Jessica: That was your cue to tell me how happy my text just made you.
Me: If you’d told me she had all of them, then I’d tell you your text made my fucking year.
Jessica: Well since I’m not getting any praise tonight, I’ll take a coffee from that Willow St café tomorrow. You know how I like it.
Me: Have my assistant organise it.
She doesn’t reply to that, only sends me a gif showing me what she thinks of that idea.
“I’m taking that was good news by the way you’re smiling,” Jack says.
Glancing up at him, I shake my head. “Not really, but Jessica’s sense of humour is out in full force tonight.”
“That woman definitely knows how to make a man smile,” he murmurs, and I see the moment where he drifts back into old memories.
“Jack,”
I warn him. “Don’t go there.”
He throws the rest of his drink down his throat. “So no good news, then?”
“She let me know my real estate has found three Willow Street properties to buy. The news would have been good if the number had been a lot bigger. I’m battling my father for these properties, so I need to make this happen fast before he does.”
Jack frowns. “What does Lorelei think of all this? I would have thought she’d be against it.”
“This is business, Jack. It doesn’t have anything to do with Lorelei.”
He whistles low. “And now I understand why my best friend is still single even though women line up to date him. Your head is in the clouds if you think this doesn’t have anything to do with Lorelei.”
I reach for a whisky glass in the cupboard and pour myself a drink. “When she sees the results of a Willow Street development, she’ll understand why it was needed. The businesses on that street are dying while the rest of Sydney moves ahead, simply because no one has bothered to develop it.”
His brows arch. “And you really believe she’ll sell her building to you for this?”
“It won’t matter if she doesn’t. I can still go ahead without it. And that will only help her, so she’ll reap the rewards of that. There’s no way she won’t be good with it once I lay it all out for her.”
As a knock sounds on the front door, he says, “For the record, I believe this might just be the worst idea you’ve ever had. If you really want Lorelei in your life, that is. If you don’t want her, sure, go ahead because I believe you that it will be good for business. But sometimes, people have to come first, my friend.”
I frown. “I agree, and that’s why I’m doing this. It’ll be good financially for everyone.”
He shakes his head at me. “But sometimes other things are more important than cash.”
The knocking on my front door grows louder. “I need to get that. Are you joining us for dinner?”
“No, I’m going out for the night.”
That thought scares me. Jack out on the town with all the alcohol in the world available to him is a recipe for disaster.
Before I can protest, he says, “Don’t stress, Ashton, I’m going out with Sienna. She’ll keep me on the straight and narrow.”
“Good,” I mutter before heading to answer the door.
Finding Lorelei on the other side eases some of the tension from my body. She’s been by my side as much as she could be this past week, and has pretty much kept me going when the stress and exhaustion have gotten to me.
Snaking my arm around her waist, I pull her to me. “Do you have any idea how good it is to see you?”
Her eyes light up with pleasure as she loops her arms around my neck. After brushing a kiss across my lips, she says, “Don’t judge my outfit, okay? I was running late.”
I chuckle as I take another look at her body. “I’ve got no issue with this outfit. In fact, you should start wearing it more often for me. Have you just come from the gym?” She’s wearing the tightest multi-coloured tights and a fitted bra top thing under a jacket. The fact I can see skin makes me more than happy, not to mention that her legs in these tights look fucking amazing.