Page 29

“Yes, thank you Cadence,” she said. I still hadn’t asked her to call me Cade and at this point, it was too late. Here, I was Cadence. The little rush I got from her calling me by my full name had nothing at all to do with it.

Eloise appeared just as I was pouring sugar into her coffee and stirring it in.

She still looked a little wrecked, like she’d had a fun night, but she accepted the cup with a little smile.

“Do you ever take a day off?” I asked, washing out the French press and cleaning up.

“I take weekends off, as if I’m working a nine-to-five, but that doesn’t always work out. In the early days, I worked way too many hours. I’ve had to work at doing less and setting a rigid schedule so I don’t burn out. But I rarely take days off during the week. I can’t afford to.”

She drank the coffee and closed her eyes.

“Maybe you could take a half day? I mean, if the work you’re doing isn’t up to your standards, then wouldn’t it be better to come back when you’re feeling better?”

Her eyes snapped open and I prepared for her to glare at me, but she just sighed.

“I hate that you’re right.”

I grinned. “Wait, what was that? Can you say that again?”

Eloise rolled her eyes. “I said you’re right. Don’t look so smug. It’s not cute.”

I laughed. “On the contrary, I think I’m very cute.”

She cracked a smile. “You’re a menace.”

The fluttering I’d felt this morning appeared again and got a little more frantic in my stomach. Like the butterflies had multiplied.

“Shoulda figured that out in the job interview,” I said, taking a risk. Talking with her like this was walking a fine line, but she huffed out something like a laugh and then finished her coffee.

“Sylvia and Camille were pressuring me to get an assistant for years. Especially for the upcoming tour. And I haven’t had anyone since Mary.” She had spoken a little about her previous assistant, Mary, who had passed away. It was clear that they’d been extremely close, and it explained why she wanted to keep me at arm’s length.

“Mary left big shoes to fill,” I said. “I know I didn’t meet her, but she sounded like a wonderful person and an amazing friend.”

Eloise’s smile was soft and sad. “She was. She really was.” There were pictures of Mary in the office. I’d asked Eloise about them in my second week.

“You’ve convinced me.” She brought her cup to the sink and rinsed it out before putting it in the dishwasher. “I’m taking the rest of the day off.” There were only a few more hours in the day, so it wasn’t that much time in the grand scheme of things, but I could tell this was a big deal for her.

“Great,” I said. “I’ll let you have your time and I’ll finish up my day.”

I went to leave the kitchen to do just that when her voice stopped me.

“If you were to recommend me another romance book or series, what would you recommend? Apart from the alien books.”

Interesting. She was asking for book recs. From me.

“What are you in the mood for? Fantasy? Contemporary? Sci-fi? Short? Long?”

She blinked at me for a few seconds. “I want to read something beautiful that will teach me something new about the world.”

Now I was the stunned one. That was a tall order.

“Give me a minute,” I said, digging out my phone. I scrolled through my ebook app and searched for something that would give her that. I discarded a few options and then settled on one that was an out-of-the-box choice, especially for Eloise, and decided to go for it.

I told her the title and she looked it up. “Well, it certainly has a lot of awards. Time travel? I’m not sure about that.”

“Just…give it a chance. It’s one of those books that has to be experienced instead of just read. If that makes sense. Promise me that you’ll try it.” I shouldn’t have told her about that one. I should have picked something else. Why was it so important to me that she read this book and understood it? No use analyzing all of the complicated emotions firing in my brain right now at the prospect of Eloise reading a book that I had loved.

She gazed at my face for a long moment. “I’ll try it.”