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Regret fills me, and Alana’s hand settles on my face, dragging me back to the present. “Where’d you go? Come back to me.”
“I was thinking about that night, the party to celebrate the list.”
“It was a good night until the next morning.”
“When I left,” I supply, but then I chuckle. “Or tried. You handed me my ass.”
“You deserved it. You made me feel—”
“I was just trying to take care of you. And I thought maybe getting that gambling debt off your father would actually be the end of that trouble.”
“I know, Damion. Believe me, I know. Every time I paid off his debt, I thought it was the end of it.”
“Have you talked to your mother?”
“Not at all. I asked Walker to tell me if he goes to her house or calls her, but so far, she’s left him messages and he doesn’t return the calls. He’s either done with her or being cautious because of the press.”
“Maybe both, and that’s for the best.”
“I heard the Russians are helping, but not much more about the details.”
“I just got the rundown myself. Blake wouldn’t talk about it until we were in person. The Russians are going to start a blackmail campaign for the company’s money. We hope his out will be that he’s no longer in charge, and they need to talk to me.”
She crinkles her cute little nose. “Wait. Will they really come after you?”
“No. Walker has it under control. I don’t know how, but I trust Blake.”
“Me too,” she says with a nod. “Me too. Anything from Caleb?”
“Radio silence,” I say, reaching for the door. “Let’s talk over dinner.”
She catches my arm and tilts a concerned look my direction. “I have this weird feeling something bad is about to happen.”
The calm before the storm, I think again, but I don’t say that. “We’ve waited a long time for a happy ending, baby. I think it’s pretty normal to feel a sense of apprehension. Let’s go enjoy a night out together.”
“While taunting your father?”
I step into her and capture her slender waist. “We can stay in. You will get no complaint from me on that point. You. Me. A pizza and no one else.”
“You know I want to go,” she says. “I’m all dressed up and ready for my mac n cheese with my future husband.”
Future husband. God, I love how that sounds.
Her hands settle on my lapels. “And if, as a bonus, we help our cause, which is to get your father out of the picture, so be it.” She captures my hand. “Now feed me already.”
***
The press swarms us as we exit the building, and Walker is ready for us and them, sheltering us even as I fold Alana in close to me. “Well, that was fun now, wasn’t it?” Alana asks as we settle into the SUV across from Joey.
Her light mood so close to her kidnapping is surprising, but she’s proven time and time again in her life to be resilient.
“We’re just pigs in mud, it’s so fun,” Joey grumbles. “Fucking piranha reporters.”
Alana smiles at his grumpiness and kisses my cheek. How many times is this woman going to steal my heart all over again in one night?
After a few detours on the path made by smooth-operating Smith, the reporters are left in the dust, and arrival at the restaurant is free of hassle. Once we’re actually in an intimate private room, sitting at a cloth circular booth with a view of the city lights twinkling before us and wine in our glasses, for just a little while, we’re able to just be us. It’s something we haven’t really been able to do since finding each other again. We laugh and talk about the old days and all the trouble we got into with each other—or I got her into, she claims. And of course, there’s the mac n cheese, which lights up Alana’s face the minute she takes a bite.
By the time we reach dessert, a carrot cake, we’ve turned the topic to the Hamptons. Alana stabs a bite of the cake and pauses. “I can’t wait to see it. I wish it were tomorrow.”
