Reunited in Love

“Thanks. So do you.”

“Yes, I got to work on my tan a little bit.” She climbed into the car. “So where’s Kerri?”

“Working.” He got behind the wheel and started the engine.

“Ugh. Really? I told her to leave all that stuff at the office.”

“Actually she’s not working for Goldreich anymore. She’s working for me,” Ethan said as he guided the car out into the messy airport traffic.

“Wait, what?” Natalie said. “When did she start working for you? Isn’t that a conflict of interest or something? She already has a job.”

“She quit before coming to the States.”

“No way,” Natalie breathed.

It was Ethan’s turn to be surprised. “You didn’t know?”

“She never mentioned it. And I never suspected. Kerri loves the crazy hours. She’s like the worst workaholic I’ve ever met, and that’s saying something.” Natalie frowned. “Why didn’t she tell me? Not like I’m her best friend or anything.”

“Well, you were on your honeymoon. And maybe she thought you’d hear anyway. Don’t you still have friends in Hong Kong?”

“Yeah, but it’s been a while. I’m not really in the loop anymore.” She huffed. “Well, I’ll give her a hard time about it later. So what’s she doing for you?”

“Quite a lot, actually.”

Natalie gave him a sidelong look. “I mean professionally.”

Ethan grinned. “Going over some numbers.”

“So she’s working for Global Strategies?”

“No.” He filled her in on the situation at The Lloyds Development.

“I’m sorry to hear that, Ethan,” Natalie said, both corners of her mouth turned downward. “I wish I’d known. We would’ve come home sooner to free up your time.”

“Ah, we’ll be fine. I can fix things. And Kerri’s been doing a great job.”

Natalie grinned. “She’s good, isn’t she?”

“Almost too good. And she definitely works too much.”

“Told you. When she’s not eating, drinking or sleeping, she’s working.”

“Actually… I haven’t seen her touch a drop of alcohol.”

Natalie stared at him. “Are we talking about the same person here?”

“In fact, I believe we are.”

“Did you offer her decent drinks? She doesn’t like chea—never mind. Who am I talking to? Of course you gave her the best.” She crossed her arms and leaned back in her seat, her mouth pursed. “Something’s definitely off. Unless Kerri has some long-lost twin who’s impersonating her.”

“Does she have a twin?” he asked, half-serious.

“I…don’t think so.” Natalie shifted her weight. “But now that you mention it, I don’t really know anything about her family at all.”

Now that was interesting. Why wouldn’t Natalie know about something as basic as her best friend’s family background? “Absolutely nothing?”

“Well, I know they’re from the east coast. And she has some relatives in Texas, I think, although she rarely talks about them. But yeah, not much. Then again, we were always really busy when we were working together. It’s not like we had tons of time to talk about personal stuff.” Arms crossed, she mulled things over. “You know,” she began. “Now that I think about it, Kerri always made sure she would never have to talk about her family and her childhood. Except for the fact that she grew up somewhere in the east, I don’t know anything else. It’s a miracle I know her birthday, and that’s only because somebody in HR made a big deal one year about celebrating everyone’s birthday. She was really uncomfortable.”