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)
She nodded.
“Then we’re going to know each other for a long time, Alyona, and as such, I’d like to invite you to just call me Jamie.”
That earned him another smile before she replied, “Okay…Jamie.”
He winked at her and asked, “Where’s Nora?”
“Study, and warning, she’s in a bad mood.”
This was concerning, but he didn’t ask Alyona about it.
He went to find his woman so he could ask her, then do something about it.
He found Nora seated behind the desk, and he thought he discovered why she was in a bad mood, because, strewn over it were large diagrams which were obviously seating charts.
She turned her head to look up at him when he arrived, her foul mood undisguised even as she greeted, “Welcome home, darling.”
Jamie moved to her and put a hand to her charts to brace himself as he bent low to kiss her.
He didn’t move far away when he broke the kiss.
“Haven’t found the key to the perfect placements?” he asked.
She shook her head.
“No. I have. I’m like a savant with seating charts. That’s why they always ask me to do them,” she said airily. “If you’re asking after my scowl, it’s because I love our people very much, but having Mika fawn all over me for two hours, Tom demand to prod the back of my head where it didn’t even hit the wall of the building, my daughter racing here on her lunch hour to take my blood pressure, my other daughter texting every five minutes, not to mention fielding texts from Dru, Cadence, Chloe, Genny, Elsa, and even Blake all day, I’ve definitely decided to kidnap you to a yacht, but we won’t be gone a week. We’ll be gone a year.”
Jamie carefully nudged her charts aside before he rested against the edge of her desk, and said, “We’ll definitely do the yacht thing. I didn’t get to fuck you there.”
She tsked and gave him a side eye, but neither hid the rose in her cheeks and the fire in her gaze at hearing his words.
“But we have to wait to go for a few months so you can plan and then we can throw a celebration dinner when the adoption papers are filed making Dru officially mine.”
She stared at him, lips parted in wonder.
Then she surged out of her chair and threw herself in his arms.
She even gave a little hop of excitement.
Yes, his elegant, sophisticated and droll Nora did something as cute as that in her happiness for him and his daughter.
Therefore, Jamie was chuckling when she leaned back, but not out of his arms, and he saw her face beaming.
“How did this come about?” she asked.
“She stopped by the office and informed her unusually slow father that she was no longer a minor, so we didn’t need Chet’s approval.”
Nora fiddled with his tie. “You are not slow. You’re already her father, so obviously, adoption became superfluous, therefore, you stopped thinking about it.” She lifted her gaze to his. “Though, it’s absolutely, positively lovely it’s going to happen anyway.”
“Dru wants you to plan the party.”
More beaming. “Consider it done.”
“Now, I have more good news, and some bad news.”
She frowned dramatically.
Jamie chuckled again, and asked, “Which do you want first?”
“Definitely good.”
“I spoke with Charles, and you were correct. Pop fucked him over on some deal about three decades ago, and Charles never forgot it. Thus, when Roland started fishing around, Charles jumped on board for the sole purpose of being in line to hammer a nail in Pop’s coffin.”
Charles VanderMeer was who he’d had lunch with that day.
“Oh my,” she whispered with verbal delight.
“And Charles shared that, even though Roland doesn’t know it, the other four investors he tapped who were willing to buy into this scheme were doing it for the same reasons.”
“And this means?” she prompted.
“It means, I’m struggling with letting them have it, just to spread the joy of fucking Pop over.”
“Jamie,” she said softly.
Damn.
“I know. I can’t. I need that ranch in my possession so I can give it to my birth father.”
“Did you share with Charles that you had uses for the ranch?”
“I did, and he was amenable. That said, he’s asked if he and the others could play with AJ for another few weeks. Give him hope he has a lifeline, then yank it around the time AJ runs out of funds, is facing default, and then I can move in.”
“Obviously, you said yes to this,” she purred.
His lips tipped up. “Obviously.” He tilted his head to the side, “Though, one thing I wasn’t certain about during our lunch was that he said Roland had contacted him just that morning, making some murmurings about how he may no longer wish to be involved in that deal.”
Her expression turned thoughtful as she murmured, “That’s interesting.”
“What did you say to him last night?”