“Okay.” He stood there, waiting. Felt more in control, stronger, more like himself, with his exit strategy halfway complete.
“Could you please come back and sit down?”
Good Lord, what was the woman trying to do to him? Extract every last nerve ending in payment for the humiliation she must have suffered? He’d left her to let hundreds of guests know, with only two days’ notice, that there wasn’t going to be a wedding. Canceling the caterers, the flowers, the church and minister, the lovely beachfront country club...
As his mental list quickly piled up on itself, Gray had the sense that moving back to the chair would be more prudent. He did so.
“I can’t force you to accept my help,” she started in a few silent seconds after he’d done as she’d asked and reclaimed his chair. “I would, however, appreciate you giving some strong consideration to agreeing to the working relationship since I’ve already involved the senior partners in my firm, as well as others whose expertise I might need.”
Another surge of guilt hit, along with the list that had been piling up on him a moment ago.
“I’m listening.”
“We agreed that while we will have a professional relationship—whose term is yet to be determined—that we will stay completely clear of each other on a personal basis.”
He frowned. “Yes.” He said the word succinctly, before continuing with, “And I’ve been very careful not to take any chances...”
A wave of her hand...and the way that appendage landed at her hair again, with those fingers working strands...piqued his curiosity.
In a completely unprofessional manner.
“I’ve realized that when I made that stipulation, I hadn’t taken into consideration some circumstances that have since occurred to me.”
She was looking at him. But blinking more than normal. And if he wasn’t mistaken, her upper lip was trembling.
Interesting. Growing more so by the second.
“I’m listening,” he said again, pushing aside the thought that he owed the woman more than he’d ever be able to repay with money and should be doing whatever he could to put her at ease.
“These...circumstances...are largely out of my control, and while I’ll admit up front that my proposed stipulation change is grossly unfair to you, I must make it, anyway.”
That was when it hit him.
She’d seen him with Harper the night before.
And wanted him to keep his trysts—as she’d obviously pegged the uninitiated contact—out of her sight.
The only reason Gray could think of for her to make such a request would be if she still harbored feelings for him.
His body leaped to life...again. Annoyingly so. He wasn’t a guy who walked around getting hard. Ever. And had done so three times in little more than twenty-four hours?
Still... Was there some way he and Sage could reconnect?
He’d had the thought through the years, thinking they’d have to wait until they were forty. But if it was strictly physical...
“My change is that there be a one-time session, today, to discuss any potential information that could affect our abilities to keep clear of each other, personally, in the days and weeks to come.”
Definitely a slam of the door on a strictly physical possibility.
And...he frowned...on any problem she’d had with Harper visiting with him the night before. Because his having what he’d perceived Sage to have seen as a date...wouldn’t have affected their abilities to steer clear of each other.
If anything, his having another woman would make it more awkward for him and Sage to have contact.
The woman would be a definite buffer.
He was confused.
Didn’t like being that way.
