"Oh yeah." Tess nodded and leaned into him. "Luckily, I walked in on him and one of his many women a few months before the wedding. Saved me a lifetime of heartache. He did me a favor." She smiled a bright, sparkly smile. "And just think, honey . . . I wouldn't have met you, and we were meant to be."
"Absolutely." Logan couldn't help himself; he lowered his head to drop a quick kiss on her gorgeous mouth. He held her close, as if they were a real couple. She smiled anew, obviously enjoying herself. Then he glanced at the Hillmans. Brady looked all tight and furious, while Chynna's face was bright pink. Yup, her designer panties were in a twist now. He imagined the conversation between Mr. and Mrs. Hillman later would be very interesting indeed. He shot a wide, smug smile at Brady and said, "Guess I should thank you for being such a douchebag, eh?"
Brady scowled and Chynna gasped. Tess just snuggled into Logan's side and kept smiling as she said, "Gee, this reunion was fun! So glad you wanted to say hi, Brady. But we have a dinner reservation upstairs."
"We'd best get going, sweetheart," Logan added cheerfully.
Brady glared at them both with undisguised fury, then grasped his wife's elbow. He steered her away without a look back, though Chynna glanced over her shoulder at Tess once before they disappeared into the crowd.
"Thanks for the support," Tess said to Logan.
She moved to pull away, but he still held her close. He gave her a little squeeze and said, "That was more fun than either of us should admit to."
The corners of Tess's mouth lifted. "I know. Gotta say, you did seem to enjoy yourself there at the end."
"Well, calling out assholes has always been a fun pastime for me."
"Good to know." She pulled out of his arms, but said with quiet grace, "Thank you for having my back."
"Anytime." He gazed down at her. Questions rolled through his mind, but mostly, he just wanted to get her away from that whole scene. Despite her unruffled exterior, he suspected some of Brady's poison-tipped arrows had hit a mark. "Let's go get some food."
"Yes, please."
* * *
Ten minutes later, they were sitting at a table in the Sunrise Restaurant. The ceiling and outer wall were made of glass, affording spectacular views of Aspen Mountain and the scenery around it. Nearby, a fire blazed in a huge rock fireplace while acoustic guitar music played over the sound system. As the waitress left them menus and glasses of water, Tess muttered, "I need a stiffer drink than this. Hell, maybe a whole bottle." Her eyes flew wide and shot to Logan. "Oh my God, I'm sorry."
"For what?"
"Um . . . what I just said. That was insensitive."
He grinned wryly. "Tess, there's plenty of times I think the same exact thing. I just never act on it. No worries." He leaned in a bit to hold her gaze. "Don't walk on eggshells around me, okay? It's not like if you mention beer I'm going to go running to a bar to get one. It doesn't work like that."
"Of course." She nodded. "Thanks. I didn't mean . . ."
"I know you didn't. It's fine. Hell, if I ran into an ex-fiancé who was a jackass like that guy, I'd want a drink too." He picked up his menu. "If you want a drink while you're with me, have one. Not just now, but anytime. I'm not Jekyll and Hyde, I'm not going to turn into a monster and start frothing at the mouth if a drink is near me. Honestly. Okay?"
"Okay. But no, I won't. I haven't had a drink since Christmas. Body cleanse, remember?"
They lapsed into a comfortable silence as they pored over their menus. But after a few minutes, he had to ask.
"Tell me something," Logan said. "I have to know. How'd someone as amazing as you end up engaged to a tool like that?"
"Because he's a world-class liar and manipulator," she said plainly. "And I was too trusting and blindly in love. At least I found out who he really was, and what he was really after, before I married him."
"What was he really after?" As soon as he said it, he was sure he knew the answer.
"You really have to ask? My family's money. I was the easy in." Tess didn't skip a beat as she turned her smile up to the waitress who appeared at their table.
After the waitress took their orders and walked away, Tess leaned back in her chair and said, "Want to hear the quick story?"
"Yes, actually, I do," Logan said. He folded his forearms on the tabletop and gazed at her. "I'm all ears."
Tess swept her long curls back over her shoulders so they wouldn't rest on the table. "I met Brady at a charity benefit at the Met," she began. "He was an investment banker for one of the biggest firms in Manhattan. He approached me, we hit it off, and he swept me off my feet. I found out much later that he knew who I was; it was no chance meeting. He'd heard about me and went to the party with the specific intention of meeting me. He'd targeted me as a desirable mark."
"I already hate this story," Logan rumbled. "And him."
A flash of a grin swept across her face, but didn't reach her eyes. "We were engaged after eight months. He wanted to get married right away, but I wanted a long engagement. I'd like to say it was because deep down I knew he was a scumbag, but that wasn't it. I was so in love with him. . . ." She shook her head. "It was solely because of pressure from my father. He's the one who insisted on a longer engagement, and back then I was still easily influenced by him, so I did what he wanted. Brady wasn't going to give a man like my father grief, so he relented."
"From what I've heard today," Logan said carefully, "your father sounds like a . . . force of nature. In a typhoon kind of way."
"A very tactful way of putting it," Tess said. "Gold star for you. We'll talk about him some other time, but you're not wrong. Anyway . . ." She reached for her glass, took a long sip of water. "Brady and I got-or should I say, I bought-an apartment on Central Park West. God, I loved that view. Overlooked the whole park . . . I thought we were happy. He put on a great show. Had a short temper, and sometimes we argued, but nothing crazy. No relationship is without that stuff."
Logan nodded. "That's true."
"So. Two months before the wedding, I had to take a business trip to France. I was working for the Harrison Foundation by then."
"Okay."
"I left for what was supposed to be a week, but I came home two nights early. Thought I'd surprise my loving fiancé . . ."
Tess took another sip of water, pleased to note that telling the story didn't make her stomach turn or her chest get tight the way it had for years. She really felt nothing for Brady anymore, nothing at all, and that was a blessing. Yet she could still recall, clear as day, walking into the penthouse that evening . . . seeing his wallet, keys, and phone on the marble counter . . . "I heard the shower running. So I went in to surprise him. Only I got the surprise."
"He had company," Logan surmised with a grimace.
"So cliché it's painful." Tess rolled her eyes. "I stood there for a few seconds, trying to process what I was seeing. Then the Harrison in me took over." Her slight grin was rueful, hollow. "First I went and grabbed my phone. I took a bunch of pictures. They were-excuse my word choice, but there's no polite way to say it. They were mid-fuck, they were all caught up in it, so they didn't know I was there. I got my evidence. Then I went all the way into the bathroom and started filling the sink with water. She saw me first, and she screamed. By the time they got out of the shower and he started trying his pathetic excuses, I'd gone back to the living room and gotten his phone." Her brows arched with a hint of satisfaction. "While he watched, I dropped it into the sink."
"Filled with water!" Logan barked out a stunned laugh. "Man, that's hardcore."
"He deserved that and more."
"Damn right he did."
"Needless to say, I found out later he had been cheating on me with three different women, all on a regular basis. I found that out because when I had Brady thrown out of the apartment and barred from any access to the building, he tried to sue me. My brother Charles had his personal private investigator do a full check." Tess shrugged. "As for what he insinuated about my father messing with his career? Truth is, I always suspected the same thing. But I never asked him outright. We had one conversation . . . I tried to find out if he'd done something. Because I'd heard through the grapevine about Brady's troubles and wondered at the coincidence in timing. You know: We broke up, then he was fired, no one would hire him in the upper circles . . ."