Page 23

“Are they in English?”
“Many of them are,” he said. “That shelf there is in Arabic, and that shelf is in Qalmese, but the rest are English, and you’re welcome to any of them.”
“That I might take you up on.” She grinned.
“Yeah? No moral qualms about that one?” He smiled back at her.
“It’s definitely easier to accept a book loan than it is to be waited on. Besides,” she added, “I’ve borrowed books before. Dozens of times. I’ve loaned them out myself. That seems normal to me.”
Kareem nodded. Their lifestyles were very different, and yet, on occasion, they found things they had in common. Now, in addition to racing, it seemed that they were both lovers of books.
It made him think of his parents, who had had an arranged marriage. They had often recounted fondly how little they had known of one another on the day they had married, and what an exciting journey it had been for them to learn more about one another and fall in love slowly throughout the course of their marriage.
Kareem had always sworn that he didn’t want what his parents had had. As much as he respected them, an arranged marriage wasn’t right for him. And when he had gotten older, he had been sure that he didn’t want to marry at all.
Now, though, standing here with Keira, he could see the benefit of it for the first time. Itwasa pleasant thing to be tied to someone and to discover gradually that you were compatible.
But wait — what was he thinking of? He and Keira were here on a business arrangement, not in a real marriage. Any personal compatibility between the two of them was meaningless. In two months’ time, this would all be ancient history, and it would no longer matter what had existed between the two of them. Their story would be over.
He cleared his throat and went to his desk. “Here are my plans,” he said, pulling out the notebook he had used to write them down. “You can feel free to look over them.”
Keira picked up the notebook and flipped it open. “You’ve done so much already.”
“I’ve been thinking about this for a long time.”
She nodded, her eyes on the pages. “You want to have a musical guest?”
“Well, I’ve been paying attention to American sporting events,” he explained, “and I’ve noticed that something you often do is to have a performer come and put on a pre-show or a halftime show.”
“I suppose that’s true,” Keira said. “Still, I don’t know if that’s the kind of thing that will work at an event like this one.”
“Well, I’ve made up my mind about it already.”
She looked up at him, eyebrows raised. “You’ve made up your mind?”
“Like I said, I’ve been thinking about this for a while.”
“I thought you brought me here to advise. What if I don’t think your ideas are good ones?” she asked him. “Are you saying I should just keep my mouth shut?”
“Of course I’m not saying that. I’m just saying… well, obviously I’m going to be the public face of this venture, so what I want is what’s going to happen.”
“Wait a moment.” Keira put the notebook down and folded her arms across her chest. “Obviouslyyou’re going to be the public face of this?”
“You’re here in an advisory capacity. I thought that was clear.”
“Kareem, the whole reason I agreed to come was that I thought it might benefit my career. How is that going to happen if I have to stay behind the scenes all the time?” Keira demanded. “I’m trying to make a name for myself doing this, not hide in your skirts.”
“Hide in my skirts?” Kareem raised an eyebrow.
“You know what I mean. When this is all over, I want it on my resume. I want people to know that I had a hand in it. If all you wanted wasadvice, I could have stayed at home. I could have notgotten married.”
“Are you regretting the marriage?” Kareem wasn’t sure quite how to account for the pang he felt at her words.
“I’m only regretting it if you’re saying I can’t be involved in the decision-making and put my name on this project, the way I thought I would be able to,” Keira said. “You have to understand how important this is for me, Kareem. I like you, but I didn’t come all the way over here as part of some philanthropic desire to help you achieve your dreams. This is about my dreams too.”
“It’s also about being practical,” Kareem said. “Remember, this is only going to work if my family doesn’t discover what we’re doing. You’re going to be background checked if you marry into the royal family, and it’s only a matter of time before someone discovers that you have a racing background. We have to maintain some deniability, and that means keeping you as far removed as possible from anything to do with racing while you’re here. If we’re not careful, someone will piece all this together, and our plans will be ruined before they can get off the ground.”
“Well, I’m not willing to take a backseat in all this because you’re afraid of getting caught,” Keira said.