Free Conditional Offer by Liz Crowe Page A

squeezing her hand gently, then pulled the phone from his pockets. He sent one text to Sara, ending with: "Guard your heart. It's important to me." She was headed to a fancy party to celebrate the opening of Gordon's new downtown building. Something in Craig knew the guy would be lying in wait for her, was willing to do anything to get her back, and honestly, Craig couldn't blame him one bit.
    His next text was to Suzanne. "I want to see you when I get back. Take you out."
    "Like on a date?" She shot back, making him smile.
    "No, like on a polar expedition. Yeah, a date, you goof."
    "Okay. I'd like that."
    He shut off his phone, jumped up on the dance floor and enjoyed himself for the first time in months. He sat with Lillian, Rick, Grace, and Brian at midnight, passing a champagne bottle around the group. His middle brothers, Travis and Allen were already gone with their wives and newborns. He pointed at Lil.
    "Tell me if this guy turns into an asshole, okay?"
    "Fuck you, punk," Rick said, grabbing the bottle and taking a slug.
     "Come home Craig," Grace said, putting her arm around him. "Please."
    He sighed, picturing the small, smart-mouthed redhead he'd talked to nearly all the way down from Michigan. His phone had been hot to the touch by the time he'd pulled into his sister's driveway. But he would have talked more, just to keep her voice in his ear. "No. Not yet. I think I'm gonna go back to school.  I have another few months to use my 'get into Michigan free' pass."
    "It's a girl, isn't it?"
    "No. Yes. Maybe. None of your damn business."
    "Is it that one, Craig," Lillian asked, "the one that you talked to me about?"
    "No," he said, pondering the reality of truly letting Sara go. "It's not. It's someone else.  Someone … better."

Chapter Thirteen
     
    "Where's Sara?" he asked when he got back to the office after two weeks at  home with his family.
    "She's around. Not feeling well though." The receptionist shot him a funny look.
    "Oh?" A tiny alarm bell rang in his brain, but he ignored it in favor of trying to piece his real estate life back together and plan his next step with Suzanne. He wanted so badly to take their friendship a step further, but her innate at-arms-length stance he knew would take some time to breach.
    He didn't see Sara for another two weeks and by then his anxiety about her was at a fever pitch. He'd heard she had gone down to Florida to visit her parents all of a sudden, which was odd, but he tried to shrug it off. He still hadn't been able to pin Suzanne down on a date, and it was starting to piss him off. Her continued excuses and deflections were beyond frustrating. "Hey," a deep voice interrupted him. He looked up to see Jack Gordon dressed to the nines, as usual, staring right at him. He stood, his nerves on the alert. The guy looked haggard around the edges, but he oozed a pissed-off alpha male vibe that set Craig's teeth on edge.
    "Yes?" he asked.
    "We need to talk, I think."
    "Really? I don't."
    Jack leaned on his cubicle doorway. "Well, then I'll talk and you listen."
    Craig stayed silent.
    "I love Sara," Jack stated, shocking him a little. "And you need to back the fuck off."
    Anger quickly replaced shock, but he forced himself to continue the silence.
    "That's pretty much it, Robinson. You got anything to say?"
    Craig pushed himself up off the desk where he'd been leaning and stepped straight into Gordon's personal space. The man didn't back down an inch. "Yeah, I do. You need to become less of a supreme asshole if you think she's ever going to be with you in any significant way."
    Jack glared at him.
    His heart pounded. "That's right. Less a selfish dickhead and more a  real man would go a long fucking way to making her happy. Ever thought about that?"
    "Sounds like you have," Jack ground out. The men stood, toe to toe for a couple of seconds. "And I'm here to tell you right now you can stop thinking about her for any fucking reason whatsoever."
    Craig let his inner contrarian