“Want me to stay with you?”
She hesitated and my phone chimed. I pulled it out and looked at it. Jordan again.
Dude, where the hell are you? We have some business to go over.
I clicked the phone off and tucked it back into my pocket.
She watched me carefully. “Who was that?”
“Just Jordan, riding my ass as usual.”
“Hmm.” She frowned. “I remember when you were the one riding his ass all the time.”
“Talk to me,” I said, reaching out for her hand. “What’s going on?”
“I’m just not feeling a hundred percent. I probably have a bug.”
My cell phone started ringing.
“You should get that,” she said. I threw her a look. Not so many months ago, she would have told me the complete opposite.
I yanked the phone out of my pocket and answered. “Yes, what?”
“Where the hell are you? We need to go over some paperwork and you are ignoring my texts.”
“Can’t it wait until tomorrow?”
A pause. “Um. No. The meeting is first thing in the morning. Where are you?”
“I’m in Orange.” I flicked a glance at Emilia who was staring out the window, distracted. “Where do you want to meet?”
“Your house. Thirty minutes.”
“Fine.” Shit. I did not want to leave Emilia. Even if it was clear that she didn’t want me here.
She turned to me when I finished the phone call, scooted across the couch and wrapped her arms around my torso, resting her head on my shoulder. My heart swelled in my chest and I stole a kiss in her vanilla-scented hair. Smelling her hair, I felt a rush to my senses. “I’ll be okay. Go take care of your company. Stop worrying.”
“You know what would make me worry less?” I asked, stroking her hair. “If you were living at my house so I could take care of you.”
“How did I know you were going to say that?” She landed a kiss on my cheek. “I’m a big girl. I took care of myself for years before we met.”
“I think you should take a day off work tomorrow,” I said.
“I’ll think about it,” she answered. “Now go appease Jordan. I’m going to finish this episode, then probably go lie down again.”
“You should call your mom, too. She’s worried about you.”
“Mom was at Peter’s?”
I took a deep breath. “Yeah…apparently they wanted to tell us that they are dating.”
A brief look of horror crossed her face. “That’s…umm. A little squicky.”
I laughed. “Glad to know I’m not the only one weirded out by that. Why aren’t you getting back to her? She really seemed upset.”
Emilia pulled away from me and sat back. “I will. I’ll call her before I go lie down.”
I leaned forward and kissed her forehead. “I’m gonna go. I’ll call you tomorrow. And I’ll tell Mac you’re staying home.”
She opened her mouth to protest, but I held up a finger. “I’m not arguing with you. Take a day off, so says the boss. I’ll come check in on you tomorrow.”
I kissed her good-bye and left.
***
Jordan was waiting for me when I got there. My housekeeper had let him in and fixed him a drink and a snack plate while he sat at my kitchen bar. I grabbed some canapés and loaded up an empty plate, which she noticed immediately and offered to make me some dinner.
I turned her down, thanking her, but I grabbed the snack plate and Jordan and I went up to my office.
“What’s so important it couldn’t wait until tomorrow?” I said, settling down at my desk across from Jordan.
“The insurance company sent us papers that we need to review and send back with our corrections as soon as possible.”
I rubbed my brow with my thumb. “And this couldn’t wait?”
Jordan looked at me like I’d sprouted a third eye. “What the hell, Adam? We need to stay on top of this shit. This is our company. And these insurance guys have our necks in a noose. One wrong move and we start strangling. No, it couldn’t wait.”
Nice image. I grabbed the stack of papers, scanned the first page. “This is all shit about settling. We are not going to settle.”
Jordan stared at me for a long, hard minute. “We may not have a choice.”
“Bullshit. It’s not their call.”
“Joseph’s been looking over the policy because I knew you’d say all this. He hasn’t found anything yet. Unless you as CEO are named in the suit, then you have no say over whether or not the insurance company settles the case or takes it to court.”