The suggestion surprised me; I knew she wanted to keep a wall between Mia and me.“Are you sure?I didn’t suggest it because…well…”
“Yeah.It’ll be okay.”She sounded a little tentative, as though she was still convincing herself.“This is an emergency, after all.We’ll just explain that you’re a friend.One time won’t hurt anything.”
“All right.I’ll take care of dinner.I’ll show up with everything,” I promised her.If that was one less thing she had to worry about, I was happy to do it.
After I hung up, Archer was staring at me with concern.
"What’s the latest round of shit for today?"he asked.
"Haley Reeves from that stupid exposé account found out about us and called Clara demanding an exclusive interview.Clara is spooked, so we need to make a game plan ASAP."
My gaze drifted to the aerial photos again, to all those red markers indicating Sebastian's relentless advance.We were defending ourselves on two fronts now—against Sebastian's property grab and against a journalist who could expose everything.
“Yeah.Get your story straight and then stick to it,” Archer said.
The real problem was in the sticking part.
To Clara and me, this needed to remain business only, but last night had reminded me the things I felt for Clara the first time were still very much alive, and they were anything but business.
CHAPTER TEN
CLARA
Nash arrived at exactly six o'clock, once again filling my doorway in a way that stole my breath.He wore dark jeans and a charcoal sweater that hugged his broad shoulders, looking casual and more approachable than he had in his tuxedo.His arms were full of grocery bags, and tattoos peeked out from beneath his sleeves bunched up on his forearms.
"I thought I'd cook for us," he said, stepping inside."Hope that's okay."
"That’s so sweet."I took some of the bags from him, peeking inside to see pasta, chicken, vegetables, and what looked like ingredients for garlic bread."This looks amazing."
Nash's gaze swept my apartment again, taking in the soft lighting and the abundance of greenery I'd cultivated.Pothos cascaded from floating shelves, snake plants stood sentinel in corners, and my prized fiddle leaf fig dominated the space near the main window.Small succulents dotted every available surface, turning my tiny apartment into an urban jungle.
"Your apartment is incredible," he said, his eyes lingering on a trailing philodendron that I'd trained around my bookshelf."It's like a greenhouse in here."
Heat flushed my cheeks."I may have gone a little overboard with the plants."
"No, it's perfect."Something in his voice made me look at him more closely, but his expression was unreadable."How's Mia feeling?"
"Better.Just a little cold."I set the groceries on my small kitchen counter, which was overseen by herbs I grew on the windowsill."She’s napping right now, but she’ll be up soon.”
Nash walked toward me, looking broad and confident and completely out of place in my little, cheap apartment.I was suddenly self-conscious.
“I didn’t realize you cooked.”As soon as it left my lips, I realized how dumb that sounded.Or possibly offensive.He began to smile as I added, “I guess I meant I assumed you had private chefs or always ate out.”
“Like since I have money I never need to cook?”
“Right, I didn’t expect you to know what to do with all of this.”His grin grew wider the more I clarified.“Like when’s the last time you had to cook for yourself?”
Nash laughed.“It may come as a surprise, Clara, but I do know how to cook, and Iliketo cook.However, there are a lot of people out there who do it better than me, so I also like to hire them on occasion.”
He didn’t seem offended by my rambling, but I was still eager to steer the conversation into safer waters.After all, when Nash was as handsome as he was, offering so much strength and stability and reassurance in my life, the last thing I needed was to find out that he also could cook.
Nash already was my dream man.Now the universe was just throwing salt in the wound.Let’s make him perfect and also fully unattainable.Just a pretend husband.Nothing more.
“So I’m not sure where to start with the Haley Reeves situation,” I said, inspecting some of the spines on a tiny cactus that I’d been slowly rehabilitating.“She really threw me off.I did not have a surprise call from a social media influencer on my bingo card for today.”
Nash nodded, pulling out his phone."Let’s do some research.Once we do a deep dive, we can figure out what makes sense."
We settled on my couch, Nash's presence making the space feel even smaller than usual.His jean-clad knee knocked against mine as he pulled up Haley's Instagram, and I restrained myself from resting my head against his arm like I wanted to.If we were in public, I would have, because that would have made sense as a couple.But in here, I wanted to do it because he was a powerful magnet and I was just a helpless scrap of metal when it came to him.We scrolled through her recent posts together, commenting on each one.
