Page 37 of Only for the Season

“Why are you scowling?” Eli asks.

Cora arrives with our drinks before I can answer. I swirl the whiskey in the glass. This glass is crystal. It’s beautiful and elegant. And yet I find I prefer the plastic cups with mermaids on them in Parker’s apartment.

Damn it. I can’t spend two minutes out of her company without thinking of her. Maybe she’s one of those sea creatures she loves so much. Is there a sea creature that can bewitch men? Perhaps a mermaid.

“Jeremy,” Eli grumbles. “Answer my question. Are you worried about theSynqapp? How is the development going? You said you’d be finished by the end of Thanksgiving weekend, but Thanksgiving has come and gone and you’re still on Smuggler’s Hideaway working on it.”

I jump at the chance to change the subject away from all my failures concerning the app. “Are you trying to get rid of me?”

“Hell, no. I love having you nearby. I’ve missed you this past year.”

“You’re the one who moved away.”

“Worth it.” He has the soft, infatuated look of a man in love on his face again.

My chest burns. I am not jealous. I don’t want to live on Smuggler’s Hideaway. I don’t want a woman who loves me or a child.

I cut all of those ideas out of my dreams after my parents did what they did. Being biologically related to a person doesn’t necessarily equal unconditional love. My parents’ ‘love’ for me wasn’t selfless in the least once I made my first million.

But Parker isn’t the same. She isn’t after my money.

And there I go fantasizing about the curvy baker again. This needs to stop. Maybe once we’ve spent a night exploringeach other’s bodies, I’ll be cured of this obsession. Good plan. I smile.

“What are you smiling about?”

I wipe my smile from my face.

Eli wags a finger at me. “You can’t hide from me. I’ve known you since our first day of college. I was there when you were curled up on the bathroom floor next to the toilet, naked and convinced you were dying.”

“We agreed that incident never happened.”

He barks out a laugh. “I will never agree to forget you bet the RA you could eat six packages of ramen noodles in less than five minutes.”

“The resident assistant was an asshole.”

“He wasn’t an asshole for catching you sneaking back into the dorms at two a.m.”

“It wasn’t as if I was out partying. I was in the computer lab working.”

“Geek.”

“Geek who developed an app that made you a fortune.”

“Speaking of which, you never answered my question about how the development ofSynqis going.”

Damn. Eli could always talk circles around me. There’s a reason I hid out in the computer lab for most of college after all.

Cora clears her throat. “Gentlemen, we are beginning our descent into LaGuardia.”

Saved by the bell. I busy myself finishing my drink, putting away the papers I got out but never touched, and righting my chair.

“It’s cute you think this conversation is over,” Eli says as the wheels hit the tarmac.

I pretend not to hear him. What else am I going to do? Admit I’m staring down burnout? Tell him I haven’t been able to code more than a couple of lines since I arrived on Smuggler’s Hideaway?

Eli is my best friend, and I trust him with my life, but some things are too private to share.

Cora opens the door to the jet and lowers the stairs. “The helicopter is waiting as requested.”