My Secret Life. Lori Wilde

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СКАЧАТЬ into the condo. “Besides, I’m starving. Dwayne and I must have burned up a thousand calories.”

      “Braggart,” Katie accused.

      “Don’t pretend you wouldn’t be doing some bragging of your own if the shoe was on the other foot.” Tanisha dished up sweet-and-sour chicken and several kinds of dim sum on two paper plates. She passed one of the plates to Katie and handed her a set of chopsticks.

      The delicious smell teased Katie’s nose and she realized she hadn’t eaten anything but caramel popcorn all weekend long. They sat at the wrought iron bistro table in the breakfast nook.

      “Give me all the details,” Tanisha said. “Don’t leave anything out.”

      Cringing, Katie told her everything.

      “Look,” Tanisha said when she’d finished, “it was a case of mistaken identity. No one can fault you for that. If anything, he’s the one who should be ashamed for sneaking off with someone else when he’s dating your sister.”

      “That’s true.” She perked up. “But it doesn’t change the fact that I betrayed Brooke.”

      “You didn’t do it on purpose. How serious is Brooke and this guy, anyway? And what’s his name?”

      “Liam James.”

      Tanisha’s eyes widened. “The real-estate mogul who was nominated Boston’s most eligible bachelor by Young Bostonian?”

      “That’d be the one.”

      “All I gotta say is, girl, when you screw up, you do it in style.”

      Katie groaned and sank her head in her hands. “I don’t know what to do.”

      “Don’t do anything.” Tanisha shrugged. “Forget all about it.”

      “I can’t.”

      Tanisha studied her for a moment. “This is really eating you up inside, isn’t it?”

      Katie nodded miserably.

      “Your guilt only underscores what I was trying to tell you on Friday.”

      “Which is?”

      “You’re into self-sabotage.”

      “You’re probably right,” Katie said glumly, poking at her dim sum with a chopstick. Of all the dumb things she’d done in her life, this had to be one of the dumbest.

      “There’s a cure, you know.”

      Katie looked up from her plate. “And that is?”

      “Give up casual sex.”

      Katie arched an eyebrow. “This coming from the queen of casual sex.”

      “Not anymore,” Tanisha said.

      “Oh?” Katie straightened.

      Tanisha giggled girlishly, which was a surprise because she was not the giggly type. She pulled a key from her pocket. “Dwayne gave me a key to his place and I gave him one to mine.”

      “Seriously?”

      “I think my wild partying days are behind me.”

      “That’s great.” Katie got up to give her friend a hug.

      “Thanks,” Tanisha beamed. “I feel so happy.”

      “I’m happy for you.”

      “I wish you could find someone. When was the last time you had a serious boyfriend?”

      Katie gulped. She’d never had a serious boyfriend. She’d been having too much fun playing the field. “I’m not really ready for a serious relationship. I just want to stop making stupid mistakes.”

      “Then turn over a new leaf and empower yourself.”

      “I thought I was empowered.”

      “If you were empowered, then you wouldn’t be feeling miserable over it.”

      Katie blew out her breath. “Okay, so how do I empower myself?”

      “Stop basing your decisions on an if-it-feels-gooddo-it philosophy. Think about the consequences of your actions,” Tanisha instructed.

      “Can you bottom-line it for me?”

      “When it comes to sex, you’re going to have to go cold turkey.”

      LIAM SPENT the weekend working. Or at least trying to work.

      Hell, who was he kidding? He hadn’t gotten a lick of work done. He’d spent Saturday and Sunday at the office staring at the contracts on his desk and all he could see was Katie Winfield decked out in that devastating French-maid outfit.

      He had taken his anger at Finn Delancy out on her, and he had no idea how to make amends.

      Maybe you shouldn’t make amends. Maybe you should leave well enough alone. She’s obviously embarrassed that she mistook you for this Richard dude, or she wouldn’t have run off. Let it go.

      But Monday afternoon, when he still hadn’t been able to concentrate, he was starting to get concerned. He’d never been stymied like this. He didn’t like it. To clear his head, he went for a jog in the park, but it didn’t help.

      Finally, not knowing what else to do, he telephoned Tony.

      “Red Sox are playing tonight,” Liam said. “Wanna go?”

      “Just you and me?”

      “Yes. Unless Jess wants to come.”

      “She’s over at her sister’s helping her redecorate her living room.”

      “So we’re on?”

      “I don’t believe it. You? Taking time out for a ball game with your best buddy?”

      “We’ve got season tickets, no sense in wasting them.”

      “But we haven’t gone to a game without a business client tagging along since…well, never.”

      “We went in college.”

      “No, we didn’t.”

      “Really? I could have sworn we did.”

      “Didn’t happen.”

      “Well, I guess it’s time we rectified my oversight. Meet you at the ticket counter. They throw out the first pitch at seven.”

      Tony was lounging at the front gate when Liam arrived at Fenway Park.

      “You gonna tell me what this is really about?” Tony asked as they made their way СКАЧАТЬ