Page 80 of To the Chase

It wouldn’t be good. There was no getting around that. But she’d already succeeded in making it a little brighter, and that was something.

Lace might have even called it magic.

Chapter Thirty

Salvatore

Themagicendedthemoment Sam strode into my office.

I’d been expecting and dreading the conversation. Enough time had passed since the disastrous dinner, I wasn’t angry anymore; I was just confused.

How had we gotten here?

How had the distance between us grown so wide without me noticing?

Sam closed the door behind him with a click that sounded more like a gavel banging and stood there, his hands in his pockets, like this was going to be casual.

I knew better.

“I figured we should talk,” he said.

I rose from my chair. “You’re right. We need to.” Circling my desk, I perched on the edge, waiting for him to continue.

Silence continued to stretch between us. It wasn’t hostile. Just…full. Of questions. Of our history together. Things we’d left unsaid for too long. The uneasiness of not knowing where to go from here.

Finally, Sam broke it. “Look, Tore, I was wrong. Okay? I shouldn’t have sprung the Gravis meeting on you the way I did.”

I blinked several times. “You’re admitting you were wrong? Should I record this?”

He smiled faintly. “Go ahead. Frame it even.”

I wasn’t ready to smile back. We weren’t there yet, even if part of me wished we could wipe the slate clean and go back to how things used to be. Then again, how long had it been since things had been easy between us? I couldn’t remember a time when Sam hadn’t been pushing me. I used to think it was what I needed, and maybe at one time, it had been.

I wasn’t a naive college kid anymore, though.

“I think where we are is as much my fault as yours.” I twisted my ring, my gut churning. I did not like having this talk, but it was a long time coming. “At the beginning of Nox, I asked you to help me make decisions on our growth and direction. Even before that, I looked to you for advice on how to dress and talk to people. Well…you know, you were there.”

The corner of his mouth hitched. “I remember the days of nerdy Sal all too well. Thank god you let me mold you.”

That did not sit right with me, but it wasn’t necessarily inaccurate either. These days, I didn’t give a shit what others thought about me. The reputation I’d built insulated me from outsiders’ opinions. But a decade ago…I’d been stuck, unable to figure out how to fit in and desperately wanting to.

“I don’t need that anymore, Sam. You know that, right?” I raised my brows. “You have to see I’m doing well on my own. Personally and professionally.”

Henodded once and sighed. “I have to tell you, I was taken aback that you were late to dinnerandthat you showed up with Bea. You didn’t mention you were seeing her.”

I kept my expression neutral. I hadn’t missed his swift change of subject, guiding me away from the topic we should have been discussing, but I couldn’t hold back from answering him. “I didn’t realize I had to clear my dating life with you.”

“You don’t,” Sam rushed out, holding up a hand in mock surrender. “Of course you don’t. I was just surprised. I knew you liked her when you met her before…before. But that was a long time ago, and I’d assumed it had just been a fling.”

He’d said it lightly, but there was an edge just beneath the surface.

“No. Nothing about Bea is casual to me.”

He chuffed. “I guess not. You’re not a casual kind of guy. But do you really think she…fits?”

“Fits?”

Sam shrugged, pushing his hands back in his pockets. “I don’t know. I’m not sure what I mean. She’s just…not the type of woman I picture thriving in the role of a CEO’s partner. I could be wrong, though. I often am.”