The Hardest Fight. Amy Vastine
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The woman you’ve been giving free ice cream to is my sister. Do me a favor and add an extra note back there that warns your coworkers not to be fooled by tall brunette frauds.”
The girl inspected the ID as if she was a bouncer at a college bar. She even tried to scratch the picture off to no avail. Once she finally agreed she’d been duped by the most conniving of the Everhart sisters, she gave Lucy Simon’s sundae for free.
Simon and Kendall took turns devouring the frozen treat while Lucy kept Darcy entertained. It didn’t take those two more than a few minutes to put the whole thing in their bellies.
“So...Dylan Hunt,” Kendall said, wiping her mouth with a napkin.
“Don’t start.”
“I don’t remember him being so incredibly hot.”
“Don’t. Start.” Lucy didn’t want to think about how good-looking Dylan was or wasn’t. Of course, he was incredibly hot, just as Kendall had said. He was the most attractive guy Lucy had ever dated.
“You got kicked out of my son’s basketball game because you made a ridiculous scene. I get to start.”
“Fine,” Lucy huffed. “Dylan showed up at Open Arms today with his client—the developer that wants to buy the house we use as a shelter in Logan Square. I spent all day trying to convince Paige we don’t have to sell yet.”
“Yet? I thought that was why you were adding the auction to the fund-raiser.”
Lucy wanted more than anyone to believe that was true. “Right. The fund-raiser should bring in a lot of money.”
“Enough to pay off the house?” Kendall asked. Her hopefulness was almost too much to bear.
“No, but enough to get us by until I come up with another plan.” What that plan would be was beyond her.
“Things will work out the way they’re supposed to. So, back to incredibly hot Dylan—is he married? Did he ask if you were married? What’s he been doing the past five years?”
Kendall was obviously trying to punish her for embarrassing them all at the game today. This was some cruel payback. “I don’t know, no and I don’t care. There really is nothing to tell. He’s probably trying to think of a plan to convince Paige to beg the board to sell. He’ll fail. He’ll move on. I’ll never see him again.”
“And I thought I’d never have to see Max once I finished remodeling Sato’s,” Kendall reminded her. “And look how that turned out.”
“Fine, never say never. But it doesn’t matter.”
“Really?” Kendall could always tell when Lucy was hiding something.
“Really.” Even if Dylan wasn’t working for the enemy, she couldn’t let herself forget that she’d sent him away and he’d gone willingly. “Running into him twice in one day? Maybe the universe is trying to tell you something,” Kendall said although she knew Lucy didn’t believe in that kind of stuff.
“The universe doesn’t communicate with anyone.”
Kendall threw up her hands. “I don’t know what happened five years ago. You didn’t want to talk about it then, and I’m sure I won’t get it out of you now. But he was the only guy I ever thought had a real chance with you. You two seemed so perfect together.”
Lucy wasn’t perfect for anyone. She had been guilted into this conversation, and now it was over. Lucy didn’t let any man have a chance with her because what was the point? She was a ticking time bomb.
Cancer was always lurking around the corner. It was sinister, biding its time, waiting for Lucy to drop her guard and believe she was safe from its clutches. She’d beaten it once, but how long would it really be before it put her to the test again? She certainly wasn’t going to ask someone to commit to her when their lives might have very different expiration dates.
DYLAN DROVE HOME and sulked on his couch for a few minutes before the urge to do something with his hands overtook him. Fixing and fiddling with things were the best stress relievers. Dylan had installed all the crown molding in his apartment with Eugene’s help. A former carpenter, Eugene often spent hours teaching Dylan how to do things right the first time. Together, they had refurbished the fireplace in Dylan’s place and updated all the trim work in Eugene’s.
The building they lived in was an older greystone that was split into two residences. Eugene had the downstairs two-bedroom unit and Dylan owned the two-story loft above it. Moving here had been the best decision he’d made after Lucy broke up with him. He could have easily afforded a fancy rehab in the neighborhood, with all the modern conveniences, but Dylan found he enjoyed taking something that was a little rough around the edges and sprucing it up on his own.
His latest project was the kitchen. Since he rarely cooked, it wasn’t a big deal for him to take his time updating it. Dylan had stained the cabinets a dark, warm gray. With the stainless steel appliances and marble backsplash he’d picked out, it was going to be ultrastylish. He needed Eugene’s help to hang the uppers, but he figured he could put the door pulls on the lower cabinets tonight.
It was a mindless task, which wasn’t good. It allowed his thoughts to wander back to Lucy. The woman had a way of making him want to run away and never leave her side at the same time. In the end, he had decided that if she didn’t want him around, he wasn’t going to force someone to care about him.
He had no idea where he had gone wrong with Lucy and often wondered what his life would have been like if they had stayed together. Would they be married right now? Would they have kids? Would they be happy, or would she be miserable?
Dylan wasn’t sure he could make her happy. It was too difficult to tell how she really felt about anything. Whenever he thought he had her figured out, she made sure he knew he’d been wrong. He still couldn’t believe he had misread her feelings for him so completely. He had never hidden his feelings from her. He loved her so much he worried he would love her forever. Unrequited love was a horrible cross to bear.
His phone rang. It was his mother. He couldn’t avoid her at this time of night. In her opinion, if he was working this late, it was work that could be interrupted by a call.
“Dylan Hunt,” he answered as if he didn’t know it was her.
“How did it go today? I didn’t hear anything from Elizabeth. Does that mean the deal went through?”
Did she micromanage everyone this way? He was sure she didn’t. It felt as if she never trusted him to be competent enough. He’d felt that his entire life. He was determined to prove he was capable, which was why he’d taken on this particular case.
“The board is still considering its options. If they vote to sell, they’ll hopefully sell to Prime Developments. Not much more I can do at this point but wait.”
“I see Lucy Everhart works there. Is that the same woman who stole the Wigmore Key from you?”
Dylan rubbed his temples. The Wigmore Key wasn’t something that could be stolen. His mother still resented the fact that Lucy had won the prestigious award from Northwestern Law instead of Dylan. What she failed to realize—or maybe just wouldn’t admit—was that Lucy had earned it.
“She’s the same woman who won the award.”
“Well, there you go. You need to use your relationship with her to move things along. What more do you need than an alumni connection?”
Dylan couldn’t stand how his mother saw relationships only in terms of what two people could do to advance each other’s plans. He also hated that she refused to acknowledge that Lucy was more than a rival from school.
It didn’t seem to matter to her that Lucy and Dylan had dated for years. Or that she was the