His chest tightened at the memory of Sam disappearing through that door. The way she hadn’t even turned around when he’d told her he loved her.
But he didn’t blame her. He’d lied to her about buying the bar—why would she believe his declaration of love? Hell, he didn’t quite believe it either. He’d lived the casual life for so long that he hadn’t thought it possible to want to settle down. Relationships had never interested him. Being with one woman for the rest of his life? The notion used to be as appealing as having his back waxed.
Now it was all he thought about.
“I assume you know who owns this,” Brad said, passing the necklace over.
Riley curled his fingers over the delicate chain. “Yeah, I know the owner.”
Amusement danced in the other man’s eyes. “Girlfriend?”
He swallowed hard. “Something like that.”
“Well, make sure the little lady gets it. You know how women are about their jewelry.” Smiling, Brad headed for the door, stepping over a pile of two-by-fours on the way. “See you tomorrow, boss.”
After the foreman left, Riley stared down at the necklace again. Make sure the little lady gets it. Yeah, he really should return this to Sam. It was her mother’s, and she would definitely want it back.
For a moment, he contemplated calling Jane or Callie, and giving the necklace to one of them. Or he could get the address of Sam’s sister and ship it to New York. Or…
Or he could do what he should have done three weeks ago and hop on the first flight to New York to make things right with Sam.
He looked at the chain again then glanced around the messy, half-renovated bar.
And just like that, he knew exactly what he needed to do.
After three weeks of sleeping on her older sister’s couch and pounding the pavement looking for work, Sam decided life would probably be a hell of a lot easier if she could simply get Riley Scott out of her mind, but so far she hadn’t quite figured out how to exorcise him from her heart.
Since she’d been gone, she hadn’t heard a word from him. Jane had told her the Diamond was undergoing some massive renovations and that she’d seen Riley at the site a couple of times. Apparently he’d asked about her. He’d just never called her.
Well, that’s what happened when you fucked male sluts.
Standing by the living room window of her sister’s walk-up apartment, Sam sipped her coffee and stared at the lights in the distance. It was nearly nine o’clock on a Wednesday, but the city seemed completely alive to her. The sound of car horns filled the air and the street below was littered with people rushing by. Sighing, she drifted into her sister’s tiny kitchen and rinsed out her mug under the sink faucet. At the sound of the telephone ring, she quickly dried her hands on a dishrag and grabbed the cordless phone on the narrow counter.
“Hello?”
“Hey, it’s me.”
Her eyes widened. “Riley?”
“You still recognize my voice. That’s a good sign.” There was a pause. “So are you going to buzz me up or what?”
“Huh? Where are you?”
“Walk over to the window.”
Intrigued, she kept the phone to her ear and drifted back into the living room. She stuck her head out the open window and saw Riley on the sidewalk in front of her building, leaning against a street lamp, a cell phone at his ear. Her heart melted, not from the muggy night air, but from the sight of his sexy face. She knew she was supposed to be furious with him, but the second their gazes collided, all the anger of the last month seemed to dissolve.
“You came all the way to New York to see me?” she said, her entire body growing warm.
“Yeah. And I have something to give you.”
She raised her eyebrows. “A gift?”
“Come down here and find out.”
Even from four stories below, she could see the amusement dancing in his blue eyes.
She was tempted to hang up the phone and run downstairs, but she wasn’t giving in that easily. The fact was he’d still lied to her. Slept with her all the while holding on to the knowledge that he’d bought the Diamond.
“Tell me what it is and I’ll decide whether I want to come down or not.”
“I figured you’d be difficult.”
As she watched, he reached into the inner pocket of his jacket. A second later, he was holding up the necklace she’d forgotten back in Chicago. She’d realized her mistake the second she’d gotten on the train to New York, but the thought of going back and seeing Riley again had been too painful. She’d planned on asking Jane to retrieve the necklace, but apparently Riley had other ideas.
“You traveled this far to return my necklace?” she called back, unable to stop the happiness from swelling inside her.
“It’s important to you,” he said simply.
Tears stung her eyelids. Blinking them back, she cleared her suddenly froggy throat and said, “Okay, you can come up now.”
“Wait, there’s more,” he said, reaching for his pocket again. This time he pulled out what looked like a folded manila folder. He held it up for her to see.