Page 62 of Playing Mr. Perfect

“Take notes, Flynn,” Sutton says. “My standards have just been raised.”

Jesus Christ. I look at Victory. “How did you find out about that?”

“Noah told me.”

“Fucking Noah.” He called me last week and gave me shit about it. I’d forgotten he was at Treat’s house for dinner the night I called about the plane. “I would’ve called Seth if he had a frigging plane.” In addition to everything else my overachieving brother has done, Seth got his pilot’s licenses a few years ago to fly helicopters and airplanes. He bought a helicopter a year later, but he has yet to choose a plane.

Seth flashes a shit-eating grin. “I’m narrowing it down.”

“You’ve been narrowing it down for three years, you picky bastard.” I shake my head.

“So? Give us the scoop. What’s happening with you and Pepper?” Flynn asks.

“Nothing. She’s back at work in Charlottesville, and I’m here taking care of my own shit.” Or rather, doing what I can to keep my mind off her and my own shit.

“I half expected her to show up here with you tonight,” Victory says.

I wish she were here, but I haven’t even texted her today. I’m respecting her decision, but I miss the connection, and I’m hoping she’ll miss it, too, and realize she made the wrong choice.

“I was hoping she would come,” Sutton adds excitedly. “I’d love to see her again.”

“You know Pepper?” I ask, remembering too late that Dash’s younger sister Andi is Sutton’s assistant at Discovery Hour.

“It’s more like I know of her,” Sutton says. “Amber and I lived in the same house in college, and I met Pepper a few times when she came to visit. From what I remember, she was beautiful, a little quiet, and super smart.”

“She still is,” I say, missing her even more.

“What’s the deal with you two?” Seth asks. “Are you going to see her again?”

“I guess that depends who you ask,” I say as the waitress brings our drinks. She goes over the dinner specials, and we take a moment to order.

When the waitress walks away, Victory says, “We’re asking you.”

It takes me a second to remember Seth’s question. “I’d like to continue seeing her, but she thinks our lives are too far apart, and she says she’s too busy.”

“Ouch. She turned down Mr. Perfect?” Flynn says. “That’s got to sting.”

“It wasn’t my favorite moment,” I grit out.

“Especially after you got her a private plane home from Paris,” Victory says.

“Do you think it was just a fling for her?” Sutton asks.

“No,” I say firmly. “It was more than that. I could feel it, and I know she felt it, too.”

“That sucks,” Seth says. “I’m sorry.”

“Yeah.” I take a drink. “I don’t get it. We connected on every level. It’s never been like that for me.”

“Can I play devil’s advocate for a minute?” Victory asks, but she doesn’t wait for a response. “In all fairness, even if she felt a connection, I understand where she’s coming from. It takes a lot of time and energy to run a business. I can’t imagine trying to fit in a relationship and still run Blank Space. There are only so many hours in the day.”

This coming from our sister who, when she was only twenty-six, fell in love with her boss, Harvey Bauer, who was sixteen years her senior, and would stop at nothing until they were together. They’d married a year later, and Harvey treated her like gold until the day we lost him to a heart attack. If anyone can understand what I’m feeling, it would be her.

“Vic, do you remember what it was like when you and Harvey got together?”

“Like it was yesterday,” she says with a slightly sad smile.

“When you were trying to get his attention, we all tried to talk you out of it, but you were head over heels, bound and determined that he was the greatest love of your life. It turns out he was, and even though you were both workaholics, you made time for each other.”