Read My Favorite Mistake Online
Authors: Georgina Bloomberg,Catherine Hapka
My Favorite Mistake
Also By Georgina Bloomberg & Catherine Hapka
To my father, Michael. Thank you for showing me that
nothing is out of reach if you believe in yourself.
â
G. B.
Tommi wandered toward the floor-to-ceiling wall of windows, ignoring the sounds of the party going on behind her. Her friend Courtney's penthouse apartment was right on Central Park South, and even though Tommi had been there many times, she never got tired of looking out over the park.
“Nice view, huh?” someone said from behind her.
She glanced back. The guy standing there was named Alex Nakano, and Tommi had only met him an hour ago. But she was already intrigued. For one thing, he was hot with a capital wow. He'd told her that his father was a Japanese-American hedge fund manager and his mother a Brazilian-born art dealer with an exclusive little gallery space down in SoHo. Alex's multi-culti heritage had combined to give him a totally unique lookâspiky dark hair, toffee-colored eyes, a lean, compact bodyâplus a mischievous little smirk that seemed to be all his own. It had been a long time since Tommi had felt such an immediate spark with anyone, and she was enjoying the feeling.
“Yeah,” she said with a smile. “That's one thing you don't get in a brownstone. All I can see from my room is the house across the street.”
“Yo, turn the music down!” a girl shouted from the other end of the room. “My parents will totally lose it if they find out I had a party.”
“Shoulda thought of that before you invited us, Court!” a skinny guy with freckles called out. Duckface. One of Tommi's oldest friends. With a shout of laughter, he jumped onto the baby grand and started doing the chicken dance.
Alex grinned, raising his beer and hooting along with most of the other partiers. Then he turned back to Tommi.
“It's not really a party unless Duckface is there, is it?” he said.
Tommi laughed. “Words to live by.” She watched with amusement as Duckface switched to the cancan, almost falling off the piano.
When a couple of friends dragged him down and over toward the bar, Tommi turned to face the window again. The wooded expanse of the park looked mysterious and dark amid the lights and high-rises of the city surrounding it.
“Seriously, though,” Tommi said, the gin and tonic she'd had earlier in the evening making her feel relaxed and pensive. “I love Manhattan, but it must be nice sometimesâliving where you do out in the Hamptons. Or anywhere like that, you know?” She shot Alex a look. “Maybe someday I'll have the best of both worlds. A nice place in the city so I can still go out and have fun, plus a few acres out in the country somewhere for when I need to relax.”
“With a few horses out back, maybe?” Alex asked.
Tommi had learned long ago that there were exactly two things that everyone in the world seemed to know about her. One was that her father was Richard Aaronson, the super-genius Wall Street billionaire. The other was that she spent most of her free time riding horses.
“Maybe,” she said. “It's kind of hard to imagine my horses living anywhere but Pelham Lane, though. So maybe I'll just buy the place next door. That way I can walk over any time I want, but my horses get to keep living in the style they've become accustomed to.”
“Pelham Lane?”
“Pelham Lane Stables. My barn,” Tommi explained. “My trainer's barn, I mean. I ride with Jamie Vos.”
“Oh,” Alex said politely.
Tommi laughed. “Sorry, I always forget that non-horse people mostly don't even know who he is. It's kind of weird to realize that, actually, since in the riding world he's a total rock star.”
“Really? So you're saying this guy is like the Vince Lombardi of jumping horses over stuff?”
“Yeah, pretty much. He's an amazing rider and trainer. We go to all the big A shows, and to Florida in the winter. It's awesome.”
This was usually about the point when people started to zone out and look bored, no matter how polite they were trying to be. And that was okay. Sure, Tommi was pretty much obsessed with riding and showing. That didn't mean she couldn't talk about anything else.
But before she could change the subject to music or movies or something, Alex leaned a little closer. “So how long have you been riding there?” he asked.
She was surprised to see that he actually looked interested. “Practically forever,” she said. “My older sister started taking lessons there first. One day I tagged along, and the rest is history.”
After that Alex kept asking questions, and Tommi kept answering them. It was kind of a novelty talking so much to a guy about riding. Her last boyfriend had pretended to snore every time she even approached the subject. Yeah, he'd thought that was really funny. One of the many reasons they'd broken up right after their school's prom a few months earlier.
Tommi was trying to explain the difference between hunters and jumpers when Courtney's boyfriend, Parker, wandered over. He was tall and skinny, with a mop of blond hair and perpetually rosy cheeks that made him look closer to seven than seventeen.
“What a surprise,” he said with a smirk. “Tommi's blabbing about horsies.”
Tommi rolled her eyes. “For your information, some people are actually interested in other people's lives, Parker,” she said with a matching smirk. “Not everyone is totally self-absorbed like you.”
“Yeah, it's cool,” Alex put in. “I love talking to anyone who's really passionate about something, you know?”
“Whatever, dude.” Parker grinned at them both. “I had a feeling you guys might hit it off. Woulda introduced you sooner, except Court thought you and Grantâwell, you know.” He
raised an eyebrow at Tommi, then shot a glance at a handsome, broad-shouldered, preppy-looking guy chatting with a couple of people halfway across the room.
