Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 109608 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 548(@200wpm)___ 438(@250wpm)___ 365(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109608 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 548(@200wpm)___ 438(@250wpm)___ 365(@300wpm)
Jamie and I had agreed to go together before we had our little—shall we say—hiccup.
I sensed I knew his answer, but I also needed him to confirm.
“Yes,” Jamie stated (indeed, that was the answer I’d sensed). “We’re back to regularly scheduled programming. We’re dining with Mika and Tom, Hale and Elsa before we go, correct?”
I nodded, not quite able to process the relief that we had that back, along with all the rest.
Jamie lifted my hand, kissed my knuckles, then rested our hands on his thigh before he went back to his phone.
I looked out my window.
The sun was setting. There were sirens in the distance. People were strolling the streets, one of them was a man who had what appeared to be a very fluffy, and not at all small, husky dog bouncing in a pack on his back. He was emerging from the stairs to a subway terminal.
A driver in a car close by suddenly hit his horn and didn’t feel like taking his hand away, the shrill sound splitting the air then continuing to rend it.
Ah, New York.
It was lovely to be home.
Not long later, we slid to a halt outside my building, and neither of us moved until the driver opened my door.
I alighted, and when Jamie did as well, I felt great hope.
And then he murmured, “Thanks, Vincent,” before he looked between Vincent and Arnold, my doorman, and ordered, “All the bags.”
All the bags.
Including his.
As the hope burst into reality, a thrill raced up my spine (and in another secret place as well).
Jamie put a hand to the small of my back and guided me into the lobby.
As Jamie led us to the elevators, I smiled at Charlene behind the concierge desk, and I knew how bright it was by the way she blinked in surprise at me.
I’d always been friendly to the staff. Mother had taught me so.
“They are, in a sense, family, my dear,” she’d said. “They share our homes and lives. Of course, they’re paid to do so. But a home is a home, and no matter why you’re in it, if you are on a regular basis, you should always understand you’re welcome there.”
In other words, it wasn’t like I’d never smiled at Charlene.
I’d just never smiled that brightly at her.
We made the bays, and Jamie tagged the button.
I dug my keys out of my Bottega Veneta clutch and handed them to him.
Therefore, when we entered the elevator, he touched my fob to the reader and hit the button for my floor.
“Your bag?” I murmured.
“I’ll need to leave some things here,” he said. “Might as well leave the things already packed.”
I felt my lips curl up.
I knew how fiendishly smug my smile was, and I could not care less.
We were let out on my floor to see the usual table across us that held two vases of bright, fresh flowers, this sitting below a striking abstract painting, and, hand returning to my back, Jamie directed me to one of the two sets of double doors situated on either side of the table.
The set on the left.
Charlene had called my housekeeper, Alyona, I knew, because we were still a few feet from my door when she opened it.
“Welcome back,” she greeted through a smile.
“Lovely to be back,” I replied, going to her and touching cheeks before I swept in.
“Congratulations, Mister Jamie,” I heard her say behind me.
“Thank you, Alyona.”
“Miss Nora texted pictures, he’s adorable,” Alyona told Jamie.
“He’s a lot more than that,” he replied proudly.
I moved into the living room and tossed my clutch on one of the sofas.
Jamie moved directly to the bar cart.
Alyona followed us but stopped just inside the entryway to the room.
She was a live-in. And salaried. And I’d been away for nine days, most of which (not including that day, obviously) I’d given her off to have her own holiday.
Even so, I didn’t like to take advantage of her hours, and seeing as it was on the wrong side of 7:30, she needed to be off duty.
She knew my penchants with that, so she followed us and said, “I’ve prepared some sandwiches, there are chips, and I got that chocolate cream torte you like, Mister Jamie.”
Hmm.
Seemed Alyona might be prone to matchmaking too.
“You spoil me,” he said to her, and after she smiled at him, he asked me, “Martini, sweetheart?”
“Please,” I replied.
He went back to Alyona. “I’ll have a bag coming up too.”
Alyona’s eyes widened and grew happy, and she looked at me.
My smug smile returned.
“For tonight, you can unpack just the essentials, dear,” I told her. “Then you’re off. Thank you for waiting for us to return.”
“Always,” she said, directed a large, happy grin to me, then she left to go to the service elevator in order to direct the arrival of our luggage.
I sat down next to my purse, flicked off my pumps and curled my legs under me.