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“Okay. I’ll stop blaming myself, but promise me—”
“Anything you want, Abbie.”
Chapter seventy-nine
Gabe
“Anything?” Abbie asks.
“Anything? What do you want? An orgasm? Another puppy? A cat?”
“Now you’re just trying to distract me.”
She’s right. I am. Distract her the hell away from the topic of Kendall and a confession that won’t go my way. That’s the problem. She thinks I’m a better man than I am even when I tell her that I’m not. Over and over, I tell her. I warn her. She sees something better in me than I see. She makes me want to be that better man. And I will be. That’s what matters.
“What do you want me to promise?” I ask, still pressing her against her office door, holding her here. Wishing like hell I could whisk her away, deal with this problem, and then bring her back where I plan to keep her by my side. The police complicate that desire, burn it to ruins, in fact.
Her hands touch my face, fingers trail my jaw. “Promises later but food now would be good.”
Aware that she’s let me dodge a bullet, I take the out. “Promises in bed tonight. Lunch now. Let’s order in.” I push offthe door. We’ll move to my office and eat there, while you reach out to your mother. When do you have to be back with Human Resources?”
“One o’clock,” she says. “And me in your office is pretty much announcing we’re together, right?”
“I have lunch meetings all the time, baby.” I open the door. “Meet me there in five, if it makes you feel better.” I disappear out of the door.
I’ve just entered my office and sat down and she’s already there. “Shut the door.”
She shuts the door. “You’re sure about this?”
“Yes.” I motion to the conference table. “My lunch meeting location,” I say, grabbing the phone and dialing Connie, Reid’s assistant, who is currently covering for Lulu while she’s on vacation.
Reid pokes his head in the door. “Jean Claude called. I’m going to meet him.”
“What happened to a few days?” Abbie asks, twisting around to look at him.
“I’ll answer that question when I get back,” Reid replies, giving me a grim look, before disappearing into the hallway.
“Are you worried?” Abbie asks. “Jean Claude is dangerous, right?”
“Dead men don’t do favors,” I say. “Jean Claude wants a favor from Reid. That’s obvious.”
“Jean Claude doesn’t like that Reid knows his secrets.”
“He can handle himself, baby. I promise.”
“Taking lunch orders,” Connie announces, rushing into the office and said lunch orders turn into girl chat between her and Abbie while I end up on a call with a client. By the time our food arrives, Abbie’s tried to reach her mother with no success several times. “She’s acting strange since all this started,” Abbie worries when we finally sit down to eat.
“In what way?”
“She never skips my calls.”
“Skips your calls? Baby, I think it’s more that she has her hands full.”
“With what? The animals are on the island. She’s here. Do you know what time she gets here for her meeting with her attorney?”
“I don’t, but most likely at the same time we’re meeting with Reese.”
“I haven’t even talked to her about her new attorney. It makes no sense. She worries about me, Gabe, and yet she’s not even talking to me?”
