His Temporary Assistant
Page 160
Sunday 12:57 pm
Miss Moon: I’m calling.
Out on the balcony, I glanced down at Smoky, who was batting a catnip palm tree with halfhearted interest as he eyed the phone in my hand. When her call came through, he sat up straight, all pretense of playing forgotten.
“She’s not calling you,” I informed him.
He promptly turned around and showed me his butt.
“Hey.” I leaned back against the railing and crossed my ankles with a casualness I so didn’t feel. “How’s things with Mom?”
“Tell me what happened.”
“No foreplay, got it.” Idly, I scratched my stomach through the baseball jersey I’d put on to wear to dinner at the bar with Bishop and my brother later. “I asked her straight out if she’d been with anyone else after my father. She indicated yes.”
Ryan didn’t reply right away. “I’m sorry.”
“Me too. For them, most of all. It’s a hell of a thing to live like that and to think it makes sense.”
“If they’re in agreement…”
“It’s still crazy.”
“No argument. Are you okay? I know finding out about your dad rocked you.”
“I’m getting there. Did you get some sleep?”
“Yeah. A little. Hard to sleep with your mom crammed in a couch-bed, but I made do.”
“Maybe try the chants?”
She laughed and I heard movement and voices around her. “We’re getting more of her wares ready for the fair. She does a lot of work with textiles. Yarn and stuff. It’s a huge one, lots of crafters and vendors.”
“Sounds like you’re busy then. I won’t keep you.”
“What about you? Do you have plans today?”
“Yeah, I’m meeting my best friend and Dex at the bar later. We have some business to discuss.” I rubbed my thumb over my phone and tried the full disclosure thing on for size. “We’re asking Bishop to take my place in the firm. No idea if he’ll bite, but he’s a good dude. He just got back from the South Pacific and—”
“Was there a discount going around or something?”
“Huh?”
“You know, April too. She texted me from Fiji. Said she ran into some snags, but she’s on her way home.”
I frowned. “I didn’t even make the connection. That’s odd. What are the chances?”
“Well, it’s not like the South Pacific is tiny.”
“No, but that it was at the same time.”
“Do they know each other?”
“No, not that I know of. Bishop never visits me at work, and I’ve never run into April when we’re out together, rare as it is.”
“Typical PMS. All business.”
“Until I discovered the varied uses for conference tables and desk chairs, you mean.”