coupled with a recession that fell like an axe on the building industry, and one mistake he wished he could go back in time and undo, had damaged his bottom line. Nearly taken him to bankruptcy.
“Carpe diem, Finn,” Riley said. “You should try it sometime. Get out of the office and live a little.”
“I do.”
Riley laughed. Out loud. “Right.”
“Running a company is a demanding job,” Finn said. Across the room, the woman he wanted to talk to was still making small talk with the other partygoers. To Finn, the room seemed like an endless sea of blue and black, neckties and polished loafers. Only two people stood out in the dark ocean before him—
Riley, who had bucked the trend by wearing a collar less white shirt under a sportscoat trimmed to fit his physique.
And Eleanor Winston, who’d opted for a deep cranberry dress that wrapped around her slender frame, emphasizing her small waist, and hourglass shape. She was the only woman in a colorful dress, the only one who looked like she was truly at a cocktail party, not a funeral, as Riley would say. She had on high heels in a light neutral color, making her legs seem impossibly long. They curved in tight calf muscles, leading up to creamy thighs and—
Concentrate.
He had a job to do and getting distracted would only cost him in the end.
“You seem to make it harder than most, though. For Pete’s sake, you have a sofa bed in your office.” Riley chuckled and shook his head. “If that doesn’t scream lonely bachelor with no life, I don’t know what does. Unless Miss Marstein is keeping you warm at night.”
Finn choked on the sip of beer in his mouth. His assistant was an efficient, persnickety woman in her early sixties who ran his office and schedule with an iron fist. “Miss Marstein is old enough to be my grandmother.”
“And you’re celibate enough to be a monk. Get away from the blueprints, Hawk, and live a little.”
Finn let out a sigh. Riley didn’t get it. He’d always been the younger, irresponsible one, content to live off the inheritance from their parents’ death, rather than carry the worries of a job. Riley didn’t understand the precarious position McKenna Designs was in right now. How one mistake could cost him all the ground he’d regained, one painful step at a time. People were depending on Finn to succeed. His employees had families, mortgages, car payments. He couldn’t let them down. It was about far greater things than Finn’s reputation or bottom line.
Finn bristled. “I work long days and yes, sometimes nights. It’s more efficient to have a sofa bed—”
“Efficient? Try depressing.” Riley tipped his beer toward the woman across from them. “If you were smart, you’d think about getting wild with her on that sofa bed. Sleep’s overrated. While sex, on the other hand …” He grinned. “Can’t rate it highly enough.”
“I do not have time for something like that. The company has been damaged by this roller-coaster economy and …” He shook his head. Regret weighed down his shoulders. “I never should have trusted her.”
Riley placed a hand on Finn’s shoulder. “Stop beating yourself up. Everyone makes mistakes.”
“Still, I never should have trusted her,” he said again. How many times had he said that to himself? A hundred times? Two hundred? He could say it a thousand and it wouldn’t undo the mistake.
“You were in love. All men act like idiots when they’re in love.” Riley grinned. “Take it from the expert.”
“You’ve been in love? Real, honest-to-goodness love?”
Riley shrugged. “It felt real at the time.”
“Well, I won’t make that mistake again.” Finn took a deep gulp of beer.
“You’re hopeless. One bad relationship is no reason to become a hermit.”
One bad relationship? Finn had fallen for a woman who had stolen his top clients, smeared his reputation and broken his heart. That wasn’t a bad relationship, it was the sinking of the Titanic. He’d watched his parents struggle through a terrible marriage, both of them unhappily mismatched, and didn’t want to make the same mistake.
“I’m not having this conversation right now.” Finn’s gaze went to Ellie Winston again. She had moved on to another group of colleagues. She greeted nearly everyone she saw, with a smile, a few words, a light touch. And they responded in kind. She had socializing down to an art. The North Carolina transplant had made friends quickly. Only a few weeks in the city and she was winning over the crowd of their peers with one hand tied behind her back. Yes, she’d be an asset to his company and his plan. A good one. “I’m focused on work.”
“Seems to me you’re focused on her.” Riley grinned.
“She’s a means to an end, nothing more.”
“Yeah, well, the only ending I see for you, Finn, is one where you’re old and gray, surrounded by paperwork and sleeping alone in that sofa bed.”
“You’re wrong.”
For a while, Finn had thought he could have both the life and the job. He’d even bought the ring, put a downpayment on a house in the suburbs. He’d lost his head for a while, a naive young man who believed love could conquer everything. Until that love had stabbed him in the back.
Apparently true love was a fairy tale reserved for others. Like kissing the Blarney Stone for good luck.
Finn now preferred to have his relationships as dry as his wine. No surprises, no twists and turns. Just a dependable, predictable sameness. Leaving the roller coaster for the corporate world.
He suspected, though, that Eleanor Winston and her standout maroon dress was far from the dry, dependable type. She had a glint in her eye, a devilish twinkle in her smile, a spontaneous air about her that said getting involved with her would leave a man …
Breathless.
Exactly the opposite of what he wanted. He would have to keep a clear head around her.
Ellie drifted away from her companions, heading toward the door. Weaving through the crowd slowed her progress, but it wouldn’t be long before she’d finished her goodbyes and left. “She’s leaving. Catch up with you later,” he said to Riley.
“Take a page from my book, brother, and simply ask her out for a drink,” Riley said, then as Finn walked away, added one more bit of advice. “And for God’s sake, Finn, don’t talk business. At least not until … after.” He grinned. “And if you get stumped, think to yourself, ‘What would Riley say?’ That’ll work, I promise.”
Finn waved off Riley’s advice. Riley’s attention had already strayed back to the waitress, who was making her way through the room with another tray—and straight for Riley’s charming grin. His brother’s eyes were always focused on the next beautiful woman he could take home to his Back Bay townhouse. Finn had much bigger, and more important goals.
Like saving his company. He’d made millions already in architecture, and hopefully would again, if he could make his business profitable again. If not, he could always accept his grandmother’s offer and take up the helm at McKenna Media. The family business, started a generation ago by his grandfather, who used to go door-to-door selling radio ad space to local businesses. Finn’s father had joined the company after high school and taken it into television, before his death when Finn was eleven. Ever since his grandfather had died three years ago, Finn’s grandmother had sat in the top chair, but she’d been making noise lately about wanting to retire and have Finn take over, and keep the company in McKenna hands. Finn’s heart, though, lay in architecture. Tonight was all about keeping that heartbeat going.
Finn laid his still-full glass of beer on the tray of a passing waiter, then straightened his tie and worked a smile to his face. Riley, who never tired of telling Finn he was too uptight, too stiff,