AT THE HOUSE, she strode on up to the front door with purpose but paused on the top step until Terra caught up.
“Don’t touch anything.”
“Will Roxie be here?”Terra asked, practically drooling with excitement.“I can’t wait to get to know her.”
“I have no idea if Roxie’s here, but she doesn’t live here.Roxie is not part of this job.”
“I know,” Terra said and snatched her hand.“But I did some research and, oh my God, Camden Collier knows everyone!Roxie knows everyone and she knows Camden, so they’re like—Roxie’s best friend just married Camden Collier’s brother.They’re practically family!It’s so exciting!”
And if Terra was going to get fangirl juice all over Roxie, she’d rather not be present.And she’d definitely choose not touching Terra either.For any reason.Ever.The fingerprint lock gave her a reason to take her hand back.Thank you, Cam’s friend.
From manic busy to utter calm.The only person inside sat at the kitchen island on a laptop and it wasn’t Roxie or Cam.
“Noble,” she said and he smiled at her.“This is Terra.”
“I heard.”Noble gave the woman a look over, a quick one, and not an interested one.She’d come to recognize his lustful perusal and that wasn’t it.“Cam’s downstairs, he’s not up on this.”
“How did—”
Noble held up Cam’s phone from the island.With his head in the sand, or swamped in detail paper, Cam lived in ignorance.If only she could do the same.More bliss she was missing out on.
Ordinarily, she’d go about her business, tidy up, eat, grab her own laptop, there would be a backlog of tasks to get through, the sooner the better… That wasn’t her job anymore.
Wow.Her brain just caught up.
New York.Three o’clock.
“You want to do the introductions when he does appear?”she asked Noble.“I have a flight to catch.”
“A flight?”That raised his brows.“A flight to where?”
“New York.”
“Flashy.You really are leaving us.”
“I go where I’m pointed.”Which was only half true.“I have to grab a few things and—I won’t be staying in New York.”Nothing anywhere mentioned a hotel, but she’d take an overnight bag, just in case.“I’ll be back later.Maybe late.”
Three o’clock wasn’t a late-in-the-day meeting, but how long would it run?What if this new client asked her to stay and start immediately.She should at least say goodbye to Cam.Goodbye?For how long?
“Here?”he asked a question she couldn’t answer in present company.
He wasn’t asking if she’d be back to work that night, the question was about Cam.About them.About the future.About answers she didn’t have.
“He has Terra now.”And wasn’t she so thrilled about that?“Terra should be able to…”
A few seconds passed before he filled the silence.“Do anything you can do?”The angle of his smile quirked.“I think we both know that’s not true.”
“I’ll talk to him.When he’s done downstairs…” She headed for the ascending staircase and nodded backward.“Look after her for a second.”
“Oh, I can come with you—”
“No, you can’t,” Ariella said, stalling with a hand on the banister.“You can stay here.”
“I’ve been upstairs before.”
Wasn’t a memory she wanted to relive.
“Not that you remember anything,” Ariella said.“Right?That’s what you said.Cam hasn’t approved anything yet, don’t get too comfortable.Stay here with Noble.”
