4. Cian
Chapter 4
Cian
“ Y ou have some talking to do,” I say to Henry.
As usual, Henry was able to get everything organized quickly, and we were packed and on the plane on our way back to the US within an hour.
I won’t lie, I know that having a private plane is a luxury that I will probably never be able to get over.
I don’t know who he told what and I don’t care.
Now that I know that we know where Scarlett is, that is all I can focus on.
That and the fact that my best friend has known her location for a few months.
“I’m going to tell you the most important thing upfront,” Henry says from where he is lounging in the buttery soft cream-colored leather seat across from me.
It’s just the two of us, the flight attendant having left us alone and four and a half hours of the five-hour flight ahead of us.
I need the whole story before we get there.
Henry is now dressed in jeans and a casual, untucked button-down shirt with the sleeves rolled up. He has one ankle propped on his opposite knee and he looks far too nonchalant.
While my heart is pounding, and I feel restless and like my dark gray joggers and loose tee are too restrictive.
I lean forward, resting my forearms on my thighs. “I want to know all of it. I’m pissed, Henry.”
He nods. “I know. And I’ll tell you everything. But the most important thing is I didn’t tell you right away because she didn’t want to see you. Still doesn’t.”
I frown. “She said that?”
“A few times now. I’ve been trying to change her mind.”
My frown deepens. “Why not?”
“In the beginning, it was because the only reason she spent that weekend with you was because she never expected to see you again. Considered you a young, hot, fun weekend-only fling.”
I flex my hands. Of course, I know that’s how it started. It was that for both of us. But it changed. Quickly.
For both of us , dammit.
I could fall in love with you, too.
I can still hear exactly how her voice sounded when she said that, sleepy, sated, her breath warm against my chest as I held her.
My entire body tightens and I feel an irrational surge of anger toward Henry. He’s been standing between her and me for months. I flex my hand again.
Henry keeps talking. “The reason we couldn’t find her for so long is because they literally left the state the Monday after you met her.”
“They? They who?”
“Her and Ruby.”
I scowl. “Her stage name was Ruby.”
“Her sister’s name is Ruby. And Scarlett was pretending to be Ruby when you met. They’re identical twins.”
I let that sink in. “Why was she pretending to be her sister?”
“Ruby is the dancer. Scarlett was filling in for her that night.”
I shove a hand through my hair. I’d met Scarlett at a strip club. We’d been there because I’d tagged along when Henry had to accompany a guy he was working for as private security.
The idea that she’d been filling in for someone actually makes sense. I hadn’t seen her actually strip. She’d seemed uncomfortable. She’d seemed like she didn’t fit. I would have guessed it was her first time ever on a stage, to be honest. And something in me had prompted me to come to her rescue. I’d paid for private sessions for the rest of the night with her, whisked her off the stage, and taken her out for burgers.
Before taking her to the Windsor Court hotel and giving her an extravagant, sexy, amazing weekend. Thank you very fucking much.
Okay, I had seen her strip. Just not in the club.
“Okay,” I say. “So she was filling in for her sister when we met. Then she and her sister, Ruby, moved out of state on Monday.”
He pauses. “And Mariah. Scarlett’s daughter.”
I feel my brows pull tighter. “The daughter is Ruby’s.”
He shakes his head. “No. She’s Scarlett’s.”
“Scarlett told me…” I blow out a breath. Henry knows better than I do. Fuck. “She’s a mom?”
“Yeah. Mariah’s fifteen. Dad’s never been in the picture.”
I process that. So…that’s good. There’s no ex hanging around. I mean, it’s good from my perspective anyway. He’s not the reason she doesn’t want to see me.
My sister is a single mom to an almost-thirteen-year-old and Saoirse’s dad has never been in the picture. That’s all fine. Mostly. Except that all this time I’ve been under the impression that Scarlett is an amazing aunt who loves her niece as fiercely as I love mine. It was something I thought we had in common.
“Why didn’t she tell me?” I ask.
“She was pretending to be Ruby that weekend,” Henry says. He lifts a shoulder. “I can’t tell you all the reasons why , Cian. That’s her story to tell. But I can tell you what she told me. She was dancing in Ruby’s place that Friday night when you met her. It was Ruby’s last night of work.” He blows out a breath and runs a hand through his hair. “It’s confusing, I know. Ruby’s the dancer. She had to show up that night or she wouldn’t be able to collect her last paycheck. Scarlett filled in for her because Ruby hurt her ankle. Then Scarlett met you and…kept playing at being Ruby.”
“But she gave me her real name,” I say.
“Well…she was putting on a show the entire weekend.”
Fuck.
Fuck .
“Keep going,” I say tightly. “Tell me everything.”
“The plan was for them to move the next day. Saturday,” Henry says. “They had the U-Haul all packed up. They actually put that off for a couple of days because of you.”
I let that sink in. Well…that’s something. That fucking seems like someone who enjoyed herself.
“That explains why we couldn’t find them. It explains why she didn’t think she’d see me again. But now that she knows she can, why doesn’t she want to?” I ask.
Henry shifts, putting both feet on the floor and leaning forward. “They moved to Ohio to start a new life. They moved back to their hometown. Ohio is very far from Louisiana. She didn’t want to have any ties. They were starting fresh.”
Okay, I guess that makes sense. But fuck , I’ve held on to her for nineteen goddamned months and she was able to just walk away? Not even wonder about me? She’s not even slightly curious now that she has a way of seeing me again? Talking to me once more?
“But you’ve been trying to talk her into seeing me again and she’s not interested at all?” I ask.
Henry doesn’t look happy about giving me this information and that doesn’t surprise me. Henry is my bodyguard, but more than that he’s my friend and really likes it when I’m happy. He’s happiest when I’m content and having fun.
