parents who love me. I have a best friend who’d do anything for me. I’m lucky. And I don’t ever want to stop thinking of myself that way.
“I was devastated by having to retire from the tour, but I have to believe that there’s life after this. That it’s amazing when things work out the way we want, but it can also be incredible when we have to chart new paths. I mean, otherwise, I wouldn’t have ended up fake-dating my ex-boyfriend’s sister. That’ll be a story to tell the grandkids one day,” Sydney finished with a wry, tentative smile.
“I’m not really sure what I can offer you,” Reese said honestly. “Definitely not a better outlook on life than the one you already have.”
Sydney took another small step forward then, grabbing Reese’s hand with her own. “Ilikeyou. I think you’re smart and interesting and brave and have done a whole hell of a lot in yourlife without very much support from the people who should have given it to you.” Sydney’s lips twitched. “And I think you’re beautiful. That doesn’t hurt either.”
“You really know how to compliment a girl,” Reese said lamely, still trying to catalog all of the things Sydney had said about her.
