“I think we should have dinner with him. Fifteen years is a long time.”
“It is. It’s a long freaking time for him to have never called.”
Ouch. He deserved that.
“Maybe he had a good reason.” Looked like Nico still saw the good in people.
“How is it so easy for you to forgive him for what he did?” she blasted.
Nico’s voice rang with sympathy when he said, “Because he didn’t do anything to me, Stevie. We had one night together. You were the one datin’ him. He didn’t owe me anything.”
“He didn’t owe me anything either,” Stevie countered.
Yes, I did, Stone thought.I owed you the truth. You deserved at least that much.
“I thinkyoushould have dinner with him,” Stevie said. “Maybe y’all can find some common ground. Maybe even find what you had with him back then.”
Was Nico interested in what they had back then? As in one night, no holds barred? Or would he be open to something more?
“Stevie, it’s dinner,” Nico huffed. “Nothin’ more.”
“You don’t know that.”
Yeah. You don’t know that.
“I do. But if you’re not goin’, I’m not goin’.”
Well, hell.
Stone heard the faint sound of movement, and instinct told him he needed to hustle out of the way because someone was coming. But he didn’t back away from the door. He wanted to hear more. He wanted to hear them change their minds. He didn’t know why he cared so damn much, but he did. Seeing them again … Stone wanted a chance to catch up. He wasn’t expecting anything other than dinner and some conversation. Maybe some laughs tossed in.
Liar.
Fine. He washopingfor more, but he had no expectations. After all, it had been fifteen years since he’d seen them. All three of them had changed over the course of that time. Stone wasn’t sure he would have anything in common with them anymore.
“Let me know when you’re ready to go,” Nico said. “If the weather gets bad, I’ll drive.”
Stone stepped back because Nico’s voice came from just on the other side of the door.
And then it opened, and there he was.
Stone instantly held up the check. “Here.”
“Hey,” Nico greeted, taking a step back, his forehead creased with his surprise.
Stone peered around him to see Stevie sitting at a desk, her eyes wide.
“It’s a check,” he explained. “My mother asked me to drop it off.”
“She could’ve paid online,” Stevie stated.
Of course she could. Not only had she set him up, but now he looked like a fucking moron.
“You could’ve given it to Tara,” Nico told him.
Stone glanced at the empty reception desk, assuming that was where Tara belonged. Nico peeked out of the office.
“Ah.” He looked at Stevie. “You know where she went?”
