Severn cleared his throat in my direction and looked pointedly at the elevator. A clear dismissal. But I hadn’t imagined that shared moment between us, and my skin was still on fire.
I swallowed, my heart pounding. “Right. And thanks. For the dog.”
He stared at me like he didn’t understand why I hadn’t left yet as I scrambled into the elevator and, once the doors closed, let out a held breath.
Azalea gave me one look and said, “Are you all right, Willow?”
“Um, yes. Those twins with the long hair in Severn’s apartment…who are they?”
“Ah, Briar and Bramble. His assistants,” she said.
I hadn’t liked how they had come out of some back room in his apartment, maybe a bedroom. Maybehisbedroom. Not to mention how drop-dead gorgeous they were. Then I caught my reflection in the mirrored elevator walls. Wrinkled, baggy clothes and a messy ponytail.
Iwas about as far from fae as was possible.
ChapterTwelve
On my next day off, I sat on Zara’s bed, petting her cat, Tater Tot, watching my best friend pack for a move all the way across the country.
“Are yousureyou want to go?” I asked with a teasing pout to make her feel guilty.
She threw a pillow at me. “Oh yeah, California, where it’s always sunny, everyone’s tan and gorgeous, working on movie sets. Why on earth would I leave gloomy old New York for that?”
She had three massive luxury suitcases open on her bedroom floor. Each one probably cost the same as a small car. Zara had many talents, but organization wasn’t one of them, and she had tossed clothes and toiletries into the suitcases without any rhyme or reason.
“Don’t worry,” she said and picked up an envelope from her desk and tossed it my way. “I’ll be back soon enough. Next month, as a matter of fact.”
I pulled an invitation out of the envelope. It was for an “Innovators’ Retreat,” sponsored by an investment company on a private island off the coast of Connecticut, just an hour’s drive from the city. It was addressed to Zara and listed her title as “Board Member, Olegev Holdings.”
I whistled low, impressed. “Fancy. You promise you’ll make a stop by the city to see me while you’re back on the East Coast?”
She tugged the invitation out of my hand and waved it in the air tantalizingly. “No need to, Wil. Becauseyou’recoming to the retreat, too.”
I wrinkled up my face. “I didn’t get one of those invitations.”
“No, but your boss did. And he RSVP’d. I checked with the event organizers. It’s a family retreat, meaning spouses and kids are welcome.”
I scoffed, “Severn Wilde isn’t going to bring the kids and his nanny.”
“Oh no? Then why did he RSVP for two adults and two children?”
A warm flush spread up my neck. Severn hadn’t mentioned anything to me about a weekend retreat, but then again, he usually didn’t alert me to any changes in plans until the day before, when he expected me to rearrange my entire life to fit his schedule. Was I really his plus-one? Obviously, if I was, it was as Henry and May’s nanny, not as his partner…but it did all kinds of things to me to imagine the four of us taking a trip together. Almost like a family.
“Well, I hope so,” I admitted. “A private island sounds awesome. But he could have RSVPed for one of his assistants instead. You should see them. Twins. They’regorgeous.”
Zara eyed me curiously. “Willow O’Dell, you almost sound jealous. You aren’t falling for your ridiculously attractive boss, are you?”
I was growing uncomfortably hot again. “Don’t be ridiculous. After what happened with Professor Decker, I definitely don’t have a thing for bosses.”
Zara looked skeptical.
I finished helping her pack, sitting on the suitcases so she could zip them up, and then wrangling Tater Tot to fit him in the designer pet carrier she was going to take on the director’s private jet. She was still going to keep the apartment for when she was back in the city, and she even gave me a key in case I ever needed a place to crash outside of Wilde Tower.
On the street outside her apartment, as a driver loaded her bags into a van to take her to the airport, I threw my arms around her. “Text me every day,” I said.
“I will. And find out for sure if you’re going on the retreat so I’ll know how much fun it’ll be.”
I waved goodbye as the van took off. It was barely nine o’clock in the morning but already getting warm; it was going to be a scorcher. I was just wondering what I wanted to do with my day off when an older hipster guy thrust his phone in my face, filming me.
