Best Friends With the Billionaire (The Rochesters) (2 page)

It was all in the past now. She’d wept many useless tears, but she’d learned to live with the feeling of rejection. She’d put on her big girl panties and moved on, literally and figuratively. Moved to Sydney, moved on with her life, packed all her feelings for Kirk in a trunk labeled “experience” and stowed it away in the basement of her heart.

“I
have
moved on.” Kirk sounded abrupt. When she glanced up, she was surprised to find his expression stiff and guarded. “I’m not the grieving widower anymore.”

“So I’ve heard.”

She’d learned how he’d “moved on” through their mutual friends. Six months after Alison’s death, Kirk had started dating again and apparently gone at it with a vengeance, a different woman on his arm for each month of the year. Cassie had seen some of the photos on social media, posted there by friends, not Kirk. The women might change each month, but they were always the same—curvaceously beautiful, confident, groomed, successful. They were models, TV presenters, entrepreneurs. None of them were building project managers like Cassie; none of them wore hardhats, fluorescent vests, and steel-capped boots as part of their work attire.

Kirk lifted his eyebrows. “What exactly have you heard?”

She played with her chopsticks. “Oh, that you’re dating again. A lot.”

He rubbed his jaw, long fingers scraping against the faint shadow of stubble. “And what do you think of that?”

She shrugged. “Does it matter what I think?”

“Yes.” He leaned across the table, palms flat against the white cloth. “I care what my best friend thinks.”

Best friend. Sparks of pleasure spread through her, followed by a faint tremble, a tremor of wanting.
If I’m your best friend, how come you’ve never thought of dating me?
The plea flashed through her before she could help it. Damn it, she was
not
going to go down that line of thought. She wasn’t in love with Kirk anymore. What she’d felt had only been a crush because no heterosexual girl could be immune to his hotness.

She forced herself to grin at him. “Are we still best friends?”

“Of course.”

He stretched an arm across the table and rested his fingers on her hand. His touch triggered a quiver of pleasure in her hand, which quickly spread through her body. Oh boy. She wanted this moment to go on forever. Kirk had never been a touchy-feely guy, so this was definitely out of the ordinary. He seemed to think so, too, because after a few seconds he withdrew his hand, leaving a warm spot tingling on the back of her hand.

“We’ve kind of drifted apart these past few years,” he said.

Oh, so he’d noticed that. But he probably didn’t know it had been a deliberate move on her part. Deliberate to help her heal.

“It’s your fault,” she said lightly. “You refuse to join Facebook, so you miss out on all my brilliant status updates.”

“Facebook isn’t real.” Kirk waved his hand. “You only see the airbrushed moments your so-called friends want you to see.”

True enough. No one checking her Facebook timeline would have a clue of what she’d gone through.

“Well, as your IRL friend, I’m here for the next two weeks, and if my mom continues to starve me, I’ll be insisting we meet for dinner again soon.”

He nodded. The waiter came by to check on them, and when he was gone, Kirk said, “Are you ever planning on moving back here?”

“Nope,” she replied more tersely than she’d meant to.

“Is life down under so much better?”

Cassie hesitated. “I love my job there.” Initially she’d flown to Sydney to visit her Aunt Betsy, but then her husband Mario had offered Cassie a job in his construction business, and she’d stayed and thrived. “I help my uncle manage his building sites. It’s hard work, sometimes dirty, but very interesting. Every day is different.” Most of the people she worked with and supervised were male, some of them positively Neanderthal, but it didn’t faze her. She’d always gotten along with men. It was women she couldn’t figure out.

“And, you know, Sydney is a lot like San Francisco,” she continued. “The harbor, the ethnic food, the gay community, the weather—although I’d forgotten how cold this place can get in June.” She lifted her shoulders. “So, yes, I think I’ll be staying in Sydney for quite some time.”

Kirk frowned, as if her answer didn’t agree with him. “I’ve traveled a lot, but I can’t see myself living anywhere else but here. I can’t pinpoint what it is—maybe it’s the light or the air or even the damn fog, but I know this is where I belong.”

Her spirits sagged at his declaration. Maybe at the back of her mind she’d harbored a hope that he’d suggest coming out to visit her in Sydney. Maybe she’d daydreamed that in a strange new city he’d see her in a different light—not just the friend who’d needed his help with her English paper, who’d shared his weakness for schlock horror movies, who’d held him through the night after he’d buried his wife.

