Page 16 of Newly Tied

“Yes, you do. You always do.”

And sadly, I did, but not for the reason he thought. I kept a list of his romantic failures because I loved that no one stuck. I didn’t want him to find anyone special because, even though the man was straight as an arrow, I was helplessly hoping that one of these days he’d suddenly be caught up staring at me and say, “Oh, Del, it was you all along.”

Yes, it was stupid. And sad. But no man I’d ever hooked up with, not even the hottest, most beautiful ones, could hold a candle to my partner. The smile and the way he moved, like he was boneless, all liquid, sensual heat, and how he held me when I got lost in my head, and how nothing I ever did went unnoticed…it was all a bit too much not to yearn for in my secret heart. It was possibly, probably, more than likely, a doomed desire, but my heart was incorrigible where he was concerned, and its sole purpose seemed to be beating for Langston Ross. It began the day he ran after me in the rain, and I couldn’t imagine it ever changing.

“Well?” he pressed me.

“The flight attendant from when we flew that lovely witness to Baltimore,” I told him. “She chatted you up on the return trip.”

“Oh yeah,” he said, smiling, then to his sister, “It turned out I’d dated her roommate, so really, that one never stood a chance.”

“My brain is going to explode,” Talia announced.

“We went back to her place after dinner, and her roommate was there, and she thought I had come by to talk or apologize for blowing her off, and…it was a mess.”

“She threw a plant at him,” I chimed in. “It’s the pothos in your mother’s kitchen. He carried it home and repotted it.”

She looked from Lang to me, then back to Lang. “One of these days you’re going to want someone desperately, and you better hope all this karma doesn’t come back to haunt you.”

“What karma?” He shook his head at her. “Everyone knows from the start that I am not looking for anything serious. I simply want to have fun.”

“But the problem is you’re very charming, not horrible-looking⁠—”

“I’m sorry, what?”

He was gorgeous, no debate there. Everyone clocked him, men, women—it was impossible not to. The man could light up a room with his smile and his laugh. And yes, I had it bad, but it was the truth.

“And they want to keep you,” Talia continued. “I can’t tell you how many calls I’ve gotten over the years from women you’ve dated.”

I grunted.

“See? Del’s only known you for six months, and he gets calls too.”

“I do get the calls,” I agreed with her.

She shot Lang a very judgmental look.

“Well, I’m sorry to both of you, but really, it’s your own fault.”

“How is it our fault?” Her voice was rising.

“Don’t give out your numbers. That’ll solve the problem.”

“Maybe you should stop your serial dating until you figure out what you really want,” she suggested.

He shook his head. “No. I’ll know it when I see it.”

“I give up,” she told me instead of him.

“It’s probably for the best,” I concurred.

I was chuckling as I changed my clothes, thinking about Talia giving her brother crap, when my phone rang and it was her.

“That’s weird,” I told her.

“What’s weird?”

“I was just now thinkin’ ’bout ya.”