Ryan was in court all morning. Adrianna had asked Betsy to meet her for lunch. Although she didn’t like lying to her friend, her emotions were too raw and she made up an excuse about having too much work to do.
Actually it wasn’t far from the truth. She was hoping to be able to get her tasks done so she could leave early and minimize the time spent with Ryan.
The clock had just chimed one when Ryan appeared. Betsy smiled and said hello as he walked through the back door, knowing it would have looked odd to do anything else. Then she immediately returned her attention to the papers on her desk, hoping he’d go straight into his adjoining office and shut the door.
Instead he crossed the room and stood by her desk giving her no choice but to look up. “Is there something you need?”
He shifted from one foot to the other. “About our conversation yesterday—”
“All forgotten.” She spoke quickly before he could continue.
Ryan dropped into the chair next to her desk. The spicy scent of his cologne teased her nostrils. “I did a lot of thinking last night.”
Every muscle in Betsy’s body tensed. She had no idea what he was going to say, but she had the feeling she wasn’t going to like it.
“I’ve come up with something that might just solve both of our problems.” His voice said he was quite pleased with himself.
“I don’t have a problem.” Betsy picked up the promissory note she was working on for one of Ryan’s clients, but the words swam before her eyes.
“You like Tripp. You want to be with him. And now he’s moving back to Jackson.” He smiled expectantly as if he’d just given her all the information she needed tied up in a neat little bow.
The truth was she didn’t have a clue what he was trying to say. And she wished he would take his enticing smile and his delicious-smelling cologne and leave her alone. “While I might like Tripp, he doesn’t know I exist.”
“You realize this man you like is a good friend of mine.”
The man I like is you, you idiot, she wanted to say. But Betsy bit her tongue.
“And you and I share a common issue,” Ryan continued. “Like Tripp, Adrianna doesn’t know I exist.”
He seemed to expect her to say something, so Betsy obliged. “Adrianna is a good friend of mine.”
“Exactly.” Ryan slapped his hand on the table as if she’d just answered the million-dollar question.
Except...she didn’t know the question. “I don’t understand.”
The look he shot her seemed to say, You’re smarter than this. But, of course, that wasn’t true. Because if she was the least bit intelligent, she’d have stopped herself from falling in love with him.
“Are you familiar with the principle of ‘you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours’?”
Betsy slowly nodded.
“Well, you help get me in front of Adrianna,” he said with a little smile, “and I get you in front of Tripp. Then we let nature take its course.”
“Get in front of...” Betsy dropped the promissory note to the desk. This conversation required her full concentration. “What does that mean exactly?”
“For example, you help me spend time with Adrianna. That way she’ll have the opportunity to get to know me better. After all, to know me is to love me.”
Betsy couldn’t even manage a smile. “You mean, like I’d take you with me to Adrianna’s house for Thanksgiving?”
“Yes.” Ryan practically jumped out of his chair in his enthusiasm. “That’s exactly the type of intervention I’m talking about. But I want to make it very clear that this wouldn’t be one-sided.”
“It wouldn’t?”
“Absolutely not. Once Tripp is back and settled in, I’ll definitely return the favor.”
Betsy felt a knot in the pit of her stomach. The fact was, she might need an introduction to the man. Even though he’d been a friend of Ryan, she didn’t remember Tripp all that well. And unlike Adrianna, she hadn’t thought about him since high school. Even back then, he hadn’t made a big impression. “I don’t know...”
“What’s not to know? To get someone to fall in love with you, they have to be around you, spend time with you.”
The flicker of hope that one day Ryan might wake up and realize he was in love with her had been all but snuffed out when he’d announced he was in love with Adrianna. Still, she realized now that a tiny spark remained. Which meant she was either a hopeless romantic or the dumbest woman on the face of the earth. Betsy suspected both were true.
Because now, gazing into those beautiful gray eyes, she found herself wondering if maybe, just maybe, they spent more time together, Ryan would see that it wasn’t Adrianna he loved, but her instead.
You’re going to get your heart broken, a tiny voice of reason in her head whispered. But she ignored it. The way Betsy saw it, love wasn’t for wusses.
“What would make the most sense would be for the two of us to start hanging out together.” Betsy forced a slightly bored tone. “We make it clear to everyone that we’re just old friends. That way Adrianna and—”
Panic rose inside Betsy. Who was it she was supposed to be in love with? For a split second his name fled her mind.
“Tripp.” Ryan filled in the blank.
“Yes, Tripp.” She quickly repeated the name ten times in her head so she wouldn’t forget it again. “Because we don’t want them to think we’re a couple or anything...”
“No, we don’t want that.” Ryan spoke a little too quickly for her liking.
“Anyway, it would seem less suspicious. I know that Adrianna—” Betsy paused for effect “—wouldn’t think it strange at all if you started coming around with me.”
Betsy vowed in that moment if Ryan and Adrianna discovered that they were soul mates, she’d be happy for them. And even while her heart was breaking, she’d never let it show on her face.
Ryan’s expression turned thoughtful. As he drummed his fingers on the table, she could almost see him considering the pros and cons of what she’d suggested. “I think it would work,” he said finally. “Tripp would be less suspicious, too.”
Her gaze met his. “Please know that if we give it our best shot and he doesn’t return my feelings, I’m not the type to cling or to be where I’m not wanted.”
The words flowed from her heart and they were as much for her sake as for the attorney sitting beside her. It wasn’t Tripp who needed to know this about her, it was Ryan.
Betsy jumped when his hand closed over hers. “You’re a wonderful woman. He’d be crazy not to want you.”
Her skin turned hot beneath his touch and she pulled the words close to her heart. But she wondered, if she was so wonderful, why didn’t Ryan want her for himself? She slipped her hand out from beneath his. “Sounds like we have a deal.”
Ryan rubbed his chin. “When should we start?”
“Adrianna is having a few friends over for Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow. I’ll tell her to set the table for one more. Unless you’re busy—”
“I’ll be there,” he said immediately. “What time shall I pick you up?”
“Five o’clock would be fine.”
“I’ve