Total pages in book: 129
Estimated words: 131459 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 526(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131459 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 526(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
Then he’d go to bed alone and remember.
But Nora was terrific. He’d known her as an acquaintance for years, but he wished he’d become her friend much sooner.
Rosalind liked her, but if she’d known her better, she would have liked her much more.
They enjoyed each other, and Jamie was remembering how good it felt to have a female at his side, one he trusted implicitly.
It would never go there, not for him, he’d had his one great love, and he didn’t intend to look for anything like that again. And Nora had openly shared she didn’t want that either.
If they needed to deal with baser human instincts, they’d find it discreetly elsewhere.
Now, it was a deepening friendship that he was beginning to count on.
Even treasure.
And since Nora adamantly did not cook, including refusing to learn when he’d offered to teach her, Jamie enjoyed making her chicken Kiev with sauteed green beans and rice while she watched.
Nora smiled.
She laughed.
She joked.
The conversation was easy and interesting, with Nora’s delightful sharp edge.
And they ate their meal together, then had drinks after while watching a movie, before Jamie put her in one of his cars to take her home, and he went up to bed, feeling at peace with his night.
And for the first time since they lost Lindy, with his life.
He did this not having any idea Nora enjoyed her night too.
But she did not go home feeling peaceful and serene.
She didn’t because she was falling in love with her host.
And she knew she’d never get that in return.
But she would never leave him.
Not until he found someone to replace her (which she knew, with a man as good to the soul and with as much love to give as Jamie, he would do).
When that happened, she’d go back to her exquisite but quiet apartment.
And go back to living her life.
Alone.
* * *
Hale
Still July…
Tokyo
It was evening his time, morning her time, and Hale saw the name on the phone.
He had no fucking clue why he took the call.
But he didn’t hesitate to take it.
“Elsa,” he greeted.
“You buried the lead, handsome,” she purred.
He felt his lips tip up as he loosened a couple of buttons on his shirt and headed to the window of his hotel that had an amazing view of nighttime Tokyo.
“Please tell me that was as insanely delicious as it seemed,” she begged.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he lied.
“Well, I’m not talking about you and Jamie Oakley taking over Core Point. I’m talking about you and Jamie Oakley already having a substantial stake in Core Point before news broke about Core Point, so, within days, you could assume control of Core Point.”
Hale did not find that amusing.
They’d done that under the radar.
Or that was what they thought.
“How do you know all this shit?”
“I do not divulge my sources.”
“Elsa—”
“If you gave me an exclusive on that months ago, I would have left Mika and Tom alone for years,” she said.
Right.
That was why he picked up.
She occasionally featured Jamie and Nora. Chloe and Judge. Genny and Duncan. Rix and Alex.
But his people informed him she’d only twice done short features on Mika and Tom. During the French Open and Wimbledon.
While everyone was feeding on the only dad Hale knew, and the woman he’d fallen in love with, Elsa had been silent.
“I appreciate you laying off them,” he said quietly.
“I like my apartment, my studio and my job, Hale,” she said coldly. “Did I have a choice?”
“That wasn’t meant to silence you.”
“Wasn’t it?”
“You can talk all you want about other people, just not my family.”
“So, it was meant to silence me about things you want me to remain silent about. Can I request silken cords for my puppet master so his pulling at them won’t leave marks?”
Hale sighed.
“I’ll accept that as your confirmation of my statement,” she declared. “And a yes on silk.”
Silk cords and Elsa.
Hale put that out of his mind.
“Did you call to bust my balls?” he demanded.
“No, I called because, even though I very much do not like you, regardless of what you think, I do like your family. They’re perversely perfect, which I don’t trust, but I will be right there if that happens to be a façade, and it slips.”
When she said no more, he asked, “You called me to tell me you don’t like me, but you do like my family?”
“Please hear me correctly, Hale. I said I very much do not like you. This isn’t simple dislike. It’s me very much disliking another person, that other person being you.”
Hale had the unusual feeling of wanting to laugh and being annoyed along with something else he didn’t allow himself to contemplate.
“Got it,” he said. “You very much do not like me.”
“But I do like your family.”
“You’re repeating yourself, Elsa.”
“Then I’ll share something new. Paloma Friedrichsen has a grudge she’s been carrying. And she is very, very close to stumbling upon a woman named Susan Shepherd.”