Page 90 of Manhattan Kiss

“Do I get to meet him?” she asks. “I get the feeling things are a little more serious than you’re letting on.”

I lick my ice cream. “You’re only here for the weekend.”

“What’s he doing today?”

“We’re not…he’s at work and then going home to his daughter.”

“Tomorrow?” she asks.

“Tomorrow we’re getting glam and going to celebrate your brother being forty.”

“The duke is forty,” she says. “I can’t believe it. Forty is…I mean, you can’t be still figuring shit out at that age, right? You’ve got to have it together.”

“That gives me four years,” I say on a laugh.

She pauses. “There are a lot of English guys going tomorrow night. I made Scarlett show me the guest list. You never know, your charming prince might be there. And if he’s English, that means I won’t lose you to New York.”

“Perfect. I’ll make a note in my diary that I’m finding my Prince Charming tomorrow night.”

She laughs. “It’s good to be positive. I think it’s called manifestation or something.”

If manifestation was a thing, I would have found my man by now. Maybe I have and my manifestation malfunctioned partway through and made everything too difficult.

TWENTY-NINE

Deacon

I’m not a black-tie kinda guy. But I seem to wear them an awful lot. Saturday night, I’d much prefer to be hanging out with my daughter, but given the CEO of ABC Inc. is going to be there tonight, plus I didn’t leave until Willow was in bed, means I’m fiddling with my bow tie on my way up to the Mandarin Oriental.

As I step out into the July heat, I’m tempted to head back home. Instead, I thank my driver and move toward the hotel.

I pull my phone out of my pocket as I wait for the lift and message Aurora. She’s out tonight at some family thing. Isn’t that what she said? I message her, telling her to have a good time. I stare at the screen, waiting for her to respond. But it’s eight thirty. She’s probably already at dinner or wherever she’s going. She didn’t say exactly. I want to suggest we both ditch our plans and go to dinner, just the two of us. Or maybe I could get a room here and she could swing by after her thing and we could get into bathrobes and eat pizza.

I smile to myself as I make my way to the elevators.

The party started an hour ago, so I’m late. Hopefully that means the CEO of ABC Inc. will already be here. I can make a beeline for him, then wish Ryder a happy fortieth birthday and leave.

As I enter the ballroom, I spot the CEO over by the window. I head right over.

“Jason,” I say. “Good to see you.”

“Deacon. I wasn’t expecting to see you here.”

“Ryder’s an old friend,” I say.

“Same,” he says. “We met in college.”

“I don’t want to bore you with business stuff now, but do you have any time to get together before you head back to San Francisco?” I ask.

“I’m really busy. I thought you might be at the conference a couple of weeks back.”

“I couldn’t make it. I have custody of my daughter Wednesday through Sunday mornings, so I couldn’t travel.”

Jason raises his eyebrows. “Girl dad?” he asks.

“One hundred percent. I just learned how to French braid.”

He chuckles. “You’re doing better than me. I can barely manage a brush through my daughter’s hair. She screams at the tiniest touch.”