Page 128 of The Work Wife

“Is that a cat?” Her father frowned at the meowing fluff in the bag.

“Yes.” She unzipped the bag and off the cat went. That would probably be the last they saw of it. Jamie’s scream the other night probably scared the poor thing down to its last life. She couldn’t leave him in the apartment by himself. Even if it was obvious he liked to be alone.

“And why are you here again so soon?” he asked.

“My husband is rich and he told me to come spend more time with you.” She kept her face completely blank of expression. She could have been the poster child for Botox.

Had she just repeated her story word for word? Surely that would be suspicious.

“I mean, Wes has a lot of money, and he said I should use some of his money to come visit you. More. Longer than the first time. Because he has so much—”

“Jamie, you should stop now.” Her father held up his hand and winced. “I think you’re actually getting worse at this.”

Everyone was standing in the living room, clothing where it should be. Lips touching nothing. The nurse smiled and patted Jamie’s arm as she headed for the closet where the coats were hung.

“I’m going to go.”

“You don’t need to leave,” her father said.

“I have a feeling it’s going to get tense. I’ll check in later.” She kissed him on the cheek on her way out the door.

“I’m sorry, Daddy.”

“Sit down. Tell me why you’re sorry.”

When she opened her mouth, the whole story came out.

* * * *

Weston sat down at the desk where he’d woken up at three that morning. He’d been figuring out a way to retrofit the building with bracing, and had fallen asleep.

Surely that was a sign he was heading down the wrong path. He’d never fallen asleep at his desk when he worked at Blain and Douglas.

He left on time most nights.

He’d missed a call from Jamie, which sounded important, and maybe even a little pissed off. It was too early to call her. He’d wait until she had some time to calm down.

When he went home to shower and change, he also packed a bag.

He was going to Boston after work to surprise her. And hopefully beg forgiveness for being inattentive at the same time he undressed her. He missed her like crazy, and he was ready to ask her to move to New York with him.

He knew it was a huge thing to ask, but he hoped she wanted him enough to want to be in the same city with him. God, he wanted her. The more time they spent apart, the more he realized how important she was to him.

After spending the day imagining what Jamie would do when he showed up to surprise her, and the other half imagining what he would do to Jamie, he closed up his laptop to catch the train to Boston.

He’d just stood up when Benji walked in.

“Do you have a minute?”

“No. I want to go see my wife.”

“I get that. But I have a favor to ask.” Ben looked upset, and after seeing the mess his brother had been dealing with all this time, he would do whatever he could to help.

“Whatever it is, sure thing.” He didn’t add the part about doing whatever it was after he got back from visiting Jamie.

“Oh. Okay. That was easy.”

Wes stopped walking again and backed up. “Wait. What is it?”