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It had been forever since I’d fallen asleep spooning with a man. Mo wasn’t much of a cuddler and had never spooned with me for more than a few minutes—just another of his defects that I hadn’t recognized until after he left.
Chapter 6
Josh
The landingat Santa Monica was a few minutes early, and as I glanced at the girl seated next to me, I thanked my lucky stars.
Even the five-hour flight from hell to JFK, sandwiched between Granny and Fart Guy, had turned out to be worth it after meeting Nicole.
The town car rolled up to meet us as we deplaned.
Nicole pulled out her phone. “Oops. Can you call me an Uber?”
I shook my head. “No way. Door-to-door service is part of the package.”
She returned the broken phone to her purse. “You’ve done too much already. How much do I owe you for this?”
I frowned. She didn’t get it. “Nothing. The company is paying for the charter, and an extra passenger is no charge.”
“But…” she started.
“Arguing will get you nowhere.” I reached for the handle and opened the car door for her.
After she slid in, I rounded to the other side and joined her in the backseat.
“Where to first?” our driver asked.
Nicole looked at me.
“Your place first,” I told her.
“4312 Orangebranch,” she told him.
I entered it into my phone. “And your phone number?”
She rattled it off without hesitation.
I handed her my card. “I’ll call you so we can schedule that tiramisu.”
Her smile was genuine. “I’d like that.”
The leather seats of the car were comfortable, but tonight I didn’t care for them. The hard airline seat next to her, shoulder to shoulder, and spooning on the Gulfstream’s couch had both been better. I slid a hand toward her on the seat. “I’m glad we got some time together, Nicole.”
Her hand was warm as she took mine briefly. “Me too.” There was an electric feel to the touch of her soft skin. “Thank you again for this,” she said. “It means a lot.”
After a few miles of silence, she asked, “So you don’t like working for your father?”
I shifted in my seat. This wasn’t an easy subject. “It’s hard to explain.”
“I know a lot can be expected of you, working for family.”
That had been my experience in more ways than she could understand.
“He needs someone—the family needs someone to take over when…well, when he’s ready to give up the reins. I get that I’m the last one left, but it doesn’t seem fair. My brothers all have their own things to run, and I’d like that too, instead of just moving from project to project, rationalizing acquisitions.”
“What’s rationalizing mean?”
Soft words like that hid the ugliness of what I did. “It means I’m the one who comes in to make the hard decisions and make the operation more profitable. But even then, I still have people looking over my shoulder.”
