She stood as I approached, offering her hand with practiced grace.
"Savannah. Thank you for coming on such short notice."
Her grip was cool, firm, appraising. I met it with equal pressure, refusing to be intimidated.
"Thank you for the invitation. It was... unexpected."
"I'm sure." She gestured for me to sit, waiting until I was settled before reclaiming her own chair.
"I've ordered champagne. I hope that's acceptable."
As if on cue, a waiter appeared with a bottle in an ice bucket, pouring two flutes of pale gold liquid before disappearing with practiced discretion.
"To new acquaintances," Catherine said, raising her glass.
"Or perhaps I should say, new understandings."
I touched my glass to hers, the crystal ringing softly. "New understandings of what, exactly?"
A smile touched her lips—not warm, not cold, but assessing. "Direct. Lucas mentioned that about you."
The casual reference to conversations with Lucas, I knew nothing about, sent a chill through me.
"You two speak often?"
"Occasionally. When it concerns Miles." She sipped her champagne, watching me over the rim. "Or more recently, when it concerns shared interests."
"And what interest do we share, Ms. Reid?"
"Catherine, please." Her smile widened slightly. "And I think we both know the answer to that question."
"Lucas," I said, deciding direct was better than dancing around the subject.
"Lucas," she agreed. "Though I suspect we've experienced rather different versions of the man."
The waiter returned with menus, but Catherine waved them away.
"We'll have the chef's tasting menu," she informed him. "With the wine pairings."
I raised an eyebrow at her presumption but said nothing. This was her game; I needed to understand the rules before challenging them.
"You were together for how long?" I asked once the waiter had departed.
She settled back in her chair, studying me with unnerving intensity.
"Long enough to understand what I was, and wasn't, getting with Lucas Turner."
"And what was that?"
"A brilliant mind. A relentless work ethic. Undeniably ambitious.” She paused, taking another sip of champagne.
"And emotional unavailability so profound it could be studied as a psychological condition.”
The assessment hit closer to home than I wanted to admit.
I'd seen glimpses of that unavailability, that careful distance Lucas maintained even in our most intimate moments.
But I'd also seen beyond it—to the vulnerability he'd revealed the night he'd come for me, to the tenderness he showed in unguarded moments.
