A Win-Win Proposition (Case Brothers 2)

“Well, for starters, you could lighten up. Have some fun. Stop trying to manage every single thing around you.”

“I don’t manage everything.”

“You’ve scheduled the summit down to the minute.”

“We have a lot to get through.”

“Not at night, you don’t.”

“Part of what makes this summit work is that all the executives spend time together.”

Missy rolled her eyes. “Right, but they’re together all day.”

Sebastian had worked with Missy long enough to know when she had a point to make. “What do you have in mind?”

“Cancel the group dinners and let everyone go their own way.”

“It’s too late for tonight’s dinner.”

“True.” She nodded, her eyes shining. “But it would be a simple thing to cancel the rest of them. I know you’d make the wives very happy if you gave them more time alone with their husbands. With the amount of traveling you have got everyone doing, your executives don’t get to see much of their wives or their families.” Her gaze lifted no higher than his chin. “And about the tours…”

Raw impatience burned in his gut. “What about the tours?”

“No one wanted to go to the Hoover Dam.”

“You didn’t go?” Sebastian couldn’t believe what he was hearing. This summit was coming apart. Not one thing had gone according to plan since he and Missy had stepped off the plane. “Dare I ask what you did instead?”

“We hit a couple casinos then I suggested they might like to try skydiving.”

“Skydiving?”

“Oh, don’t worry. It was indoor skydiving,” she said in a breezy tone. “I wasn’t out to get anyone killed. They found it fun rather than terrifying.”

“Fun,” Sebastian muttered. “Your idea?”

She looked surprised that he’d even asked. “Of course.”

“Is there anything else I need to know?”

“Like what?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Did you rearrange tomorrow’s summit schedule without telling me?”

“Now that you mention it—” She broke off when he growled. Her laughter filled the suite and took the sting out of everything he’d just heard. “I’m kidding. I wouldn’t dream of messing wit

h your precious summit.”

“Because, I’m assuming, you’ve already promised my agreement on the change of plans,” he said. “Fine, I’ll go along with it.”

“That was too easy.” For the first time she sounded concerned. “What did I miss?”

“The fact that from now until the end of the summit, you have seen to it that my nights are free.”

“And?”

“So are yours.”

“She almost started to cry today while we were shopping.” Alicia Darby’s voice lifted over the laughter bouncing off the glass walls separating their private dining room from the rest of the Eiffel Tower Restaurant.