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He lowers his head and says softly, “You shouldn’tneedinterference. I’ll talk to her, make sure she treats you with respect.”
“Don’t. We need to come together on our own terms.”
He checks the time. “Damn. I really need to get going. Every minute I’m delayed is costing them money.” He stands. “Bug, I have to go to work, and I won’t be back until tomorrow night.”
Her hand holding the spoon drops to the table like a lead weight. “You’re leaving me here. Withher?”
Asher shoots her a warning look. I squeeze his elbow in an attempt to keep him from scolding her in front of everyone.
“We’ll make a day of it,” Mom says. “How about you come in to work with me? I have a light day. It’ll be fun. And we can invite Marti, Charlie, and Dallas for dinner.”
Thank you, I mouth at her when she catches my eye.
Asher holds out his hand. “Help me pack?”
I smile and put my palm in his, because that’s definitely code for‘I want to kiss you senseless before I leave.’
Chapter Twenty-eight
Asher
It’s been a long, long day. It’s nine thirty, and Rich, Arjun and I are just finishing up dinner in the hotel restaurant.
Rich lifts his drink. “To earning our paychecks today. Nice job, gentlemen. Today we stopped the bleeding, tomorrow will just be cleanup.”
Arjun and I tap our glasses against his.
“We make a great team,” Arjun says.
Rich nods. “That we do. And it was a damn stroke of luck that you were close enough to get here quickly, Asher. We saved their asses today.”
Rich lives in San Diego and Arjun lives in Omaha. Both of them arrived this afternoon, but with me able to get here by nine fifteen this morning, we may have saved the company millions of dollars in the data breach. And as such, they’ve contracted our services going forward in what I assume will be akin to a windfall for Rich.
I grip his shoulder. “Should we be expecting bonuses? Iamabout to close on a four-thousand-square-foot home, you know.”
He laughs. He knows he’s got talent with Arjun and me, and he’s always been one to share the wealth. “As long as I’m invited to the housewarming party.”
Rich pays our tab, all of us eager to get to bed after an arduous day.
Walking through the bar on the way to the hotel lobby, I’m shocked when I see a familiar face.
“You go on ahead,” I say. “I’ll see you both in the morning.”
They leave, and I’m standing here not quite believing what I’m seeing. I walk over to the bar. “Stella?”
I’m not exactly sure why I didn’t keep on walking. Did I stop just to give her a well-overdue piece of my mind?
She looks up at me with sad eyes that turn as big as dinner plates. “Asher! Oh my god.”
She pulls me in for a hug like I’m her long-lost friend, not her ex whom she abandoned without warning, leaving me and my eight-year-old daughter stunned and heartbroken. I don’t wrap my arms around her.
“Still pissed?” she asks, releasing me.
“Seriously? Stella, you left me with little more than a note to expect to hear from your lawyer about divorcing me.”
At least she has the decency to look guilty. “You know how that last miscarriage wrecked me, Asher. I just couldn’t do it anymore.”
It’s a day I’ll never forget as long as I live. We’d been through four of them previously. We’d done eight rounds of IVF. Each day, she’d wake up and smile because we’d gotten one day further than the others. She was nine weeks along. Both of us were beginning to get excited. In just a few more weeks, we could’ve started to relax.