Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 83986 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83986 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
“Yes, we certainly would.”
“Well, he did give me time off so I could come along with my colleague, who’s here protecting Ash.”
“Your colleague must be quite good at his—”
“Or her,” I corrected him.
“Or her,” he repeated, “yes, of course. Her job because I’ve only seen you in the photos.”
“Well, fixers are supposed to blend.”
“That’s amazing.”
I waggled my eyebrows at him, and Ash curled a piece of hair around my ear before sliding his fingers over my jaw.
“Oh, do please come out and visit Ash so we can meet in person. I would love to get to know you, as he seems quite fond.”
“I hope he’s fond.”
“I’m enthralled,” Ash murmured.
I turned to look at him.
“I’ve added that word to go along with enchanted.”
“Well, now,” Levi said, with a sigh.
Ash wrapped up the call then. Levi reiterated how happy he was to meet me, and that he would make sure there would be a lavish yet tasteful arrangement of flowers delivered to Kit’s mother by late morning tomorrow, and that there would be assistant résumés in Ash’s inbox later tonight.
“Thanks, Levi,” Ash told him. “You’re the best.”
“Yes, I know.” He winked, and with a last wave to me, hung up.
Ash groaned. “Not that I didn’t appreciate the help, but that is a whopper of a lie you just told my agent. And now I’m going to need to call Nick Madison out of the blue, and he’ll think I’m a psychopath.”
“Oh?”
“The worst part is, I have no idea how to get his number. Levi is the one who normally puts me in touch with people.”
I kissed his cheek. “Did I forget to mention during our whirlwind twenty-four hours that my buddy is married to Nick Madison?”
It took him a moment. “Wait. That song, that ballad, ‘Lock and Key,’ that’s about his husband, Locryn. You know him?”
“Sadly, yes.”
“Sadly?”
“He’s an ass, and he’s going to be an even bigger one about this because he loves it when people, especially his friends, owe him.”
Ash’s laughter pushed heat right through me. I was addicted to seeing the man happy. “I wanna be there when you call him.”
“You don’t. He’s just gonna growl.”
“I’ve seen pictures of them, and Nick Madison, I mean, come on, you already know I have a soft spot for men with brown hair and big brown eyes.”
“I do know that.”
“But your buddy Locryn, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a picture of him where he doesn’t look…”
“Emotionally constipated? Like Nash?” I suggested.
“Yes,” he conceded, like I was onto something. “Exactly. And are his eyes actually black, because that’s how they look in all the photos.”
“Yeah. Black.”
“Huh.”
“The good news is you’ll like Nick. Everybody does. When I met him at their wedding, I kept looking at Loc and thinking, how is this gonna work?”
“But?”
“But you heard that song. Nick Madison is smitten.”
“Just like me,” he said, hooking his hand around the side of my neck to ease me close. “I’m smitten too.”
I felt the same, and he knew that, which was the first time that had ever happened. Being in the same place together, heart and head, was really something to love.
The kid came back, gave us the umbrella, and we left without him recognizing Ash. It was interesting who saw him and who didn’t.
“Did you and your buddy Rais talk about anything else?” Ash asked as we walked together, back under the neon-yellow eyesore.
“He complimented me on my pictures on the internet.”
“What?”
“The fact of the matter is, you’re a liar,” I said flatly.
He stopped walking. “I beg your pardon?”
“You said when we first met that you saw a picture of me in my file that my boss sent over, and that you hoped, after seeing it, that I would sleep with you.”
His face scrunched up. “How is that a lie? You know I meant it.”
“Yes, but Rais’s point was, I look like shit in pictures.”
He tilted his head. “Are you screwing with me right now?”
“God, you’re so cute,” I said, reaching for him.
Quickly, he took several steps away from me, which removed the cover of the umbrella.
“The hell’re you doing? Come back here.”
“No, you go stand under the little roof there of the closed ice-cream store.”
I took several steps back and got out of the downpour, safe under the awning of the closed Colonial Ice House.
“Explain,” he ordered, looking at me like I was the crazy one.
“I’m not photogenic.”
“When?”
“Ever.”
“Who told you this?”
“Uh, my mother, my father, my sisters. My grandmother always says, ‘Oh, that Cooper has a face for radio.’”
“She does not,” he argued, trying hard not to smile.
I opened my eyes wide and nodded.
“And your friends think this too?”
“Yep.”
He squinted at me, looking confused.
“But on this trip, apparently, from what Rais said, I look good in the pictures that have been taken of us together.”
“First, that’s interesting that you think you’re not pretty in pictures, because I can tell you truthfully that all I saw were your big brown eyes, your wide shoulders, and your very kissable lips. I was a goner.”