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“Your loss. Let me know if you change your mind. Now tell me why you’re going to Blue Mountain of all places.”
“Kaison’s mom was in a car accident, and he has to go home. But since we’re in the middle of this big project, he needs me to come along to scour through some files and to put the project together.”
“And you can’t do that long distance?” Farah asks.
I shrug. “I guess not. They’re a bit old school over there. Mr. Keith suggested that I go along.”
“Are they paying for you to have a hotel room or something?”
“No, they offered to let me stay in their home.”
“Wow. That sounds like fun. I bet their place is practically a palace.”
“Most likely.”
“You’ll have to tell me everything,” Farah says in a giddy voice. “And if anything happens between you and Kaison, I want to hear every detail. You’d better not hold out on me, girl.”
“I have nothing to hide,” I lie. “And there’s nothing to tell.”
At least not for now. And I planned to keep it that way.
8
KAISON
Mom’s surgery was successful, and she was cleared to come home this morning. But she was going to have a tough recovery for the next couple of weeks. The timing couldn’t be worse with the project we have going on. But we can still do it.
I grab my coffee from the coffee shop by my house and call Ariana on my way to the office. She picks up on the first ring.
“Good morning, this is Ariana.”
“You still haven’t put my number in your phone?”
“Oh, Kaison. Hi. Sorry about that. I’ll make sure to save this number. I’m almost at the office as we speak.”
She sounded a bit flustered and out of breath, like she had been rushing. “No worries. I’m almost there myself.” I walk the short distance from the coffee shop to the office. It’s a pleasant morning, so why not? My housekeeper is loading my stuff and dropping it off at the office for me. “How do you feel about a helicopter ride?”
“I was planning on driving,” she says. “I’d like to have my car with me.”
“Okay,” I say. That changes things. “I’ll ride with you then. We’ll take the time to work on the project. There’s no time to lose on this.” We’d already lost too much with packing last night. I’d been planning on getting ahead of the game in the evenings, but that hadn’t happened as planned.
“Okay. I’ll see you soon.”
I step into the building and pass the security at the desk in the lobby. “Good morning, Mr. Keith.”
“Good morning, Joe. How’s the wife?”
“She’s about to go into labor any day.”
“It’s a boy, right?”
“Yes, sir.” He looks delighted that I remembered.
“You’ll have to bring him in so we can all meet the little guy.”
“You got it, sir.” His smile is huge as I walk over to the elevator.
I’ve known Joe for a long time. He’s been working at the security desk for the past fifteen years. He and his wife have been trying for a baby for as long as I’ve known him, and the little guy is finally about to be born. I’ll have to get my assistant to buy the family a little outfit or something for the baby.