I frowned when that thought brought up the memory of the jerk she’d been out with. She had refused to answer my question about whether she would be seeing him again, and I liked to believe that she had the better sense to not make that mistake again. Before I could dwell on it, Ellie turned the projector on and asked me a question.
For the next few minutes, Ellie and I kept up a casual conversation while Ava finished setting up the sandwiches. She was obviously not comfortable that I was her new boss. When our glances met, she was the first to turn away. All day today, I had wanted to text her, but couldn’t come up with an excuse to do so.
Now, I had many.
I got a call on my phone just as Ava left the room. I looked at my phone and saw, to my utter fear, that it was from my cousin. A mid-day call from him was always a reason to be nervous.
“Brody?” Ellie asked, looking up from her computer.
The woman knew me too well.
“Ten points if you can guess what this is about,” I said, getting up while she looked thoughtful for a minute, her pale skin, which was flawless, stretching out into a smile.
“Girl trouble,” she guessed just as I walked to the floor-to-ceiling glass windows at the end of the boardroom and dialed his number.
The phone rang on his end for a bit until I got his voice mail.
I exhaled, and keeping my voice low, I spoke into the phone, hoping my fears weren’t evident to Ellie.
“Brody, is everything okay?” I asked. “Call me ASAP.”
Perhaps I am overreacting, I thought, pocketing my phone.
Brody had suffered a few epileptic attacks in the past year but had gone through the past six months without a seizure. Even so, when I got a call from him once it was done, I’d rush like mad to the hospital where he was at. Nowadays, a simple missed call from him was enough to send my heart rate up.
No one at work knew about his health issues though. Like Ellie, most of them thought I overly worried about Brody’s girl troubles, and I never bothered to correct them. It had been six months since his last attack. Since he’d needed me this way.
I hung up and walked back across the room to Ellie, regret filling my expression, as I was about to postpone this meeting for the second time.
She met my gaze evenly and understood. “Leaving?” she asked in a smooth voice. I’d always thought she had a great voice. Honeyed and confident.
“Going to see Brody. I’ll ask him to say hi to Nick for you,” I said, flashing her a grin.
Nick was Brody’s bandmate, and he and Ellie had been in an on-again, off-again relationship for many months now.
“You know far too much about my dating life than is appropriate for a boss, you know,” Ellie said, her eyes lighting up as she looked at me.
“Some employees are easier to know than others,” I said, grabbing my computer and walking to the door. “I’ll let you know when I’m back, and we can continue this meeting later.”
She gave me a thumbs-up. “Tell Brody to take it easy.”
I nodded and left the boardroom. I walked out onto the carpeted corridor and made for the elevator at the end, just as another door opened behind me.
Ava stepped out, pushing the empty cart out.
I got into the elevator and held the doors open for her to wheel her cart in.
“Thank you,” she said as she got in.
“Which floor?” I asked as I pressed the button for the lobby, noticing as I did so that Ava’s voice was as delicate as ever.
“The lobby for me too,” she said, turning to me. “Is everything okay?” she asked, her expert eye on my face, reading me like she used to.
I hesitated. Ava had met Brody a few times when we were dating back in high school.
“I hope so. I need to get to Brody,” I said, wishing I didn’t have to leave so quickly.
Her eyes widened. “Is he okay?”
