I almost laughed out loud. How could I ever have thought I was falling in love with Harrison Ashford?
“Did you settle on an office space?”
I sighed. “Harrison, don’t, okay? There’s no need to pretend at this point. Worry about your own business, not mine. Shouldn’t be too much of a stretch for you.”
He frowned harder. “Fine.”
I rearranged my face into my customer service expression. It was so fake it hurt to smile. “Anyway, many thanks for the opportunity, Mr. Ashford. I wish you the best of luck.”
He opened his mouth to say something then snapped it shut. He locked onto me, staring into my eyes, and I could tell he was working through what he wanted to get out. My stupid heart flip-flopped with hope, because the man was never at a loss for words.
Whatever he needed to admit. An apology? A plea for us to try again? It clearly wasn’t easy for him. Was there a chance he was finally willing to open up and tell me?—
“I’m sure your business is going to do well,” he finally said. “Good luck to you, Gwen.”
I deflated. There would be no surprise happily ever after for me, I was really going to walk out the door and never see him again.
But it tracked. He’d shown me who he was, now I had to believe him.
The Jetliner Jackass flies again.
27
HARRISON
“Good morning, Susan,” I said on my way into my office. “Anything I need to know about today?”
She glanced at me briefly, then refocused on her computer. “Everything is in your calendar, as usual.”
I repressed a sigh. Normally, Susan treated my daily schedule chat like an opportunity to catch up and gossip. She’d mention something like my upcoming meeting with accounting and detour into a deep dive about our controller’s divorce. I still wasn’t used to this frosty, dismissive version of her.
I didn’t need to ask her what was wrong. She’d made her feelings about Gwen’s departurequiteclear even without actually discussing it. It was the blessing and curse of having a nosy assistant who liked to cosplay as my mother.
“Please make note of your lunch appointment,” she called in after me. “It’s important.”
I instinctively ground my teeth because it sounded like a warning. What now?
I settled at my desk and squinted at my calendar.
“When did you book this?” I shouted. We had an intercom, but sometimes yelling felt better.
Most times. Especially lately.
Susan appeared in my doorway. “Yesterday. Do you have a conflict? Because your father was quite eager to make it happen.”
After the news at his party, I didn’t like the idea of surprise lunch dates. The Ashfords rarely bothered with casual hangouts, which meant that my father had an ulterior motive for summoning me home. And that in itself was concerning as well. I hadn’t set foot on the property in ages.
“Can we shift it?—”
“He said ASAP, and I moved mountains to make it happen today. So no, there’s no shifting this one.”
My chest went tight. Was it a new health scare?
“Do you know if my brothers will be there as well?”
“Just you,” she said over her shoulder.
Fantastic. A solo audience with the king at his castle.
