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I looked discreetly away to hide my laughter as he pushed angrily to his feet.
“All right, that’s enough. You, take a shower and get ready for breakfast. As for you... Well, you’re fired. And you,” he said, giving Abby a look of deep disdain, “call my lawyer and have him draw up the papers for our divorce, effective immediately.”
Everyone laughed.
Breakfast was a rather subdued affair, as all our minds were scrambled far more than our eggs and omelets. When the coffee grew cold and the toast grew stale, the Hunters and Max headed into the city to take Arabella to a park, while I waited out on the balcony for James to return. It was no easy feat to resist the urge to text him, and I was quickly reaching the end of my rapidly fraying rope. Robert had forced me to take a few weeks off so I could be there for James. He said his brother needed me right now. I didn’t understand him at all. Maybe he just didn’t want to see my face. But I knew he was probably over me. Probably had a few secretaries by now that made him forget all about me. Good riddance. My thoughts quickly returned to James.
What will Camper say to him? He’s obviously the better choice. Everyone in the office knows that and prefers it, but what about that checkered past of his? I wondered. As far as I knew, Robert didn’t have a past. The man might have been a world-class asshole, but no one could tell that by perusing his file. On paper, he was perfect. On the contrary, I bet James’s file consists of several storage lockers and the pub next door.
The hour dragged slowly on, and I was still outside fretting when the door to the balcony slid slowly open.
I whirled around in a rush of nerves. “James?! How did it...”
Not James but Ferdie walked out to join me on the landing. He hesitated a moment to look down at the chairs, then asked, in a deep, respectful tone, “May I join you?”
I nodded hastily and pushed one toward him, hiding a smile the entire time. It was easy to see where James had learned his impeccable manners.
“I’d like to have a word with you,” he said, settling gracefully down on the foldaway chair, poised with the sort of reserve and dignity that men only seemed to have in old movies. “My staff and I rarely leave Master Cross’s estate in upstate New York, and he seldom ever stays away this long, especially with no word. I was even more surprised by his summons to London...until I met you.”
A prickle of nerves swept across the back of my neck, and I found myself sitting up a little straighter in spite of myself, an effect Ferdie tended to have on people.
“See, my dear, I’ve known James for a very long time. I was there the day he was born, the day he jaunted off to prep school, the day he graduated college.” His eyes glassed over fondly with each memory before sharpening suddenly as they fell upon me. “Because I know the man so well, it is obvious to me that there is a correlation between when he found it in himself to take such an important step toward his future...and when he met you.”
A deep blush heated my cheeks, but I knew it was not Ferdie’s intent to embarrass me. In fact, I was sure he only meant it as a compliment. That was made all the clearer when a large hand closed on mine and I looked up to see an extraordinarily kind face peering back at me.
“James has always been very guarded, very careful to... He does not allow himself to get close with many, dear. In fact, the short list of those he has attached himself to currently reside in this flat. I can only say that if you are one of the privileged few to have received such trust, it speaks very highly of you, young lady.”
My eyes swam with unexpected tears, but before any of them could fall, Ferdie reached out a gentle hand and lifted my chin.
“Now that I have met you for myself, I must also say that for James to have won the affections of such an extraordinary woman, it speaks very highly of him.”
Of all the sweet and wonderful things he’d said, that was the greatest compliment he could have possibly given me. It was also a moment I knew I’d never forget. My chest swelled with pride, but just as I opened my lips to fashion some sort of response, the elevator dinged, and the object of our discussion swept suddenly inside.
“Hello?” James called, glancing around the empty house. “Is anyone here?”
Ferdie pushed swiftly to his feet in such a stiff and formal fashion that I had to wonder if our brief conversation had even happened. Nevertheless, as he held open the door and beckoned James out to the balcony, I could have sworn he gave me a little wink. “Until dinner, Miss Jones.”
I flashed him a secret grin. “Catch ya later, Ferdie.”
The next second, he vanished inside and disappeared down the hall that led to the kitchen.
“Hey!” I leapt to my feet and kissed James on the lips before he had a chance to say a single word, too nervous and excited to wait. “How did it go?”
He pulled me back for a longer, more sensual kiss, then collapsed on the nearest deck chair in utter exhaustion. “It...went.”
I sank carefully into the plush cushion of the seat beside him, watching as he loosened the stranglehold of his tie and casually tossed it over the railing. His diamond cufflinks were soon to follow. It took everything I had in me not to peer over and see where they landed. “I think you just made some homeless man very, very rich.”
“Camper was excited about my proposal,” James announced with no further prompting. “He is also...cautiously optimistic,” he recited, obviously Camper’s words and not his own. “He doesn’t seem as concerned with the actual running of the company as he is with how to get me behind the wheel in the first place. I think he’s rather confident that I can handle the day-to-day operations.”
I grinned, realizing my assumption was correct. While Robert looked good on paper, he was a disaster in the actual chair, and his brother was the exact opposite. “This might seem like a random question,” I began timidly, “but... Well, did your dad have any opinion on the matter? Did he ever mention a preference as to which of you should take over?”
A strange look shadowed James’s face before he turned his gaze abruptly to t
he horizon. “No,” he said, and the solitary word came out a bit sharper than he intended. A second later, he glanced back at me apologetically and reached out to take my hand. “Sorry, Della. It’s just... This thing is going to come down to the two of us, Rob and me. What Dad wanted won’t have anything to do with it. He’s not here to speak for himself. As they say, dead men tell no tales.”
I nodded quickly, squeezing his fingers to gently coax the conversation forward. “Well, it sounds like David is on your side at least. That’s encouraging, right?” The wind picked up around us, and I tucked a lock of my hair behind my ears. “What steps does he recommend taking next?”
I could have been very mistaken, but at that point, I was sure James became even more nervous and unsettled, almost to the point of shy. Nervous and shy? I wondered, as those two emotions were nowhere in his usual repertoire, and now they’d attacked him twice in the same day.
