He paused on the sidewalk outside Audrey’s brownstone, tapping the bouquet of pink flowers against his hip, stalling for time as he tried to think through his game plan. Clarke knew he was good with words, skilled with charm, but groveling was one area he’d never mastered. Never really had to master, actually. He’d pissed off plenty of women over the years, to be sure, but usually the source of their ire was lack of attention, and the reason for the lack of attention was that he’d already had one foot out the door anyway. No point in groveling when you didn’t plan to see the woman again.

If he were brutally honest, he’d never cared about a woman enough to grovel. Except for Audrey. And Audrey had never been mad at him.

Until now. And justifiably so.

He exhaled and rallied his courage. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to have this conversation; it’s that he didn’t know where to start. The list of things they needed to discuss was long and hefty. For starters, he needed to tell her about his father’s ultimatum: that if they went through with the wedding, he’d get the company. That was a doozy.

They also needed to talk about the fact that he hadn’t told his father to shove his ultimatum outright. That was a whopper. They needed to have a conversation about Elizabeth. About what had gone down with them years ago, and he had to apologize for his behavior on the ski trip, where he’d been an unpardonable ass for reasons he hadn’t even fully sorted out yet.

Nor had he sorted out that damned kiss. Audrey had been wrong about his reasons for it. He hadn’t kissed her because Elizabeth was watching. In that moment, he hadn’t even remembered that Elizabeth existed. The only thing he’d been aware of was Audrey and the way he’d felt when he’d seen another man making her laugh.

Clarke had never really understood the concept of jealousy, but he’d felt it twice now in the past couple weeks, and it was brutal. Audrey’s easy flirting with Scott had been mildly annoying. He’d been able to remind himself that Scott was happily married to Claire and that Audrey was merely being her usual charming self.