Page 26 of A Billion Dollar Romance

“Yes, you should have,” she interrupted.

“But I wanted to keep it quiet, rush it through without a big fuss…” Her raised eyebrows told me everything I needed to know. “But I know, I’m sorry, I should have.”

“And who’s representing her?” she asked. “Who’s her agency?”

I grimaced.

“No, don’t tell me you’re doing that in-house, too,” she warned. “That’s very irregular, James–”

“We’re paying her anexorbitantamount–”

“And then expecting her to go back to ghosting afterward. Incredible.” She held out her hand, palm side up, and gestured in with her fingers. “Give her to me.”

“I can’t,” I shook my head. “We’re on a tight timeframe.”

“What, are you dying or something? It can wait–”

“No,” Charlie said, and he grinned at Sam.Grinned. “He’s getting married.”

In the silence that followed, the intercom buzzed again.

I slammed my thumb down onto the button. “Not now, Alice, please,” I ground out.

“Miss Taylor is here to see you, sir,” the secretary said. “Your fiancée.”

CHAPTER14

Edie

“He’s expecting me,”I insisted, but his secretary held fast.

“I’m sorry, Miss Taylor, but I don’t have anything on his schedule, and Mr. Martin is quite busy at the moment.”

The sheaf of paper clutched tightly to my chest felt warm, as if it’d just come off the printer, rather than having been printed late last night at the public library. I’d scrounged dimes from the bottom of every purse in the house, rushing over just before close, after agonizing over the decision: which one of my half-finished projects wasleast bad?

“Oh,” I said. He’d told me to come to his office for lunch, but I was early. The manuscript had been staring at me from where it sat face-down on my desk, urging me to get it over with,justhand it in,like an assignment I knew I would fail. “If he’s busy… Could you tell him that I stopped by? His…” My grip on my papers tightened. “His fiancée?”

The secretary paused for the barest fraction of a second, her smile going stiff, and then her politely professional face melted into lines and wrinkles that looked positivelygrandmotherly.

“His fiancée?” she asked, a slight smile gracing her lips.

“Yes,” I said. “Edie Taylor, ma’am.”

“Oh, Edie, call me Alice, please. All the family does.”

Thefamily.

“Thank you,” I attempted a smile. “Alice.”

“Let me see,” she said, gesturing, and I shuffled my papers into my right hand to hold out my left.

“It’s beautiful. Like you,” she said, glancing over the ring. “I always hoped…” She sighed, then smiled up at me. “James works too hard,” she said, and I nodded.

“I agree.” It seemed the safe thing to say.

“So…” She pressed the intercom button.

“Not now, Alice, please,” came James’s voice. He sounded busy, as she’d said. It was a mistake to come early.