The Player Next Door - Kathy Lyons Page 0,52

and two coffees from the cheapo place down the street.

“Do you think she’s hurt herself?” Edward asked, his voice tight with anxiety.

“I think she’s asleep.”

Edward rolled his eyes. “Of course she’s sleeping. The woman likes her zzzzzs. But she isn’t answering her phone and she’s—”

“Maybe she’s sleeping somewhere else.”

Edward’s face paled. He’d thought the man pasty-faced already, but one suggestion that Tori had someone else and the guy went whiter than a ghost. Mike had the urge to tell him to stick his head between his knees. Then Edward ruined all sense of sympathy by opening his mouth.

“You were supposed to call me if she found someone else.”

“You were supposed to give her some space and not bang on her door at seven a.m. And I told you, I’m not keeping track of her dates.”

“I have been giving her space! I am giving— Mike, tell me the truth. Is she seeing someone else?”

No way. Not a prayer he was going to give this dick more information. “You have got to let her look around some. Once she sees her options, maybe she’ll see how wonderful you are.” He almost choked on the words, but forced them through anyway. Anything to get this jerk out of Tori’s life. “And maybe you can look around, too. Maybe there’s someone other—”

“No!” Edward rubbed a distracted hand over his face. “I have been looking around, I’ve even gone on some dates but…I thought letting Tori come here would show her… That she’d learn… Oh hell…” The man was practically babbling in his misery.

Mike reluctantly took a few steps forward. “Calm down. You’re going to wake the entire neighborhood.”

Edward took a deep breath, then turned his tortured gaze to Mike. “I didn’t realize how much I need her. I didn’t think she was so essential to me. I…I… You have no idea what the last few weeks have been like.” He lifted his hands in a defeated gesture. “I miss her every minute of every day. My work has suffered. I’ve gained seven pounds, and yesterday, I couldn’t even play Civilization without crying.”

Oh shit. The guy really was a basket case. That shouldn’t make a difference to Mike, but it did. He felt an unwelcome twinge of sympathy because how awful would it be to have had years with Tori and screw it up? To realize too late just what you’d lost.

He wiped the sweat off his forehead. “Start with a phone call. Leave her a message. See if she’ll…I don’t know…go to lunch with you.” After all, the man wasn’t going to be having breakfast bagels with her.

Edward shook his head. “I tried that. I’ve been calling for days.”

Really? “And?”

“She ignores them. She ignores me.” That was obviously a shock to the guy.

Mike sighed. He really ought to put the man out of his misery. “Look, there’s no easy way to say this, but she’s met someone.”

Edward leaned heavily against the cracked siding. “Who is it? Is he…you know…attractive?”

Mike barely restrained his grin. Might as well admit the truth. “Yeah. He’s ripped.”

“But is he smart? Tori would see through a dumb guy in a heartbeat.”

Mike shrugged. “Don’t know. Doesn’t matter. She’s with him now.”

Edward straightened, his expression turning almost fierce. “It does matter because I’m not done. I’m going to marry her, you know. I just have to…” He gestured up toward the house. “I just have to get her to see me.”

There it was. The face of true love, at least as it looked on Edward. The guy really had it bad for Tori, and Mike hadn’t the heart to crush him. Worse, he knew just the right advice to give the guy. And though the words actually hurt going through his mouth, he said them anyway.

“The guy isn’t hanging around. Five weeks and he’s gone.”

“He’s a summer fling?”

Mike winced even though that was exactly what he was. “Yeah. Wait until the fall. Let her…” Was he really going to say this? “Let her get him out of her system. Then when he’s gone—”

“I can console her. I can be the big man who then gives her what she’s always wanted.”

Mike looked up. “And what’s that?”

“A ring. A house. You know, two-point-five kids and a white picket fence.”

He frowned, thinking about that. Tori already had the house and she could install the white picket fence if she really wanted it. But the husband and kids… Well, that was something that required a man. Someone who shared her lifestyle and her goals. Like Edward,