“I wish.” I wink at her. “Maddie is here.”
There’s a pause on the other line. “Ahh. Hi, Madeline.”
Amara knows everything about Maddie and how special she is to me.
“Hi?” She shoots me a look.
“Amara is our head of London, you’ll meet her soon. She comes over at least once a quarter.”
“Amara.” Maddie smiles. “I’ve seen you copied on a few emails. Nice to meet you.”
“Same. Nate, love, should we continue our decision tomorrow?”
“Yeah. My girl is waiting for me at home,” I cryptically say, to get another rise out of Maddie, and my plan doesn’t fail.
Her eyes widen a smidge, her jaw and body tense.
It takes everything in me not to point out how I still affect her or how I watched every move and interaction between her and that jackass fiancé of hers, and they have less chemistry than two strangers.
But us…fuck we’re electric.
Amara chuckles, knowing exactly what I’m doing. “Have fun. We’ll figure out a plan that appeases everyone.”
Maddie’s curious eyes bounce between me and the phone.
“Actually, Am, Maddie might be able to help.”
I fill her in, and she doesn’t disappoint. Of course, she’d have the perfect solution.
“What if you stagger the panels along the east slope instead? You’ll keep the visual buffer and can optimize the slope to bring back that solar time.”
“You are an absolute genius, Maddie. I’m mad I didn’t think of it myself,” Amara gushes. “Nate, I’ll send over a revision later today. It’s late, you two need to get home.”
“Sleeping is for people not married to deadlines.”
“Now that I understand. Night, you two.”
The call ends, and Maddie yawns.
“Come on, Mads. Let’s get you home before you fall asleep standing up.”
“I’m a big girl, Nate. I can get home by myself.” She yawns again.
“I love that you think I’d ever let you go home at this hour by yourself. Let’s go, I already called a car.”
“Oh, you don’t have a private driver? Money must be tight,” she jokes, and it’s incredible to hear her laugh.
“Ha. Ha. Harrison is the only one with a driver because of Claud; we’re not that bad.”
Amusement lights up her eyes. “Seriously? You once sent me a private plane because I had a cough, and you didn’t want me to be uncomfortable on a commercial flight.”
“You could have been contagious.” I shrug, knowing it’s ridiculous, because she never let me take care of her like I wanted.
Too damn prideful.
“Seriously, Nate. Do I live out of the way? I can take the car. I won’t walk.”
“You were going to walk?” My voice spikes, and there is a chance my heart stops. “Are you trying to kill me?”
