Twist of Fate: A Heartbreaker Bay Novella Read online

  That single sentence, uttered so quietly, was like a punch to the throat. Diego sat up in bed. “I’m…Christ. Sorry doesn’t cover it.”

  “I know. And thank you,” Tyler said. “He was a bit of a dick, but he was my brother. And I’d do anything, anything to have Ian at this wedding stuff. That isn’t going to happen.”

  “Are you saying that this dick is alive and therefore should get himself an attitude adjustment?” Diego asked with a small smile.

  “I try very hard not to tell heteros what to do. They don’t seem to appreciate it.”

  Diego had to laugh. Hell if he didn’t admire the guy. “Noted.”

  Chapter 6

  Daisy was ten minutes late to work, and she had no one to blame but herself—and the fact that she’d had an unintended sleepover.

  Wherein there’d not been a lot of actual sleeping.

  Just the thought gave her a body shiver of the very best kind as she rushed into the office wearing yesterday’s clothes and possibly a well-satisfied smile. She’d noticed it while trying to wrangle her hair into a knot on top of her head, but she hadn’t been able to get rid of the expression.

  A side effect of man-made orgasms that she’d nearly forgotten about.

  She rushed directly into a meeting that had already started, ignoring the long, unhappy gaze Carol sent her. After the meeting, in which they’d discussed an upcoming charity event at the opera house ad nauseam while Daisy did her best to stay awake, Carol asked her to hang back.

  When it was just the two of them in the conference room, Carol’s brows rose.

  “What?”

  “You were late.”

  “Ten minutes, yes,” Daisy said. “I’m terribly sorry, but it was a first-time offense that won’t happen again.”

  “See that it doesn’t.” Carol got to her feet. “And you do realize you’re wearing yesterday’s clothes.”

  If Carol had been hoping for an explanation, she wasn’t going to get one.

  When Daisy remained mute regarding the comment, Carol shook her head. “The future head of this company doesn’t do walks of shame into morning meetings. Am I clear?”

  “I’m not doing a walk of shame,” Daisy said. And she meant it. She didn’t consider her sex life shameful. Nor was it up for public consumption. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, as you know, I’ve got a lot on my plate.”

  * * * *

  That night, Daisy was at home, once again in PJs and eating ice cream straight from the tub when there came a knock at her door.

  She froze, wooden spoon loaded and halfway to her mouth because she didn’t have to wonder who was on the other side. Her suddenly perky nipples told her.

  Damn. Why had she already showered and removed her armor-slash-mascara? Why was she wearing Hello Kitty PJs? Why couldn’t she be in her Wonder Woman set?

  Daisy remained still for a moment, waiting to see if maybe he’d go away, so she didn’t have to face last night’s stupid transgression.

  He knocked again. Dammit. He wasn’t going away. Daisy sucked down the ice cream on her spoon before heading to the door, half of her brain trying to find ways to delay, the other half trying to make her legs move faster.

  When she opened up, she expected a smile at her appearance. Or some smartass remark.

  Instead, Diego met her gaze. “What happened to us?” he asked quietly.

  The sentence shocked her and gave her heart an odd kick. “Um…we got naked to some hopefully mutual satisfaction. The end.”

  “Definitely mutual satisfaction,” he said without a smile. “But I’m not talking about last night, and you know that.”

  She drew in a deep breath. “Then that’s a far more difficult question than I’m equipped to handle right now.”

  “You going to let me in?”

  She moved aside. When he caught sight of the open container of ice cream, the corners of his mouth twitched. “Rocky road?”

  His favorite, too. Daisy gestured to it, and he made himself at home on the couch, patting the spot next to him.

  She hesitated. Not because she didn’t want Diego. She did. She wanted him badly. But she also knew what a terrible idea it would be to give in to temptation again. She could fall for him, hard.

  Hell, she already had. A decade ago, and nothing had changed. But she could at least try to avoid getting hurt again.

  He cocked his head. “Problem?”

  “I’m trying to decide if I can trust myself to sit next to you.”

  He nodded as if he understood. “Which way are you leaning?”

  “Towards running for the hills.”

  An almost-smile appeared. “I won’t bite. Unless you ask real nice.”

  “It’s not you I’m worried about,” she muttered, making him laugh.

  Ignoring the way the sound scraped at her good spots, she sat, making sure not to touch him. Because if she did, she knew herself. Once she felt the heat and strength of him, her brain would shut off, and her body would take over. But that wasn’t going to happen tonight. Or any night. It couldn’t, or she’d fall hard for him again and not be able to get up.

  She expected him to devour the ice cream like in the old days. Back then, date night had sometimes been watching TV and eating ice cream on the couch—and then ignoring the TV and ice cream…

  Diego turned to face her. She could feel the weight of his gaze, and she held her breath. Don’t ask me again…

  “What happened to us? What went wrong?”

  Damn. She sighed. “Diego, you know.”

  “What I know is that you went to New York for that scholarship when you could have stayed and accepted your other offer right here in San Francisco.”

  Daisy did her best to temper herself. He knew she’d grown up rough, always needing to have her own back. Leaving had been her one chance to get out of the gutter, and yeah, she’d taken it. But…she’d also regretted it.

  With twenty-twenty hindsight being what it was, she now knew that she’d taken that offer rather than let her biggest fear come true—that she’d never make anything of herself. That she’d end up just like her mom, living off welfare and just barely getting by. “The San Francisco offer didn’t come with a full ride. I couldn’t afford that option.”

  “We’d have found a way.”

  She gave him a get-real look. “Really? Because when I tried to talk to you about it, you just said, ‘You gotta do what’s best for you.’”

  “Daisy—”

  “Look, I get it,” she said. “Your dad had just had a stroke, and Rocco bailed on you, leaving you the tattoo shop, the house, and your dad’s recovery to deal with. All of it on your shoulders. I also get that you had to give up your college experience at Cal. I never blamed you for resenting me for going to New York—"

  “That wasn’t it,” Diego said tightly. “Jesus.” He shoved his fingers into his hair. “Do you really think I resented you for getting something you wanted so badly?”

  She stared up into his unhappy face and let out a breath. “No. That wasn’t very kind of me to say. I know you didn’t resent me. I know you were overwhelmed. But you shut me out, Diego. I offered to help, I tried to help, but you always pushed me away, saying you had it.”

  “Because if I couldn’t have my dreams of getting out,” he said, “I wanted you to have yours. And I knew that wasn’t staying and watching me go down in flames. But you faded away from me.”

  The reality was that she’d left thinking that they could still make it work, but whenever she tried to stay in contact, he’d been unwilling to communicate. Their calls had slowly gotten further and further apart. And she’d felt for him because he’d been in a really bad spot. But she’d wanted to be important to him. She’d needed to be important to someone, anyone, but especially to him.

  “Daisy,” he said, his voice low with frustration. “You don’t have to temper yourself, not with me, never with me. Just tell me what you’re thinking.”

  “All right.” She met his gaze. “You we