I sat my pencil down, wondering what was going on. “I don’t know. Are you alright?”
“Who the fuck knows. I’ll call you tomorrow. You got this Grady thing?”
“Of course.”
“I owe ya, Max.”
“Of course you do,” I laughed, clicking off the phone.
Sam’s fingers were flying across her phone screen.She looked up. “Bri just texted me. She got promoted today and wants to celebrate. You wanna come?”
I laughed. “No way. I have a lunch meeting with Jillian Grady and then I need to spend some time with Kari.”
“Jillian Grady?” Sam furrowed her eyebrows. “The blonde that was in here the other day?”
I nodded and started getting my shit together to take to the meeting.
She nodded and looked down, apparently typing in the message to Bri. My phone went off again.
Cane:Have Grady fax all bids to my house. Not the office. Okay?
I hadno idea what he was up to, but whatever.
Me:Sure.
TWENTY-TWO
KARI
“Do you think we got everything covered?” Isa was beyond excited about Joselyn’s upcoming birthday party. We had been on the phone for over an hour discussing it. Jos would be having aFrozen-themed birthday to beat all birthdays. Ever.
“Are you serious? You just discussed getting a snow machine rental. Yeah, think you got it all covered,” I laughed. “She’s going to be so excited, Isa.”
“I hope so but I don’t know if she can be any more excited than I am,” she laughed. “So I’ve talked your ear off! Tell me what’s going on with you.”
I took a deep breath and tried to figure out what to say. “Things are good over here. Just working, trying to help Jada get ready for the baby, stuff like that.”
“I noticed there was no mention of Max in there. Everything alright?”
“Yeah,” I said, drawing out the last syllable. “We had a bit of a rough night last night. Nothing to do with him, of course. Just...stuff.”
“Girl, if you need to talk, I’m here. All my girlfriends areback in Texas and I miss that chitchat girly stuff. We need to schedule pedicures or something.”
“I’d like that,” I laughed at her southern twang. It was just like her—honest and adorable. “Hey, my phone has been pinging me for the last ten minutes with texts. Max had to go to a late lunch with a guy from work and I was supposed to go to Cane’s, but something came up and I’m not sure what. I probably need to go check on things.”
“No worries. Thank you for all your help. Call me this week and we’ll go do something fun on Pierce’s credit card.”
“Will do,” I giggled. “Bye, Isa.”
“Later, love.”
I flipped to my texts and had three from a number I didn’t know. I clicked the message and one, two, three pictures loaded on my screen.
Max was getting out of his truck in the first one. The second one loaded and showed him walking into a restaurant with a woman. She was tall, almost as tall as he was, with long, light-colored hair. She had on a dress with a floral print and heels...and she was smiling up at Max and him down to her. The third showed him holding the door open for her as she walked into a restaurant.
Maisano’s.
Another text popped up.