“I told her who you are. I thought that might help,” Henry says.
“You told her? About Cara?” I ask. I’m surprised. We never tell anyone about Cara. I have literally been incognito for over a decade.
“They’ve been in their hometown for over a year. It’s… not what they’d hoped it would be. I thought maybe the handsome charming prince who could sweep in and change her life angle would help,” Henry says.
My chest tightens. I don’t like hearing that things aren’t good. “It didn’t?”
“It made it worse.”
I sit back in my seat. “Dammit. What are you talking about?”
“Scarlett isn’t who you think she is,” Henry says. “Scarlett was pretending to be Ruby. Ruby is the one who is outgoing, fun, spontaneous, sweet. Scarlett is…serious. A little…”
He trails off and my brows arch. “A little what?”
“Grumpy?” He says it as a question, as if offering it as an adjective in place of other, maybe not as nice, words.
He continues. “She’s trying to live a simple life, keeping her head down in their hometown, trying to start over in a place that doesn’t really want to give her a break. There’s a lot of history. She’s just got a lot going on. You would be a… complication.”
I’m studying him as he explains all of this. It’s a lot to process, but one thing is very clear every time he says Ruby’s name. “Did something happen with you and Ruby?”
He nods. “Yes. But it’s over. It won’t work out between us.” He sighs. “We broke up a month ago. I didn’t think I’d see her again.”
“And now we’re on our way back there.”
He doesn’t look happy as he nods. “Yeah.”
“How well have you gotten to know them?”
“Pretty well.” He hesitates, then meets my gaze. “I’ve been there a few times.”
I feel a stab of jealousy. He’s gotten to know them. All of them. Scarlett as well as her sister and her daughter.
I want to know them. I’m trying to process the idea that I don’t really even know Scarlett, but I already want to know the two people who are the most important to her. I know how important my siblings and my niece are to me, and I want to know that Scarlett’s family is the same.
“You went to try to find Scarlett, but then you kept going back because of Ruby,” I summarize.
He grimaces. “When I first found her, I thought she was Scarlett. I found her at the bar where she’s bartending now, and I assumed she was your girl. I felt terrible about being attracted to her and I tried to stay away. But I needed more information. So I talked to her and, after a couple of visits, finally just asked her about you. I found out Ruby wasn’t Scarlett. And, yes, I fell for her.”
“Why did you break up?”
“I had to choose between her and you.”
I scowl. “What do you mean? Because of the distance? The job?”
He nods. “Yes. To be with you, I can’t be with her. I can’t do my job with you from Emerald, Ohio.”
I nod. I guess that’s true.
He goes on. “But besides that, Scarlett didn’t want you to know where she was. I couldn’t very well be madly in love with her sister and not tell my best friend. If I had to keep them a secret from you, it wasn’t going to work.”
My stomach twists. “She really didn’t want to see me that badly?”
“I think she does, actually,” Henry says.
The knot tightens. “What does that mean?”
“I think she does want to see you and that scares her because it would complicate her plans, and it’s easier to avoid you completely. She doesn’t want to live the life of a princess.”
I bark out a laugh. “It doesn’t have to be that,” I say. “I haven’t been living the life of a prince.”
Henry gives me a smile that is affectionate and amused. “Haven’t you? You have more money at your disposal than you know what to do with. You don’t have a specific job and can spend your time and energy on whatever you want. You hang out with a bodyguard full-time. You have resources and influence and power that you can access at any time.” He looks around the plane. “You can hop on a private plane and show up on her doorstep with the snap of your fingers.”
I blow out a breath.
Henry shifts so he’s resting his elbows on his thighs. “There’s something else you should know.”
“Okay.”
“Scarlett is convinced that you’re actually in love with Ruby.” He pauses, looking pained. “Everything she did and told you was what Ruby would have done and said. She claims she didn’t tell you anything true about herself.”
My stomach clenches. No. That’s crazy. How could I be that intimate, spend that much time, feel that connection with somebody, and have it not be real?
“You’re taking me to see her now though,” I point out. “Why?”
“Because you need this closure. Because you can’t really figure this thing out with Astrid as long as Scarlett is in the back of your mind.”
I look at my best friend. He is not looking forward to this trip. “Of course we fell for identical twins. That’s just like us.”
He gives a short bark of laughter. But it does seem appropriate. Henry feels more like my brother than my actual brothers do a lot of the time. He definitely knows me better than my brothers do. That’s intentional of course, but it makes Henry and me very close.
Henry shakes his head. “The Gale sisters are not going to be happy to see us.”
I think about Henry’s words. In three months, I need to have a plan to move on. I promised Astrid I would take care of this.
I settle back in my seat and look out the window, not seeing the clouds. All I can see is Scarlett’s face. Her thick, inky black hair, her bright green eyes, her sun-kissed skin, her full pink lips, the freckle beside her left ear, the tattoo on the inside of her left wrist with the date of her niece’s birth—no, her daughter’s birth.
I frown.
She said that date changed her life.
I loved that she was so dedicated to her family. That she was so close to her sister and niece. I felt that connection with her because Fiona and Saoirse mean that much to me.
But it was a lie.
Her daughter was born on January thirtieth. Not her niece. If she lied about something that important, she could have easily lied about her favorite sub sandwich toppings, her dream weekend, her favorite sexual position, and what she’d do with a million dollars.
All of those things were apparently Ruby’s favorites.
Jesus. I scrub a hand over my face. I know a lot of fucking intimate details about my best friend’s ex-girlfriend if that’s the case.
And nothing about the woman I’ve believed I’ve been in love with for almost two years.