My Secret Life

“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 to their seats juggling beers and hot dogs.

“What? I want to watch a few innings with my best friend.”

“You sure there’s not something you want to tell me?”

“No.”

“Okay, I’ll take your word for it. But if there was something, you’d tell me, right?”

“You’d be the first to know.”

“I doubt it,” Tony mumbled.

“What’s that?”

“You keep everything bottled up, buttoned down. You don’t talk to anybody about anything except work.” Tony waved at hand at Liam’s starched shirt. “I mean, have you ever in your life, just once, let yourself go?”

“No,” he said, but then he thought, French maid in a closet.

“What are you so afraid of?” Tony asked.

“Who says I’m afraid of anything?”

“Everybody’s afraid of something. I’m trying to figure out why you push yourself so hard?”

It sounded like a dumb question to him. How could he not push himself hard? He had a lot to prove. “Money,” he said.

“Don’t give me that. You have enough money to last you a lifetime.”

What was he afraid of? Failure? Falling in love? He gulped back a swallow of beer. “Okay,” Liam admitted after a long moment, “it’s about a woman.”

Tony sat up straighter. “Brooke?”

“No. Her sister, Katie.”

“I’m listening.”

Liam glanced over his shoulder to see how close the nearest fan was sitting and lowered his voice. “I hooked up with her at the masquerade party.”

“Hooked up as in—”

“Yeah.”

Tony whistled and slugged him lightly on the upper arm. “You dog. Who knew you had it in you?”

Liam glowered. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Balancing his hot dog on one knee, Tony held up a palm. “Nothing, dude. Settle.”

Agitation had him shifting in his seat. “The deal is, I can’t get her out of my head.”

“That’s not a bad thing.”

“Of course it is. I can’t concentrate on work.”

“You’ve never really felt this way about a woman before?” “No.”

“How many girlfriends have you had?”

Liam shrugged. “I don’t know. Six, seven. But none of them ever messed with my head like this.” Other than Arianna, and that was a whole different kind of head game.

“That’s because—since I’ve known you anyway—you’ve always picked career-driven women who complemented your lifestyle. You’ve never been out with one who made your question your priorities.”

“Exactly.”

“Maybe that’s the problem.”

“I’m not following you.”

“Katie Winfield, this woman you hooked up with at the party, she’s different.”

Liam nodded.

“Totally not right for you. Impulsive, I’m guessing. Adventuresome.”

“Yes, yes.” Impatiently, he tapped his fingertips on the back of the seat in front of him. “What’s your point?”

“For the first time in your life you’ve found a woman who makes you feel totally alive.”

He wanted to deny it, but it was true.

“Compared to her,” Tony went on, “work seems dull and pointless.”

“What’s wrong with me?”

“Got bad news for you, buddy boy.” Tony grinned. “There’s only one way to beat this thing.”

“How’s that?”

“Embrace it.”

Liam didn’t like the direction this conversation was headed. “What do you mean, embrace it?”

“You’ve been working nonstop since you were what? Sixteen?”

“Yeah.”

“And all this time, you’ve been keeping your emotions in check.”

“What’s your point?”

“It was bound to happen.”

Frustration had him fisting his hand around his beer. “What was bound to happen?”

“You gotta have a little fun at some point. Kick up your heels. Let your libido run wild.”

“You think so? You think if I embrace this feeling and go with it, have a good time with this woman, it will eventually pass and then I can get back to work?”