Page 34 of Just My Luck

“I can’t believe Leonard kidnapped her. From what she told me, he showed up after her meeting at the brewery.”

She relayed the entire story to me, and when I talked briefly with Rick, he’d filled me in on the rest. How the police had shown up and how Sofia had escaped the madman herself.

“Maybe now they’ll get back together,” she said with a yawn.

I thought about that for a moment, what I would do if something like that had happened to Nova, and my gut twisted.

I’d been in love with her for as long as I could remember. Yet, to this date, I hadn’t told her. Hadn’t really shown her how I feel.

“I’ll call him in the morning and tell him about us,” I said out of the blue.

“No, give them the weekend.” She sighed and snuggled closer. “Let them enjoy being together and the first snow of the season.”

I nodded and held onto her as the movie continued on the screen.

The next afternoon, the snow was gone, leaving behind the crisp bite of cold air flowing down from the mountains.

Sofia had called and talked to Nova for over an hour. After, Nova explained that her best friend had guessed that we had been hiding our relationship.

“She said it was obvious because I’d been over at your place last night and I’m still here today.” She rolled her eyes. “I just couldn’t lie to her, not knowing what she’d gone through yesterday.”

“It’s okay. At least now they know. How is she doing?”

“She’s fine.” Her smile grew. “Your brother confessed his love for her and is going to stay in Golden.”

I frowned. “What about his company in California?”

“He’s selling it to his partner.” She shrugged, then asked, “What’s wrong?”

I realized I had stiffened slightly. “Nothing.”

She put her hands on her hips. I rolled my eyes.

“Fine.” I threw up my hands after a moment of her silent treatment. “I was hoping he’d decide to go back to Cali so I could step up at GSM.”

“You complained enough when Rick left you in charge for one week,” she teased me.

I smiled. “I did, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to be in charge.”

“Ah, men and their desperate need for power,” she joked. Then she sobered. “You deserve to at least share the power with Rick. You stayed. All these years, you stayed.” She walked over and sat on my lap, holding onto me.

I thought about her words for the next week. We had a few more days before Nova and I were due back in Vegas. This time, the trip was four days filled with meetings.

Nova and I worked on our last ditch effort to gain favor from Kit. If this didn’t work, I seriously doubted anything short of Nova falling at the man’s feet would. Of course, there was no way in hell that was happening.

Three more times that week, flowers or fruit baskets had showed up at the office from Kit. Rick had contacted the man directly and in not so subtle ways told him that if anything was delivered to an employee’s home, they would break off any negotiations.

I just knew there was trouble waiting for us in Vegas. We did everything we could to prepare for the trip. This time, we booked our own hotel room. Singular.

I was determined to show Kit that Nova was off the negotiation table.

“Got a sec?” Rick knocked on my work door shortly after I got into work the day before we left.

“Sure.” I was waiting for my computer to boot up anyway so I turned toward him. “What’s up?” He shut my office door, then walked over.

“I got this from Mom last night.” He held out a small green box. “It was grandma’s.” He opened it, and I saw the sky blue diamond my dad’s mother used to have on her finger. The ring was always going to go to Rick. It was left in my grandmother’s will that he should use it as a wedding ring, if he so desired one day.

“Wow.” I looked up at Rick. “So I guess you and Sofia are really serious?”