“Finn’s not for me. We’d drive each other crazy.”
Lucy nodded. Her brother would agree. And it wasn’t soon-to-be eight-year-old Kia that would send him running away from Delaney. Finn was married to his work.
Delaney leaned forward, resting her forearms on the table. “But I wouldn’t turn down a date with his partner.”
“Oh?” Lucy shoved a piece of scone into her mouth before she muttered something stupid like he’s mine.
She wanted Mr. Ab Selfie.
Wow, that sounded awful. She hadn’t said the words out loud, but she could understand why Nicole thought she was crazy.
Still, she did want Philip Ryder—and she had a date with him. Just because he’d postponed didn’t mean she would allow herself to fall for Jared. Her brother’s friend was the unicorn. She couldn’t keep him. He would vanish as soon as the sugar deal closed. Poof! Just like that. Back to Manhattan.
“Jared Mitchell is back in town. I ran into him on the beach the other day, and we ran together,” Delaney confided. “And this time, he seemed at home there. In fact, he asked me to take his picture by the ocean.”
“Jared stopped running for a photo shoot?” Lucy let the jealousy simmer for a second before silently presenting herself with the facts.
First, she’d rejected Jared’s juice box offerings. He had every right to move on and find someone else to entertain him while he waited for his big deal to close.
Second, she’d known from the beginning that Jared was a hit-and-run serial dater. Sure, he could deliver the “wow” factor in the moment—or in the storage closet—but afterward?
He would slip away. Maybe all at once. Maybe slowly like her ex. Skipping dates, avoiding conversation until he had been in bed with someone else . . . which was exactly why she’d rejected the juice.
After turning him down, she couldn’t realistically expect Jared to sit at home pining for her.
“We had a fling once.” Delaney picked her cell off the table. “More like a one-night stand. I thought it was a dead end at the time.”
The jealousy rushed back without invitation, and Lucy reached for another scone. “And now? You don’t think Jared’s a dead end?”
Delaney shrugged as she swept her finger across the screen. “Wait until you see the picture. We talked about how he belongs here, and then he stopped suddenly, asking me to take this shot. I started wondering if maybe he’d grown up and was looking to settle down. I was thinking about texting him and asking him to dinner. A picnic on the beach. Right here where I snapped this shot.” Delaney held out the phone. “Only at sunset instead of sunrise.”
Lucy set aside the comfort scone and accepted Delaney’s phone. She’d say something nice about the picture and then steer the conversation back to Kia’s party. Ten minutes of planning and princesses would wash away the remaining fragments of jealousy.
She looked down at the screen.
No. It can’t be. It’s not possible.
Her eyes widened as she brought the tiny image closer to her face. Shock engulfed her like a cloud. How had he pulled this off? And more importantly—why?
“Jared Mitchell looks pretty good from behind doesn’t he?” Delaney said with a laugh.
“He does,” Lucy admitted.
And so did Philip Ryder.
“I still wish he’d let me take one of him looking at the camera,” Delaney said. “But he refused. I don’t know why. He has such a sexy smile.”
Lucy knew. If he’d sent a picture of his face, she would have seen the truth—Jared Mitchell and Philip Ryder possessed the same perfect backside, the same drool-worthy abs, the same eye-catching arm muscles, and the same sexy smile.
Because Jared Mitchell was Philip Ryder.
Chapter 14
“Mr. Ab Selfie is not an axe murder,” Lucy called from the pantry. She grabbed a six-pack of juice boxes and headed back to the kitchen. “I have proof.”
“So we’re celebrating with mixed berry mimosas?” Emma eyed the bottle of Prosecco Lucy freed from the fridge before retrieving the juice.
“What proof?” Nicole set the car keys on the counter. Lucy had jumped out of the Civic and run for the house before her friend cut the engine. “You muttered ‘I can’t believe it’ the whole drive back from the meeting with Delaney. Did something go wrong?”