Okay, awkward. “Yeah,” Tommi said quickly. “Um, so you guys are neighbors out in the Hamptons, huh?”
“Uh-huh,” Alex said. “My bedroom window looks right over their tennis courts.”
“Right.” Parker puffed out his skinny chest. “So he knew the first day he moved in that I'm a tennis superstud.”
Alex laughed. “More like I knew right away you can't play for crap.”
“Maybe true,” Parker retorted. “But I can still whip your ass in straight sets.”
As the two guys continued to razz each other, Tommi sneaked another peek at Grant. She'd known him since they were little kids, though they'd kind of lost touch when he moved to Europe for a couple of years. When he'd returned earlier this summer, taller and handsomer and much more self-assured, Tommi had actually wondered if it was time to turn their lifelong friendship into something more.
But no. She'd quickly realized that while Grant was an amazing guy, there was just no romantic spark there. At least not on her side. He seemed to feel different, and she'd had to let him down easy after he came to watch her ride at the big Hounds Hollow show the previous weekend.
It was definitely a little awkward being at this party with him, flirting with another guy right under his nose. But Grant didn't seem bothered by itâin fact, he didn't even seem to notice. So Tommi tried not to worry about it.
She checked her watch. “Oops, I should probably go,” she said, breaking into Parker's bragging about his backhand or whatever. “It's getting late.”
“What? No way!” Alex protested. “It's still early.”
Parker grinned. “Yeah. Anyone who leaves before two gets the loser award.”
“Guess I'll have to live with the shame.” Tommi started looking around for her purse. “Because I told my trainer I'd be at the barn early tomorrow.”
“So what?” Alex shrugged. “It sounds like you're the barn's superstar rider. He'll get over it if you blow him off this one time, right?”
Tommi knew she had to cut Alex some slack. He couldn't be expected to know that you just didn't blow off Jamie Vos, no matter how much money your father had or how many ribbons you'd won. No way. Jamie might seem mild-mannered and friendly on the surface, but he hadn't become one of the most successful trainers on the circuit by being a pushover.
Besides, in this case Jamie was doing her a favor. He'd offered to come down to the barn an hour before his first lesson of the day so he could watch her ride Legs, her new investment horse, and give her some tips.
“Seriously, I wish I could stay,” she said. “But it's hard to ride well when you're falling asleep in the saddle.”
“Come on, just stay a little bit longer,” Alex wheedled, grabbing her hand.
“Yeah, live a little, Tommi,” Parker put in. “You can sleep when you're dead.”
“I
will
be dead if I'm late tomorrow.” Tommi was distracted
by the feeling of Alex's hand squeezing hers. Not to mention the way he was looking at her with big puppy-dog eyesâas if her decision to stay or go would make or break his whole night.
Besides, he was right. They both were. What could it hurt to stay a little longer? All she'd lose was some sleep. No big deal.
“Maybe half an hour,” she relented. “But then I've really got to go.”
Alex grinned. “Cool. I'll take what I can get.”
Just then Duckface came dancing over, three or four giggling girls following him in a sloppy conga line. Duckface waved his Corona over his head in salute to the group by the window. “We should do this way more often, you guys,” he said, his words slightly slurred. “Like, every weekend.”
“Yeah,” one of the giggling girls put in. “Court, you should totally convince your parents to go to Bermuda all the time.”
Courtney, who'd just wandered over to check her magenta-streaked blond hair in the reflective surface of the window, rolled her eyes. “Right,” she said. “This is the last time I let any of you idiots near my house.”
Parker grinned and kissed her on the top of her head. “We'll see about that.”
“I've got an idea,” Alex spoke up. “How about a house party out at my place? My folks are in Brazil all monthâif I bribe the house manager, he'll totally let you all crash there for a few days.”
“Seriously?” Duckface said. “I'm so there, dude!”
“Me too.” Parker glanced around at the others. “You guys should see Nakano's place. The pool's amazing.”
“A pool? Count me in!” one of the girls said eagerly.
“Sweet,” Alex said. “We could do it this coming week if you want. My aunt's there this weekend, but she'll be cleared out by Monday afternoon. You guys could come then and stay through Saturday.” He grinned and glanced at Courtney. “That'll still give me plenty of time to clean up all the broken stuff before the 'rents get back.”
“See?” Parker tapped Courtney on the forehead. “That's planning, my dear.”
Courtney just rolled her eyes. Meanwhile Alex turned toward Tommi.
“How about it?” he said. “You were just saying you like to get out of Manhattan sometimes, right?”
“Yeah,” Tommi said slowly. “And wow, it sounds greatâI really wish I could join you all. Butâ”
“No buts!” Alex broke in. “You've got to come.”
“Like I said, I wish I could. But I've got a show next week, and I'm supposed to drive down there on Tuesday.”
Duckface snorted. “Don't be so uptight, Tommi,” he said. “It's worth skipping one of your pony rides for a totally epic Hamptons house party.”