“It’s good to know where you belong.” She forced herself to sound upbeat. “Looks like we’ll be living on opposite sides of the Pacific for some time, then, huh?”

…

Kirk pressed his lips together. It didn’t seem right that he and Cassie should be on opposite sides of anything, let alone the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean. This dinner wasn’t turning out to be the fun, easy catch-up he’d envisaged. They still knew each other well, but things were…different. It stood to reason. They hadn’t met like this, just the two of them over a relaxed, casual meal, in ages. How long ago? Since before he’d married Alison, if memory served him correctly.

The realization made him frown. It shouldn’t have been that long ago. He’d always counted Cassie as his best friend. Their friendship was different from the others he’d formed, maybe because she was a woman, although she was the least girly woman he knew. A fact that he appreciated. Cassie was unique.

He studied her anew, aware she’d changed in some subtle way since the last time she’d visited California. In her simple striped top, stone-washed jeans, and basic sneakers, she appeared her usual, understated self. She wore very little makeup and no jewelry apart from a plain silver necklace. Her straight brown hair shone with health, tips brushing against her square shoulders, her wispy bangs highlighting toffee eyes that were warm and friendly but also slightly wary, as if she wasn’t completely comfortable in his presence.

“Your accent hasn’t changed,” he said. “I thought after six years you’d be sounding like a native Aussie.”

“Crickey, me ol’ cobber.” Cassie mangled her vowels before grinning and reverting to her normal voice. “I can speak Strine like a local, but my accent comes in handy over there. I appear exotic just by opening my mouth, never mind what comes out of it. Whereas here, well, I’m like everyone else.” She raised her beer and declared, “Here’s to Sydney and San Francisco,” then drained the glass.

“You’re going to have a hangover tomorrow,” he warned.

“I need one.” She groaned. “I’m supposed to tag along with my mom and sister to the wedding planner tomorrow. What are you doing? Any chance you can sneak out and play hooky with me?”

“There’s nothing I’d like better, but I’ve got meetings all day.”

“Oh, yes.” Cassie sat up straighter. “I heard about your new title. Congratulations. Does this mean you’ve ousted your cousin from the top position?”

“No, we’ve carved up the company to make it more manageable. Lex has taken over the property management side, and I’m the CEO of Jubilee Hotels. Our businesses are separate, but we still consult each other.”

“Weren’t you and Lex always rivals? What happened?”

“We grew up and realized we had more in common than we thought. We’re good friends these days.”

Kirk didn’t want to delve too deeply into his checkered relationship with his cousin. They’d had their differences. Kirk had “stolen” Lex’s girlfriend and married her. Lex had hidden company information from him and suspected him of sabotage. But that was in the past, and neither of them liked to discuss old history.

“And what are all these meetings you have to attend about?” Cassie asked.

“I’m trying to land an important deal with a businessman named Hank Parnell. The guy owns a chain of bars and restaurants up and down the west coast, and I want him as a partner in our new hotels. There’re a lot of synergies between our businesses. I think it would be a great fit for both of us.”

“Hmm, yes, it sounds like a shrewd plan, bringing two well-known brands together. I guess since you’ve taken over the hotels division you want to put your own stamp on it.”

“Exactly.” Kirk nodded. He liked discussing business with Cassie. She might not understand all the intricacies of his job, but she was interested, involved, and intelligent. Resting his forearms on the table, he leaned toward her. “Thing is, I have a slight problem with Hank Parnell.”

“Oh?” Cassie bent forward, too, her expression conspiratorial. “Is he difficult? A megalomaniac?”

“It’s not so much him as his daughter, Shawna.”

Cassie wrinkled her nose. “Go on.”

No one knew of his problem, but with Cassie in town, she was the perfect person to confide in. “She comes to most of the meetings. He’s mentoring her or something, I’m not quite sure. The thing is, she’s been coming on to me, and I’ve tried ignoring it, but she doesn’t appear to be getting the message.”

A strange expression passed across Cassie’s face. She pleated her napkin, focusing on the material. “Are you sure she’s coming on to you? It’s not a figment of your male ego?”

