“Sorry, but now we have more time to socialize.”
Dakota shook her head, but stood aside to let Susan enter. “What’s all this?”
“I’m sorry I’m late, but I figured with all the packing and worrying you’d be doing, you wouldn’t have time to make yourself dinner, so I brought it with me.”
She followed Susan to the kitchen and helped her unload the cartons of Chinese food.
“I’m not worrying.”
“Uh-huh.” Susan moved around Dakota’s kitchen with ease. She retrieved two wineglasses and a corkscrew out of the cabinet while Dakota set the table.
“Thanks for this,” she said after Susan poured the wine.
“You’re welcome.”
“So, are you ready to begin this project?”
Dakota was thoughtful while she chewed. “As ready as I’ll ever be. Who knew after all these years that I’d see Logan again, much less have him for a client.”
“I’ll admit, the timing is…interesting,” Susan replied.
Dakota let out an unladylike snort. “Don’t read too much into it. I wrote him off once before…and after this is over, I’ll do it again.”
“You think it’ll be that easy this time?”
“Sure, why not?”
“Why not? Dakota, it’s obvious that the two of you have unfinished business. I’ll hand it to you, up until this point, you’ve done a very good job of acting like he doesn’t exist. The fact that I didn’t know about him, or how deep the history runs between you two, is proof enough.”
There was a light hint of censure in Susan’s voice that Dakota did not miss.
“I know. I’m sorry, Suzy. I just… It was hard enough living through that time in my life without having to relay what happened to anyone else.”
“What did happen, Dakota?”
She sighed and sat back in her chair, absentmindedly swirling the wine in her glass. “It all started with an argument. From the moment I began spending summers at my grandparents’ house, the neighborhood kids made fun of me for being the outsider. I was getting teased badly by a group of girls one day, when Logan Montague walked past and heard them. He stood up for me. He was my champion that day. Eventually, we became inseparable, and I spent every summer in Chicago. My parents thought it was better for me to branch out and get to know more kids, but I didn’t want to. We played together, spent long hours reading our favorite books, talking about the future, or being knee-deep in some adventure. Logan was my best friend for five years. One day he betrayed me by ruining my relationship with Michael. Not to mention leaving, and breaking my heart—after we kissed, of course.”
Susan sat back and crossed her legs to get comfortable. “Whoa, wait. Who’s Michael?”
“He was my first boyfriend. Logan didn’t like him from the start, and always razzed me about him. He never missed an opportunity to point out how Michael was lacking in some way. I was livid at his interference in my love life, but I was torn because he was my best friend. In the end, I thought him very high-handed to assume Michael wasn’t right for me.”
“Well, did you talk to him about it?”
“Constantly, but it always ended in arguments, so I ignored his remarks about Michael. I thought I was in love. And pow, just like that, it was over. He broke up with me. I was devastated. Later…I found out the extent of Logan’s dislike for him.”
“How?”
“Michael admitted that he’d been talked into breaking it off with me—by Logan.”
Susan gasped. “No way!”
Dakota nodded. “He’d scored courtside seats for a Bulls game, but that didn’t stop him from telling me all about Logan’s machinations to bust us up. I’m sure Logan didn’t factor that into the deal. Sadly, that incident made me realize that in order for Logan’s attempts to be successful, it meant Michael wasn’t as committed to me as he’d claimed. Years later, I considered myself lucky that it ended.”
“Lucky why?”
“By seeing how the love of my life turned out. Michael is as big a jerk now as when we were teenagers. Why I didn’t see it then is beyond me. Regardless of how angry I was at Logan, I have to admit that his butting in where he didn’t belong saved me a lot of heartache later.”
Too bad he didn’t stay around to find that out. At first, she missed Logan so bad, Dakota thought she would never recover. It was during that time she realized that her attachment ran deeper than mere friendship.
“Hello?”
Dakota snapped out of her reverie. “Sorry. You know, it took me a while to get over it, but after retracing the events in my head, I convinced myself that Logan acted out of jealousy. I suspected that deep down, he loved me.”
“And did you feel the same?”
She nodded. “Especially after that kiss. It felt like we had shared such a connection when it happened. That hope prompted me to go see him at college. He’d written me several times, but I didn’t respond. Months passed before I realized I had to tell him how I felt, but that idea blew up in my face.”
“Why?”
“Long story short, I went to see him and he was…he was with another woman. With her,” Dakota stressed.
“Oh,” Susan said sympathetically. She reached across the table and squeezed her friend’s hand. “I’m so sorry, Dakota. I know what a rough time that was for you. I can’t imagine having to face everything alone, and then to decide and declare your love just to have it—”
“Blow up in my face?”
“Not work out,” Susan finished. “I know it must’ve been hard.”
“You have no idea. Anyway, I returned home disillusioned, embarrassed and just plain numb. And that’s the end of the story. I was stupid to think that Logan felt that way about me. I’d lashed out at him after learning the truth about Michael, and it was the worst argument we’d ever had. I told him to stay out of my personal life. We made up weeks later, and then out of the blue, he left. Each time he returned, it was tense between us. In retrospect, how can I fault him now for doing exactly what I’d asked?”
“Still, you should’ve told him about your visit and how you felt—among other things.”
“What good would that’ve done? It wouldn’t have changed anything I was struggling with at the time. No, it was better he didn’t know I was there.”
“But you’d have had the support you needed. A shoulder to cry on. You were heartbroken, Dakota. I’m convinced having Logan by your side would’ve helped you cope. Now there’s a huge what if cloud hanging over the two of you.”
“Oh, no, it’s not.” Dakota got up and began clearing the table. “There’s nothing hanging between us, Suzy. Me and relationships don’t work out. It’s been a painful lesson, but one I’ve learned in spades.”
“I disagree. I think you two should’ve cleared the air years ago. If for no other reason, it would ease the tension between you now.”
“There’s no tension.”
Susan tilted her head to the side. “Were you not in the same room I was?”
Dakota placed the remainder of the Chinese food in the refrigerator while Susan wiped off the table.
“Look, there’s nothing between us but a very lucrative contract, and I plan on upholding my end of it.”
“If you say so.” Susan walked over and hugged