Page 54 of See You There

“Do you want to cancel the photo shoot?” Luke asked, bending to meet her eyes.

Dahlia shook her head. “No, I’ll be fine. I’m sorry about that. I was waiting to tell him sometime closer to the end date of the contract. But it doesn’t really matter.” Her face reddened again, but this time it was with anger. “He was never going to take it well.”

She shook her head and began walking toward the glass doors at the front of the building. “I’m sorry you had to see that.”

Luke caught her arm and pulled her to a stop, forcing her to face him. “You have nothing to be sorry about, Dahlia. You didn’t do anything wrong. He was the one who was out of line.”

Her lips stretched in a semblance of a smile. “Well, it’s done now. At least, I can stop worrying about telling him.”

Luke pushed the door open and held it for her to walk through. He could see the SUV Edgar had driven them in, waiting at the curb.

Luke didn’t want to end the conversation like this, but he also didn’t want Edgar to hear. He held up a finger to tell the driver to wait and stepped to the side, to let one of the construction workers working on the building’s façade walk by.

“Dahlia, you deserve—”

Before he could continue, thick white dust fell between them, and someone yelled, “Look out!”

A scraping noise above them made Luke glance up as several large pieces of masonry fell from the scaffolding above.

Luke grabbed Dahlia and dove to the side, twisting, so when they landed, he took the brunt of the fall. His ribs screamed in protest at the repeated abuse.

Sprawled across him, Dahlia’s body shook. And when Luke reached out to brush the masonry from her hair, he saw his hands were shaking, too. They stared wide eyed at each other, as voices shouted around them.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

“Are you both all right?”

Dahlia nodded at Edgar, staring at the spot where they had just been standing. Broken concrete lay strewn across the area. If even one of those blocks had struck them, they would have been seriously injured, if not killed. Her head throbbed where she had hit it on the ground.

“What the hell happened?” Luke swore, wincing when the movement pulled at the slight cut above his eyebrow. He’d been peppered with bits of the concrete that exploded when it hit the ground, leaving his face looking like someone had taken a red pin and made tiny polka dots.

If Luke hadn’t shielded her with his body, her photo shoot would require a lot more than the normal retouching. Dahlia looked again at the broken stones and swallowed a semi-hysterical giggle. The magazine’s photographer was already going to be unhappy about her knee and elbow from yesterday’s accident.

People rushed from the building, and now several construction workers were talking at once.

“I don’t know how it could have happened!” one man exclaimed. We’ve been on break, but everything is secured.”

Another worker in a reflective vest grabbed the man’s arm, hissing for him to shut up.

Edgar looked at the surrounding destruction. “Which one of you has the bad luck?”

Luke didn’t smile at the man’s attempt to joke. Dahlia felt off balance and pressed a hand to where her stomach was threatening to revolt. She bit the inside of her cheek, trying to hide that she was more shaken up than she let on. The fight with Victor, then almost being crushed, had taken its toll on her nerves.

Luke ran his hands lightly down her arms and scanned her face. “Are you sure you aren’t hurt?”

“I think we’ve had this conversation before.” She gave him a little smile, and the worry in his eyes lightened marginally.

A man came forward, introducing himself as the foreman.

“I need to call the photographer,” Dahlia said.

Luke looked at Edgar. “Will you go with her?”

Dahlia wanted to say she didn’t need anyone with her, but she was relieved. She didn’t want to be alone. Leaving Luke to deal with the construction company, she stepped back into the lobby to make the call.

She explained to the extremely unhappy photographer that there had been an accident, and she would need at least an hour to shower and be presentable. Thankfully, they were shooting at a restaurant situated on a small airfield nearby.

“Can you take me to my townhouse?” she asked Luke, as they climbed into the car. “I need to get cleaned up before heading to the shoot.”