Kirk snorted. “Yeah, right. What do you call it when the woman feels up my arm and asks if I work out? Or when she rubs her bare foot against my leg under the table when I’m trying to discuss business with her father? Or when she texts me in the evening asking if I’m free for a drink?”

Cassie glanced up at him, her wide brown eyes startled, a hint of pink rising in her cheeks. “Okay, I hear you. So what’s the problem? Is she not gorgeous enough for you?”

Was that a touch of sarcasm in her tone? Kirk never discussed the women he dated—or chose not to date—with anyone, not even Cassie. But now he’d breached that embargo.

“She’s not bad-looking.” He shrugged impatiently. “That’s beside the point. I’m not interested in her but she’s ignored all my hints, and it’s a helluva awkward situation when Hank seems oblivious to it. I’m tempted to be blunt with her, but this deal with Hank is huge, and I don’t want to screw it up. So you see my dilemma.”

“Hmm, yeah. It’s kinda funny.”

“Funny?” That was not the reaction he’d hoped for.

Cassie’s lips twitched. “Yeah, funny. You could laugh it off, treat it as a joke.”

The corners of his lips lifted, responding to Cassie’s amusement, before he shook his head. “Shawna has zero sense of humor. I doubt she’d see the funny side of an SNL sketch, let alone me laughing her off.”

More likely she’d run to her dad screaming blue murder, and the deal would be off. He couldn’t risk that. Hank Parnell had flirted with other hotel companies before and left them high and dry, so everyone—the media, investors, banks—was watching Kirk, placing bets on whether he’d win or lose. Kirk had no intention of losing. He’d worked his ass off to bring this deal together. If he pulled it off, it would be his biggest deal since he’d become CEO. It would inspire confidence in his management team, and like Cassie said, be a fitting way to mark his taking control of the division. He wasn’t willing to put all that in jeopardy because one vain, silly woman couldn’t take a hint.

“Tell her you have a girlfriend,” Cassie said. “That should stop her.”

“Why didn’t I think of that?” Kirk stretched his arms out wide and grinned. “It’s the perfect solution. You move in with me and pretend to be my girlfriend.”

Her jaw dropped. “What! Are you crazy?”

“But this is your brilliant plan, and you were saying earlier how your mom and sister are driving you nuts. So what’s so crazy about it?”

Cassie looked like she was having trouble breathing. She gulped several times as she ran her fingers through her hair.

“No one’s going to believe I’m your girlfriend,” she choked out. The pink in her cheeks deepened, and her eyes darted away from him. “I’m not—” She flapped her hands about. “I’m so not the type of woman you date.”

The curious hitch in her voice caught him, snagged him in the chest. For a moment a hot, uncomfortable feeling washed over him, and it seemed like a chasm suddenly opened up between them, filled with strange, dark emotions.

“The only person we have to convince is Shawna Parnell,” he said emphatically, deciding to ignore that weird chasm. “She doesn’t know we’ve been friends for ages. If you move in with me and accompany me to one or two dinners with Shawna and her dad, that should be enough to convince her.”

Cassie tilted her head up, the pink slowly fading from her cheeks. “One or two dinners?”

“Yeah, there’s always some entertaining on both sides before the deal is finalized. It would really help if you could deflect Shawna while I concentrate on her father.”

She sighed. “I see. So I’m your armor. Your pepper spray.”

“Not
just
that. It’d be great to hang out with you again.”

As he spoke the words, he realized the truth in them—realized how much he missed the easy camaraderie between Cassie and him. He missed the friendship they’d once had; he wanted that closeness again. Should he tell her that? But maybe it would make her uncomfortable. It wasn’t the kind of thing they discussed. He wasn’t used to opening up about emotional things, but she didn’t need to be told. She was smart and intuitive. She got what he meant.

But it seemed Cassie didn’t have the same fond memories. She shook her head firmly. “I’m sorry. I wish I could help you, Kirk, but I can’t.”

His stomach clenched. He didn’t know why, but her gentle refusal riled him. “Come on, don’t be like that.”

“Like what?”

“Stubborn and difficult.”

A line appeared on her forehead. “I see. So I’m stubborn and difficult because I won’t go along with your plans, is that it?”

“What are friends for? We’re supposed to be there for each other.”

She looked up at him, her face suddenly pale and taut. “I
have
been there for you.”