Keep It Together - By Lissa Matthews Page 0,19
this. Just one night, just one dinner. Then another and another. Until she accepted his yes.
Russ was the last man an independent woman like Chrissie needed, and in all honesty, Chrissie was the last woman an up-and-coming, life-of-the-party lawyer like Russ needed. Colt, though? Yeah, he was the man she needed. He couldn’t help his idiot brother, but he could help himself and the woman he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about.
He’d never pined for a woman, and he wasn’t sure if that’s what he was doing with her. There were more women throwing themselves at him than he knew what to do with. He wanted Chrissie throwing herself at him; he’d be damn sure to catch her. He’d told her he wanted to kiss her at her engagement party, and that was the truth. He’d have stood by and watched her and his brother get married, and he’d have never said a word if that was the way things had turned out. He’d have probably found someone else down the road even, but when Russ called him that Saturday morning to tell him he was in Vegas, married to a dancer stage-named Tinsel, inside Colt had been torn between disappointment in Russ, sadness for the pain and heartache Chrissie was about to go through, and elation at what he hoped was a positive turn in his personal life.
He’d spent a lot of time beating himself up for feeling that way, but she deserved better, and he was better. He’d even dated several women, or tried, but he never was able to get the image of red-rimmed brown eyes and tangled blonde hair out of his head.
Six months had seemed an appropriate amount of time to wait. Chrissie had taken the news of his conversations with her father better than he’d expected she would. He’d figured she’d be mad or upset at least that he was keeping tabs on her, but other than surprised, she seemed okay with it, touched even. His concern for her was sincere, and his interest in her was genuine.
His watched beeped at him. Nine fifty-five. He grabbed his wallet and room key off the hotel room desk. He didn’t want to be late and he would make sure he never was. She’d been left at the altar, and he couldn’t imagine what that was like for her or for anyone. It had to be incredibly devastating to wait like that, wondering and worrying and then finally realizing he wasn’t coming. Colt didn’t want to make her wait for him. She asked him, challenged him to prove that he was different, and his persistence in offering the dinner invitation was one way he would. Another was being on time or even early.
The elevator touched down on the lobby level, and he made his way outside the cavernous room to the front of the hotel. He could have gone out the back way on the river side but decided casual and leisurely was the way to handle this, rather than looking like a kid about to hit a candy store for the first time in his life. The night was warm, but as he walked along Factors Walk toward the cobblestone stairway that would lead to river level, a slight breeze caught hold to make the humidity more manageable. There weren’t many people out walking at this time of night, but several of the bars were full of people.
He settled on a bench seat and kept an eye out for Chrissie. He didn’t have to wait long. At five after ten, he saw her coming toward him from the same cobblestone entrance he’d used. Her blonde hair bounced against her shoulders, and she smiled when she saw him. She was dressed in jeans, what looked to be very sensible sneakers, and a green polo shirt, and as she got closer, he could read the name of the store on it.
“You’re here,” she said, stopping in front of him. She sounded surprised, but the smile on her face was full of happiness, relief.
“I am. You said ten.”
“You don’t have anything to prove to me, you know. I was teasing earlier, back at the house.”
“Be that as it may, I’m still here on time, and that’s important to me.“ He wouldn’t go into the details with her of all his thoughts from when he was upstairs wearing a hole in the carpet of his suite. She only needed to know she was important to him. “So, what are