His mouth twitches. “Trips where I buy her flowers and fuck her brains out.”
“Andthat’sromance?” I glare at Beau, who looks thoughtful.
“It depends on the kind of flowers and the kind of fucking, I guess.”
“So if I make love to Maura on a bed of rose petals andthengo to a work meeting, I pass your romance requirements?”
“No. When it comes to romance, I’m pretty sure you’re hopeless.” Beau sighs. “Then again, it’s not like your wife has a romantic streak, either. Maura would probably be happy if you proposed to her with some chunk of fancy rock in a quarry.”
“And nothing will makemehappy until Ryan burns that goddamn sweater,” Luke complains. “I’m sick of looking at it.”
“Oh, I forgot to show you!” Ryan darts up and lowers the lights. “It glows in the dark.”
“I can’t believe he has a girlfriend and I don’t,” Beau groans.
Maura’sin her studio when I get back to the penthouse, sitting cross-legged on the ground with a paintbrush in her hand. The canvas in front of her has been washed with a dark blue paint, and she’s adding on smaller swatches of copper.
I knock on the doorframe. “Do you have a moment?”
She grins back at me. “I don’t know. Did you check my calendar?”
I sigh. My wife's calendar is functionally useless. She rarely bothers to add anything to it, other than the purple slots which are automatically added from our shared calendar.
“Your calendar says you’re free all of next week. Is that accurate?”
She nods. “I've got some painting to do, but I don't have any deadlines. Why?”
“I have some meetings in Greece next week. I thought you might like to come with me.”
“Really?” Her eyes widen with surprise. “You want to bring me on a business trip?”
I shift my weight. Maybe the idea isn’t appealing to her. The way I asked it, it did sort of sound like asking her to tag along. “Yes. You'd be welcome to sightsee without me while I'm working, but I thought we might spend a few days on the islands. Some of the stones you've been looking for are from Greece, right?”
“Greek porphyry,” she breathes.
“Right. We could get some for you, and any other stones that catch your eye. Are you interested?”
“Yes!” she blurts out, not taking a second to think. “Yes, that sounds amazing. I’d love to. I mean, if you don't mind taking me with you.”
The way her eyes light up floods my chest with warmth. It’s easy to make my wife happy. Simply remembering to bring her coffee makes her smile. The rewarding feeling I get from finding the exact gesture to make her this ecstatic, though—I wish I could bottle it, to save for long days at work.
“I don't mind at all.”
28
MAURA
“You realize we’re taking a private jet,” James says. “You can pack more than one suitcase.”
He stands in the doorway, watching me sort through the pile of folded clothes on the bed. I've pulled all the warm weather clothing out of my wardrobe, and sorted it by pants, shirts, and dresses. Now, I'm pairing down my choices before I decide what goes in the single suitcase.
“I'm not going to pack more than I need,” I explain. “We’ll only be gone for a week.”
“But if you want to have options, nobody's going to stop you. Bring as much as you want. The jet could hold a hundred suitcases.”
“Are you here to brag about the size of your jet?” I waggle my eyebrows playfully.
“I’m here to remind you to pack a few dresses for dinner.”
