“That’s—”
“A lot,” she says, lifting Savannah to burp her.
“No, Claudia, that’s incredible.”
I move to sit beside her and pull her against me, hugging her, but making sure not to sandwich Savannah, whose eyes are starting to close. She does that, wakes up wild, eats, and falls asleep, which gives Claudia time to get ready for work.
“You need to get ready?” I ask.
“She needs to burp.” She sniffs.
“Second lines ready to jump in,” I say as I take Savannah.
“You’re first line, Deacon,” she says as she walks away.
“I don’t care what line I’m in, as long as I’m still in the game,” I say quietly as I kiss Savannah’s head.
Claudia comes out,fresh from the shower, her thick dark hair tied up and dry. It’s her routine. She showers and washes her hair at night, and then showers again in the morning. I love how damn good she smells all the time.
She looks at the clock on the wall and it’s only six. “You should still be asleep.”
“Didn’t sleep well last night,” I say as she sits down and looks at Savannah lying against my chest.
“Okay, talk to me.”
I tell her what I have, the shit on Aldrich and his affairs, and shit on Emma, who publicly wants to play off that she’s some saint.
“Would you really be able to?” she shakes her head. “You can’t do that.”
I pull my phone out, scroll through my saved files, and hit play on a voice memo I started recording when Aldridge stepped into the suite.
She sits stunned.
“Did I want to play that hand? No. Will I? Yes.” She sighs and takes Savannah off my chest and holds her close as she leans back and looks up at the ceiling.
“That’s not all, Costello’s message? Emma Shaw can’t have children.” Her eyes open wide, and she looks at me. “Aldridgecalled him. Told him to leash me,” I hold up the phone and show her the message that ends in,I told him to suck my dick.
“Why couldn’t he just stay away?”
“He’s not going to win, you have a career, a house, a?—”
“He’s getting married, he’s going to look more stable than?—”
I can’t help but smile. “Then we will first.”
“This is fucking brilliant,”Dean rubs his hands together as Claudia and I sit at the conference table in his office.
“Dean,” Drew snaps, and whispers to Claudia, “I’m so sorry he’s such a child.” Drew turns and looks at him. “A meddling adult-sized man-child.”
She was quiet when I laid out my plan; she simply agreed or said no.
“When my family’s happy, I’m happy,” Dean says, still looking far too excited for what’s about to go down.
Claudia clears her throat, “I don’t like confrontation, but this is warranted.”
“Mr. Shaw is online and ready for you, Mr. Costello.”
“You remember the play?” Dean asks me.
