“I managed to get home early.” His mouth tipped up at the sides. “You were great, Iz.”
“I got better as I went.”
His gaze swept over her. “You look sexy in a suit.”
Heat spread through her. “The words on the card were perfect. Thank you.”
He nodded toward the crew. “I know I’m barging in on your night, but I have some champagne in the fridge I thought we could...drink.”
Her pulse raced. “I’m getting my jacket.”
Her feet couldn’t seem to move fast enough as she sped back to her desk, switched off her computer and gathered her things. She was turning to leave when she noticed the folded tabloid on her desk. Frowning, she picked it up and flipped it open. And suddenly felt winded. A photo of Alex and a stunningly beautiful brunette coming out of a restaurant together was emblazoned on the front page.
She glanced at the date. Thursday. When he’d said he couldn’t see her.
She dragged the paper closer to read the caption.
Former football star and sexy CEO Alex Constantinou had dinner with his former fiancée at Miro’s on Thursday night. He and the soon-to-be ex-wife of Flames quarterback Gerry Thompson looked ultra-cozy together, making us wonder if things are back on.
The warm glow inside her chilled. She stood there, her heart shriveling up into a tiny ball. The sound of hushed voices penetrated her haze. She looked over at the two reporters at the entertainment desk, watching her. They’d left it for her.
She turned her back on them. And searched for an explanation. Alex wasn’t the type of guy to cheat. He was brutally honest in everything he did.
So why was he having dinner with his ex?
She took a deep breath, shoved the paper in her bag and walked toward the exit. She’d ask him. As a rational woman who wasn’t crazy with jealousy would. That was her, right?
* * *
“All right, out with it. What’s wrong?” Alex threw his keys on the hall table at his penthouse and shut the door.
“I think I’ve hit the wall,” Izzie murmured, no closer to knowing how to bring up the photo than she’d been a half hour ago.
He lifted a brow. “Now, Iz.”
She walked over to where her bag lay on the floor. “Someone left this on my desk,” she said quietly, pulling the tabloid out and handing it to him.
He scanned the story, his mouth tightening as he read. Then he tossed it down on the hall table. “She’s going through a tough time with her divorce,” he said flatly. “That’s you people blowing a simple dinner up into something it isn’t.”
She bit her lip. “Why didn’t you tell me it was her that night?”
“Because I thought you’d have the same insecure reaction you’re having right now,” he bit out. “It was nothing.”
She swallowed hard, pressed her damp palms against her thighs. If it was nothing why hadn’t he told her? Wasn’t she allowed a little insecurity over a dinner he’d deliberately kept secret from her? With his ex?
“She’s obviously still in love with you,” she said quietly. “One look at that photo and it’s as plain as day.”
“There’s nothing between Jess and me, Iz. You have to trust me or this is never going to work.”
She clenched her hands at her sides, frustration bubbling over. “You can’t blame me for asking. Alex, you almost married the woman, then you go out for dinner with her and I find out about it in the tabloids.”
He let out a harsh breath. “You of all people should know what they print in those rags is complete crap.”
“I do—I just—” She floundered helplessly. “I just wish you’d told me.”
He jammed his hands in his pockets. “This is my life, Iz. This is what you people have been doing to me my entire life, spinning lies and painting them as truth.”
“I am not you people. I’m the woman who gave up the story of a lifetime to protect you.”
Color stained his high cheekbones. “This is never going to end. It’s who I am. What you signed up for by agreeing to be with me. The press love to dish the dirt on my relationships. There’ll undoubtedly be more telling their story when the money’s right. So if you can’t handle it maybe you should get out now.”
His words rang out, stark and unrelenting in the quiet stillness of the penthouse. The silence between them stretched to deafening. He spun on his heel and stalked toward the kitchen.
* * *
Alex pulled two champagne flutes out of the cupboard, set them on the counter and leaned his forehead against the cool wood. What was he doing? Izzie hadn’t deserved that. But that tabloid had set him off. On the heels of everything else he was dealing with, after that unexpected phone call from Jess this week, it was just too much.
Jess’s voice had been raw, thick with tears when she’d caught him on his way out of a meeting. Her marriage to Gerry was falling apart. She needed him. And fool that he was, he’d canceled on Izzie and agreed to meet her for dinner, because no matter what she’d done to him, he’d loved her once and she needed him.
Pressure built in his head, the kind before a thunderstorm that held you in its vise. Once he would have died to hear Jess tell him she still loved him. That she’d made a mistake. Instead it had seemed like some cruel joke that was ten years too late. Because he’d stopped missing her, needing her a long time ago.
Because he was falling for another woman. Hard.
He pressed his palms against the wood and levered himself away from the counter. Pulled the chilled champagne out of the wine fridge and started unpeeling the foil. Anything to avoid the truth. That he was terrified of falling so hard again, of putting that power in another person’s hands that it was almost blinding.
He worked the cork out of the bottle. The thing was, Izzie wasn’t anything like Jess. Sitting across from his ex it had become crystal clear for him. With Izzie, honesty was like a truth serum she’d drunk at birth. Whereas Jess had spun lie after lie, abandoned him when he needed her most, Izzie had given up that story for him. She was strong and she was courageous. And yes, a little neurotic and insecure at the same time. But weren’t they all human? Didn’t they all have their weaknesses?
The cork hit the ceiling with a resounding thump. The question was, could he offer Izzie more than a brief, few-month affair? Had Jess’s betrayal rendered him incapable of trust again?
He picked up the bottle and poured the champagne. His overwhelming instinct was to walk in there and finish what he’d started so she’d call it quits for him. Yet something told him if he messed things up with Izzie, it would be the biggest regret of his life.
Which left him exactly where?
Scooping up the bottle and glasses, he found her on the terrace, looking out at the floodlit 843-acre New York landmark that was Central Park. Her shoulders were straight as a board, her hands curled into fists at her sides.
She turned around. “Alex, I—”
He waved her off. Handed her a glass. “I need to tell you about Jess. About that night...”
Her eyes widened. He walked to the railing, turned and leaned back against it. Started talking before he changed his mind. “I met Jess in high school. She was smart, strong, working two jobs to keep her family going after her mother walked out on them and her dad fell apart and started drinking. I was from a wealthy family. I could help them, so I did. She was determined to keep her brothers and sisters together and not let the family get split up by social services.”