Susan Mallery - The Million-Dollar Catch

Julie felt too raw to deal with the familiar argument. “Don’t say he’s her destiny, I beg you. He blows back into her life and ours, he’s charming and adoring and then he goes away. He moves on to the next thrill and we’re left picking up the pieces.”

Julie’s childhood had been punctuated by her father’s visits and her mother’s subsequent week of tears and feeble attempts to hide her pain. While her sisters were happy to remember the excitement of their father’s visit, Julie always recalled the aftermath. Jack Nelson was like a big electrical storm. A lot of light and noise and an impressive show, but when it was over, someone had to handle the cleanup. That someone had usually been her.

She took another sip of her coffee. Apparently it wasn’t enough to drown her, which meant she would now be completely awake to deal with the humiliation of last night and this morning.

“All men are bastards,” she muttered.

Willow’s blue eyes widened. “Julie, no. Not all guys are like Garrett.”

Right. Her ex-fiancé. Julie groaned. She’d thought he’d been the absolute low point of her romantic life, but when compared with Todd/Ryan, he was almost a nice guy.

“Speaking of slime on two legs,” she said, “I had my date with Todd last night.”

“What?” Marina threw a pillow at Julie. “Are you kidding? Why didn’t you say anything until now?”

“I’ve been here five minutes.”

Willow rolled her eyes. “Oh, please. That’s a walkin announcement and you know it.” She slid to the edge of the chair and grinned. “Okay, tell us everything. Start at the beginning and speak slowly. Don’t leave out anything. Was he fabulous? Was he charming? Could you tell he was rich?”

Under any other circumstances, Julie would have laughed. Willow’s idea of a guy with money was one who would only make her pay for her own meal instead of his as well. She tended to attract the down-and-out type, those between jobs or paychecks or even stints in jail.

“He was …”

On the way over, Julie had tried to come up with a way to make the situation into something she could laugh about instead of a pathetic statement on her luck with men. But she couldn’t remember a single thing she’d planned on saying and she surprised both herself and most likely her sisters by starting to cry.

“Jules?”

They were both beside her in a heartbeat. Marina hugged her from the side and Willow knelt in front of her. Someone took her coffee from her hand, and then she was held so hard, her chest hurt. Or maybe her chest just hurt on its own.

The embrace was familiar and comforting. They’d always been there for each other, only she wasn’t usually the one at the center of the healing.

Julie wiped away her tears and swallowed. “He wasn’t a one-armed humpback,” she said, her voice shaking a little. “He was nice. Charming and sexy and we danced and he made me laugh.”

She’d already decided not to mention that she’d slept with him. No doubt she would confess all later, but right now she couldn’t face admitting she’d been that much of a fool.

She’d been so careful, too. Ever since Garrett, she’d avoided men and sex and entanglements. Based on who Ryan had turned out to be, she should have stuck with being single.

“How did it go wrong?” Willow asked. “Was he secretly a woman?”

That made Julie laugh. She touched her sister’s face. “No, but that would have been interesting. He lied … about everything.”

She told them about him pretending to be Todd, in order to teach her a lesson.

“He assumed I was in it for the money, so his plan was to show me a good time, get me to fall for him and then tell me the truth.”

“What?” Marina stood up and put her hands on his hips. “That’s horrible. You didn’t do it for the money. You did it for Grandma Ruth. You lost. Did you tell him you lost because you always play scissors?”

“I mentioned that.”

Marina settled back beside her. “This is going to turn you off guys forever, isn’t it?”

Julie nodded. “I suspect I’ll have a lengthy recovery.”

“Want me to hurt him for you?” Willow asked.

Julie laughed again. Willow was all of five foot three inches. She was feisty on the inside but on the outside she had a whole lot more in common with a waif than a bodybuilder.

“That’s okay,” Julie told her. “I appreciate the offer, but he’s big and burly.”

“But I have speed and the element of surprise on my side.”

“I love you guys,” Julie said.

“We love you, too,” Marina told her. “I’m just so mad. Maybe Willow and I could take him together.”

“I don’t think so.”

Willow leaned against Julie’s shoulder. “I hate Todd, too. He’s a part of this. How could Grandma Ruth want any of us to marry someone who’s so jerky?”

“Maybe she doesn’t know,” Marina murmured.

“Maybe it’s the reason she offered the money,” Julie said. “It doesn’t matter. It’s over. I’m never going to see Ryan again.”

Or think of him. Except she had a feeling that forgetting him was going to be more difficult than she wanted it to be. If only she could go back in time and never show up for that stupid date.

Willow squeezed her arm. “You want us to not tell Mom? You know how she worries.”

“That would be great,” Julie said. “I’ll probably have to mention it eventually, but if I could wait a while, it would be easier.”

“Sure,” Marina said. “Whatever you want.”

Julie managed a smile. “So you two feel so sorry for me I could get you to do anything, huh?”

Her sisters nodded.

If she’d been feeling better, she might have teased them or come up with a crazy task. Instead she let them comfort her and told herself that in time, she would put all this behind her and forget she’d ever known Ryan Bennett.

Julie stared out of the window of her office and did her best to get excited about the view. Sure, she could mostly see the building next door, but to the right she could see clear to Long Beach.

She’d been promoted the previous week and had moved into larger quarters. She now had a shared assistant and a nice raise. She also had big plans to celebrate this weekend with a shopping spree. Willow and Marina had already promised to come with her.

This was all good. She was smart, successful, moving upward in her chosen career. So why couldn’t she stop thinking about Ryan?

It had been three weeks since that disastrous night and morning when he’d swept into her life and made her think this time things would be different. Three weeks of remembering, of dreaming about him, of wanting him.

That’s what she resented most—that her own body betrayed her. She could stay sane during the day but when she finally fell asleep, he invaded her dreams as she relived what it had been like to be with him. She woke up several times a night, aroused, hungry for his touch. These were not the signs of a woman forgetting a man.

“I want him gone,” she whispered into the silence.

But how to make that happen? Until she’d found out he was a lying bastard, he’d been the best night of her life.

He was also persistent. He’d phoned three times and sent a basket filled with chocolate, wine and season one of Gilligan’s Island on DVD.

She placed her hand on the cool glass. Things had to get better, right? She couldn’t remember him forever. It was a matter of discipline and maybe a little less coffee. She could always call Willow—the queen of all things organic—and ask if there was some kind of sleep aid to get her through this rough patch.

Julie turned to return to her desk, only she didn’t exactly make it. As she took a step, the room seemed to shift and sway.