Free BRIAN (The Callahans Book 1) by Glenna Sinclair

flashes.
    “I’m sorry,” I said, aware of just how lame the words sounded as they came out of my mouth. But what else was there to say?
    “Do you love her?”
    I shook my head even though she couldn’t see me. The tension in her shoulders seemed to grow. I reached for her, but the doors slid open and she stepped out, walking as tall and dignified as Cassidy always did. Even the night I told her I’d chosen Abigail, she walked away with her head up and her spine stiff. It was one of the many things I admired about her.
    Admired. Maybe that wasn’t the right word. But I wasn’t ready to even think of a better word.
    I followed her, sliding into the chauffeured car beside her. She skimmed through emails on her iPad that came in while we were in the meeting, looking for anything that might demand her, or my, quick attention.
    “I don’t.”
    She glanced at me, confusion bright in her blue eyes for a moment. But then it cleared, and for a second, I thought I saw relief. Maybe even a spark of hope. It only lasted a second, but it was a second long enough to ignite something in my own chest that I shouldn’t indulge.
    “It’s none of my business. I shouldn’t have asked.”
    “I think after what happened last night, you had every right.”
    She shook her head. “You were drunk.”
    “Does that really matter?”
    She hesitated, her hand wrapped so tightly around her cell phone that her knuckles were white. Then she turned into me, touching the side of my face lightly.
    “I never stopped thinking about you.”
    I lifted her chin, needing almost desperately to see that carefree, openly innocent trust in her eyes that once radiated from those blue depths when she was young. It wasn’t there, but there was something else. Desire. Cautious affection. The beginning of something warm, something that was almost about trust…love.
    Love. Could she love me again? Was that possible?
    “All these years…” I brushed my finger against her jaw. “I never thought I’d see you again.”
    “Neither did I.”
    “You left Boston so quickly after that night.”
    Her eyes dropped, a bright blush spreading over her cheeks.
    I kissed the top of her head. “I had to choose Abigail. She was the mother of my children.”
    She turned from me, lifting the iPad out of her lap again.
    “Sean wants to see you as soon as we get back. He’s concerned about the contract you and Jack are set to sign with that streaming service next week. Something about—”
    “Forget about work for a minute.”
    She wouldn’t look at me.
    “As long as you’re with Rachel,” she said as the car slowed, pulling to a stop in front of Sardi’s, “we can’t do this. I won’t do this.”
    “Then I’ll end it with her.”
    She looked up, her eyes wide with surprise. “You’d do that for me?”
    I brushed my fingers over her jaw again, moving in close for a slow kiss.
    “I would. I will.”

Chapter 10
     
    Cassidy
    It couldn’t really be this easy.
    Brian poured another glass of champagne. First lunch at Sardi’s, then dinner at the Rainbow Room. In between was the tour of the city he’d promised, a drive in the chauffeured car to all the fabled spots in Manhattan and the surrounding boroughs—Time’s Square, Broadway, Wall Street, the Brooklyn Bridge—with commentary that I wasn’t always confident was accurate. But he was sweet, trying to show me a world I never would have seen if not for him.
    “Do you remember the first time I took you back to my room?”
    I blushed, remembering the sight of his unmade bed and the excitement it bore deep in my chest even as I tried to pretend I didn’t know what he’d brought me there for.
    “You promised you would show me the world someday.”
    “I’ve finally kept a small piece of that promise.”
    “You have.”
    I lifted my glass to my lips and sipped, the sweetness of the grapes and the sharpness of the bubbles playing over my tongue. He watched me over the candlelight, his expression