Page 27 of Nothing to the Wedding

“Aww, is the big, handsome billionaire scared?”

“There’s only one thing that scares me,” he said, stern, more serious than he ever was when they played.So serious, she sobered.“That’s losing you, Roxanna Kyst.”

She slid a little lower, cupping the phone closer.“Didn’t I tell you?Permanent ink.I’m okay, baby.I’m okay.”

“I’m walking out of these negotiations.”

“You are not,” she said.“I’m okay and you have businessy things to do.”

“Nothing is more important than you.”

“I’m here, and I’m fine.I have my own businessy things—Hatfield anyway, if he counts as business.”

“You ready to do it?If you’re not up to it, you can cancel.Tibbs will cancel.Where is Astrid?”

“I told her to stay at the hotel.There are still wedding things to organize.She’s good at organizing.And this was my deal.I’m fine to meet Hatfield.Do you think I would let a creep like Reeve Crosby slow me down?Please.That is not the woman you fell in love with.”

He sighed.“Being so far away isn’t easy.It’s harder when you get yourself… involved.”

“The only thing I care about is you.If you don’t want me to have the meeting, I won’t.If this isn’t what you want, if you’d rather forget the whole thing, it’s whatever you need, Casanova.There are two of us in this relationship, remember?We don’t decide things unilaterally.”Not big things anyway.“Do you need me to come home?”

Another exhale.“This is always easier for you than it is for me.”

“Because you have a chronic fixing complex and take ownership of everyone else’s issues.”

“I have ownership of yours.”

Her broad smile should make its way into her tone.“Let’s be honest, Scroogey, I am your issue.Start and end.”

“My crisis event.”Exactly.“I have the right to hash this shit out with you.It’s hard won, baby, you remember when I said that to you the first time?”

“In Rome.And it’s okay, we’ve hashed Crosby out, he’s done with.Next thing on the agenda…”

“Hatfield.”They’d hashed him out too.Discussion after discussion crystalized their positions.“He’ll have the schedule.”

“That’s the last piece.We might not have time to sit down with it before the wedding.I don’t want us rushed into it.”

“Not like you to be nervous.”

“Me?Nervous?Pah!”she declared.“I set the rules, remember?And I’ll remind Hatfield of them all.There were conditions on this.”

“Yeah, and Dunlap has read the final draft.No landmines.”

“Won’t stop me saying the words out loud to Hatfield.I’ll say it as many times as I have to until he gets the picture.”

“You?Brevity?That’s not your style, Lo.”

“No, it is not.I bounce and say what has to be said.You know I’m made of steel.It’s one of the things you love about me.”

“I love everything about you, babe.I’m too far away to kick his ass, that’s all.”

“If it needed kicking, I’d have done it myself.I don’t take shit from any man.”

“Don’t need to tell me that.”His tension had eased, some.“Do you want me in on the Hatfield meeting?”

“If you want to be or don’t trust me to talk for us collectively.”

“You know I do.”