I tossed up both hands. “How do you think I got to be so successful as a small business owner? It’s all in understanding what each partyreallywants—and that what they say they want isn’t always accurate.” I shrugged. “Once I figured out that Jared needed to hold onto at least a little land in Georgia because of the way his business is structured—and that he didn’t really understand what your company does as far as green development—it was just a matter of saying the right words in a way that he could understand them.” I glanced from right to left and ducked my head. “JB was always a little obtuse, you know. His mama used to say he hit his head too many times being wild, jumping off things. Bless his heart.”
“Well, regardless, you’ve made a certain gentleman in Georgia very happy tonight.” Nash lifted his phone. “Reggie says thank you so much, and he’d very much like to take you to dinner to express his appreciation.”
I grinned. “Not necessary, but appreciated all the same.” I slid him a flirtatious glance. “I’m only interested in one of the partners of Jamison Sustainable Property Development.”
Nash’s face flushed with what I hoped was pleasure. “You don’t have to worry about Reggie that way. He’d be more into Jared than you.”
“Ah. Do you—” I began to speak again, but just then, the band began to play, loudly.
Nash leaned his head toward me. “It’s getting tough to talk in here. There’s a bar off the lobby, and it’s much quieter. Want to ditch this and head over there?”
I nodded emphatically. “Lead the way.”
Nash took my hand, waiting for me to retrieve my wrap and purse before he guided me out of the ballroom and down the corridor. It was a blessing to leave the music behind, and I sighed in relief.
He glanced back at me. “I hope I didn’t drag you away from the fun.”
“Not at all,” I assured him. “I think I had all the fun I was going to have there. Plus, they were going to start announcing the reunion all-stars pretty soon, and I didn’t need to witness that craziness.”
“It was bad enough the first time, wasn’t it?” Nash agreed ruefully. “Can’t say that getting namedClass Brainiacdid anything for my social standing in the days we had left in high school.”
“Yeah, I guess it didn’t.” I followed him into the bar, where we slid into opposite sides of an intimate booth. Once I was seated, I kicked off my shoes beneath the table. “Ahhh, that feels good. These heels are killers.”
“But they look damn good on your feet.” Nash waggled his eyebrows at me. “They remind me of this pair of shoes you used to have back in high school—you wore them with a short skirt and a long jacket, and some kind of sleeveless top.” He sighed. “I always loved the days when you dressed up.”
“Nash!” I gave him a not-so-gentle kick in the leg under the table even as I smiled. “Were you leering at me back then?”
“Obviously not. I was just admiring you from afar. You know, your legs and your . . . um, other assets.”
“Perv,” I teased. “And here I thought you were attracted to my mind.”
“Oh, I definitely was,” he assured me. “I loved when we got a chance to have a real conversation. But it’s possible for a man to be attracted to several different facets of a woman.”
“Good to know.” I looked up as the server approached to take our drink order. I requested a Negroni, while Nash asked for an old fashioned.
Once she had left to make our drinks, I spoke up again.
“Tell me about your wife. Where did you meet her? How long were you together? And why aren’t you married anymore?”
Nash let out a long exhale, rubbing the back of his neck. “It’s kind of a complicated story.”
I spread my hands. “I’ve got time.”
“Right.” Nash hesitated. “I met Reggie right after I graduated from college. He was working for a development company, and I interviewed there for a job. A couple of days later, Reggie called me and said the company was going to offer me the position, but he was asking me not to take it because he was about to leave to launch his own business, and he wanted me to be part of it.”
“Wow.” I raised my eyebrows. “That’s impressive.”
“It was a nice ego boost,” he admitted. “It wasn’t always easy in the beginning, but I liked Reggie, and he was—is—a genius. But he’s also one of the most positive, forward-thinking guys you’d ever want to meet. He moved to the US from Austria to be with a guy he’d fallen in love with, and that didn’t work out, but he decided he liked it here, so he became a citizen. That was before I met him, of course.” Nash played with one of the coasters on the table.
“A couple of years after we began working together, Reggie introduced me to his sister, Lena. She was in the country on a visa seeking medical care. She’d been diagnosed with cancer back in Austria, but she didn’t feel she was getting the best care there—plus Reggie, her only family, was here, so she came over.”
I was slowly getting a picture of where Nash was going with his story, and already, my heart hurt for him.
“The thing was, though, Lena wasn’t going to get better. She was older than Reggie by a few years, and she’d been married and widowed—her husband was killed in a boating accident. They had a son together, and Lena was raising him on her own.
“Reggie came to me one day at the end of work, and he was a mess. He told me that his sister was dying, her son was about to be an orphan, and she wasn’t going to be permitted to stay in the US—her visa was running out. Reggie was considering giving up everything we’d built and going back to Austria with his sister and his nephew—unless Plan A worked out.”
“And you were Plan A,” I guessed.
