Page 126 of Love By Design

“You don’t have to talk to him at all,” he said.

“I can’t just ignore him forever.”

“Of course you can. That’s what my mother did.”

A silence fell and my phone gave a quick buzz in my hand to let me know there was a voicemail waiting for me.

“I’m sorry she did that,” I told him.

“I’m not. It’s what gave me my brothers, what led me to you.”

I made a dismissive sound. “That feels a stretch.”

“It’s not for you to decide.” Marshall hummed. “I just wanted to call and congratulate you on a well-deserved win, Silas. I’m looking forward to celebrating with you later tonight.”

His voice dipped into a low rumble, and pleasure arced up the length of my spine.

“I’m looking forward to it too.”

“I’ll talk to you later. I love you.”

I nodded, even though he couldn’t see me. “I love you too.”

The call disconnected, and I dropped my phone onto the table, knowing there was still a voicemail hanging over my head. My dad could be angry or resigned, and I wasn’t sure which I preferred, so I left the message for another time, like Marshall had told me I could.

Sipping my champagne, I headed through the office until I found Cory behind his desk with his brow furrowed. He so rarely looked anything besides easygoing, it was an uncomfortable look to see on his face.

“Everything all right?” I asked.

He schooled his expression. “Everything is perfect. I just have an overbearing friend who needs to move across the country if he wants more control over my life is all.”

Closing his laptop, Cory again raised his champagne in a toast. I mirrored the motion and let the bubbles chase away the anxious bile that had built up in my throat when I saw my dad’s name come up on my phone.

“Is Marshall taking the loss in stride?” Cory asked.

“Seems like it.”

“And…your dad?”

I shrugged. “He called, but I haven’t listened to his message.”

He gave me a tight smile. “Fair enough. We need to go through the project and get a little more specific with the timeline so I can send that over, and I think things are going to get rolling pretty quickly on this one.”

I nodded, still dumbstruck.

“I have a couple others that landed on my desk this week I’d like you to look at as well. One in Orange County and another in New York.”

“New York?”

“It’s where I’m from originally,” he said, standing up and tucking his laptop under one arm.

“What brought you to LA?”

“A man.”

Of course it was a man. Wasn’t it always a man?

Cory walked around from behind his desk, and I realized we were clearly heading back for another day of work in the conference room. He could have rented just the conference room and saved himself some money, but it was his business, not mine, and I wasn’t about to tell him how to run it.