Page 40 of Nothing to Tell

“It wouldn’t hurt to have a look around at who’s on offer, would it?”she said, twisting to scan the women around them.“There are a lot of beautiful women here tonight.”

Shit.Lloyd Newton was heading their way.Instinct spun him around to face the opposite direction.Walk on by, Lloyd, keep on walking.

Leaving things to chance wasn’t his style, and he didn’t like being a sitting duck.

“Damn,” Bastian muttered.Reaching behind him, he caught his mom’s shoulder to guide her over in front of him again.“Do you want to dance?”

“I promised the next one to your father,” Carolyn said, still glancing left and right as she sipped her drink.

She was probably trying to figure out the cause of his shifty behavior.He wouldn’t enlighten her.Just for sport, she’d wave Lloyd over if he told her the truth.His mom’s sense of humor often got him into trouble.

“It’s still this one,” Bastian said.“It’s not the next one yet.”

“There are maybe three lines of music left.”

“Bastian!”Fuck.Lloyd came to his side and patted his elbow.“I was hoping to pin you down tonight.”

Damn it, on his list of people to avoid, Lloyd Newton sat right on top.

“The Poole investment, I know.”

“Have you had a chance to look over the materials?”

No, he hadn’t because Lloyd Newton was a buffoon in business.If he’d been anyone else, Bastian would have told him straight.Unfortunately, Lloyd was a friend of his aunt’s.His sensitive aunt who tended to take things personally.

“It’s in the inbox, Lloyd.”

“I know.I know.A man like you is very busy, I understand.I appreciate that you’re taking the time to look at my proposal at all.”

Lloyd Newton was at least twenty years his senior and still begging for table scraps.Was there a point at which a man decided to give up on the idea of achieving pinnacle success?Everyone’s definition of success was different, but Bastian couldn’t imagine conducting himself with the desperation he sensed in Lloyd and other men like him.

Surely there came a point where Lloyd should accept where he was and stop striving for more.Wasn’t that what Harper said about love?

Shit, Harper… she was never far from his mind.

Gaining a new respect for Lloyd, in another context, fighting even when the battle seemed impossible could be necessary.

The music stopped and a familiar sound drifted to his ears over the susurration of the party.

That enthralling laugh.

Harper.

The music began again, but his ears were pricked to identify a different sound.Had he imagined her?Was he hallucinating?

Lloyd was still talking, but it was down to Carolyn to listen.From the way his mom responded to deliberately draw Newton’s attention, it was clear she’d seen his concentration waver.

Scrutinizing the crowd one way and the other, he passed right by the sight of her figure only to pause and return fast.

Yes, it was her.

Harper Scott was at the edge of the room laughing with Ricardo Whey.

Lloyd became instantly irrelevant.Had to be fucking Ricardo Whey?His feet moved before his mind formed a plan.Rudeness be damned, he strode away, intent on his goal.

Nothing in the room, in the world, was more important than the smiling woman in his crosshairs.

The party, the guests, all of it blurred when he got to her side.“Sweet?”