“I’ll be here.”
“Can’t wait.”
“Me either.”
Julian ended the call with the same dazzled feeling he’d had last night when he’d had her warm and naked in his arms.
“Um, excuse me, boss,” Ernie said, glancing at him in the mirror, “but… what the hell is going on with you?”
ChapterTwenty-Six
“I’m not sure exactly.”
“What was all that just now?”
“There’s this girl, you see… And she’s unlike any other girl I’ve ever met, and… It’s the worst-possible time for her, but she’s not pushing me away, and well… It’s amazing, actually.”
“Didn’t you recently tell me I didn’t know you at all when I said you ought to make a play for the supermodel?”
“She’s not my type.”
“Since when do you have a type?”
“It’s a recent development.”
“People were talking about you going missing yesterday.”
“I heard.”
“Where’d you take off to?”
“I took my friend and her kids to Ojai for the afternoon.”
“You took her… and her kids… to Ojai.”
“That’s what I said,” Julian replied, amused by the gobsmacked expression on Ernie’s face in the mirror.
“You bailed out of work to be with a woman who has kids.”
“Yep.Little kids.They’re three and one, and they loved the gochas and the horsies and doggies.”
“What the hell is a gocha?”
“It’s a goat.Duh.”
“Are you feeling all right, man?”
“I’m feeling better than I ever have before.”
“What.Is.Happening?”
Julian bit back a laugh.“No idea, but whatever it is, I want as much of it as I can get.”
“Are you the same guy who was about to call the exterminator to get rid of smokeshow Stacey a week ago?”
“Yeah, that was me.”
“And now…”
