Corey sighed again. “Look, do with this information what you will. I’ve led the horse to water.”
My lips twitched. I still hadn’t sat down, too busy swinging my swivel chair back and forth as a kind of self-soothing motion. In my defense, this had been an intense conversation. “You picking your metaphors to suit your new wife?”
Corey huffed. “Laugh it up, Loverboy,” he said. “You know what she said to me right before she fell asleep on the plane with her head on my shoulder?”
“You flew in seats where she could do that?” I asked.
“This was the hop from London to Madrid,” Corey said. “She saidyou know I love you, right?Like it was the most obvious thing in the world.”
Huh.
“Huh,” I said aloud.
“Yeah. And as soon as she said it, I knew. I knew I’d seen a million signs. Must?—”
“Run in the family,” I finished for him. “I’m so glad their mom hates you.”
“Play your cards right and she could havetwosons-in-law she hates. We could be brothers.”
“Much as that as I can’t imagine anything I’d love more than to spend every Thanksgiving with you for the rest of my life,” I said. “I still haven’t heard it. And I need to. Or I’ll never believe it’s real.”
“Well,” Corey drawled. “I honestly hope you do. If only so I don’t have to spend every Thanksgiving for the rest of my life with a moping Theo.”
“Go back to your wife,” I said as my phone buzzed with a message.
Theo?
I glanced at it.
Not Theo. Dad.
How many pints of ice cream do you think you’re gonna need?
Clearly, someone had been speaking to him. Ellie was the logical choice, but smart money was on Abdul. He and Dad had really hit it off when they met around this time last year. They had a weekly chess match on their phones I got updates on from both sides.
“Tell her you love her,” I finished, hanging up.
at least three
28
THEO
“What are you doing here?”
For a woman who was under five feet tall, Ellie was terrifying.
No, that wasn’t true. She was terrifying for a living creature of any size. Including, for example, a hungry polar bear. Of course she was the first person I ran into after I’d talked my way past security—Vicki had recognized me as Simon’s friend—to get into the nondescript, beige-walled corridor that led to the archives Simon worked in.
If looks could kill, I would have been vaporized to a fine mist by the glare Ellie had levelled at me right now. The cutesy little cat cardigan clips and heart-shaped glasses were a lie. She was possibly the fiercest predator roaming the Earth.
Usually, that worked in my favor. Ilikedbeing out in public with her, because she was the best defense against anyone even considering starting any trouble.
Today, the only thing stopping me from running in the other direction was…
“Looking for Simon,” I said, still out of breath from sprinting—well, mostly walking briskly, I was no kind of athlete—all the way from my office to the museum.
The glare intensified.
