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It was too fucking early, I hadn’t had enough caffeine, and I was in serious need of getting laid. To say I had a low tolerance for my publicist’s bullshit was an understatement. “Don’t mess with me, Lauren, not today. Where the hell is Navie? She hasn’t shown up for work and her phone’s going to voicemail.”
“Jesus, Rowan,” Lauren huffed through the line. “Don’t you ever check your email?”
“Of course I don’t check my own email. I have a goddamned personal assistant for that! Why would I check my own email?”
Ignoring my attitude, she responded. “She sent a message that she’s sick and is going to be out today and tomorrow.”
Stomping back into my office, I pulled up my Outlook, and sure enough, there it was. Flu-like symptoms, my ass. She wasn’t sick, she was avoiding me. And that brought forth an entire slew of emotions I didn’t want to think about.
“What’s her address?”
“Oh, hell no,” Lauren spoke. “The poor girl’s sick. The last thing she needs is you giving her shit for missing a few days of work. That’s what paid time off is designated for, Rowan. Leave her alone.”
I was fuming. “For the love of… just give me her damn address, Lauren. I want to go check on her. Make sure she’s all right.”
“You want to…” she trailed off, her voice full of disbelief. “For God’s sake, Rowan! Please tell me you haven’t had sex with that girl!”
“Of course not!” I shot back, keeping it to myself that I had every intention of doing just that. Hooking up with another one of my assistants would go over about as well as a lead balloon as far as she was concerned.
“If you’re lying to me, so help me God—”
“I’m not lying!”Yet.“Just give me the address.”
By the time I got off the phone, I had a raging headache, but at least I had the address to Navie’s apartment in Murray Hill.
Time to pay her a surprise visit.
I’d been ignoring my phone all morning long. And by ignoring, I meant sending every single one of Rowan’s calls to voicemail. And to my shock, there had been tons of them. It had become apparent that the surly man was most definitely not accustomed to being ignored. After what happened at the Neon Room, I’d decided I needed a break from all things Rowan and took two days off work to get my mind straight. I needed to mentally prepare myself to see him again, and the only thing that helped clear my mind and calm me down was making jewelry. When I’d woken up, I dove right in to a set I’d been picturing in my head for weeks. Unfortunately, even my jewelry wasn’t doing much to help. I’d screwed the necklace up three times already—each time was after rejecting another call from Rowan. My hands just wouldn’t work the way I needed them to, my fingers nowhere near as nimble as I needed them to be.
I dropped the mangled creation on the desk with a huff just as my cell phone rang again, cutting off my AWOLNATION playlist. I picked up the phone, prepared to send another call to voicemail, when I saw the name on the screen.
“Hey!” I answered excitedly.
“What’s up, buttercup?” Cassidy chirped happily through the line.
“Oh, not much. How are you? Being pregnant in the heat of the Texas summer killing you yet?”
I loved Cassidy beyond words and thanked fate every single day for bringing her and her family into my life. Before them, the only real family I ever had was my foster bother, Carson. He had worked tirelessly for years to take care of me. He was my protector, my confidant, my saving grace. He did so much for me that I would never be able to pay him back, no matter how hard I tried. He deserved the absolute best, and that was Cassidy and her daughter, Willow. Not a day went by that I didn’t miss them like crazy, but after leaning on Carson for so long, I needed a chance to prove to myself that I could make it on my own. New York was that chance for me.
“I still have four months left, and I’m already miserable,” she answered. “I’m sweating in crevices I didn’t even know I had!”
I giggled into the phone, spinning my desk chair around in a slow circle, having given up on my attempt at jewelry making, at least for the time being. “Aww, poor baby. You should make that husband of yours bring you up here. It’s hot, but nowhere near as bad as it is down there. He still being overprotective about every little thing?”
“You have no idea,” she replied blandly. “I thought he was gonna stroke out when I lifted Willow the other day. It’s like I’m the first pregnant woman on the face of the earth. He keeps forgetting that I’ve done this before. This time around is a cake walk compared to my pregnancy with Willow.”
I couldn’t help but laugh at Carson’s behavior. He was so different from the man who had practically raised me. And even though there was a small part of me that envied what they had together, I was still thrilled for him and Cassidy. “Then I doubt there’s any way he’d let you on a plane right now, huh?” I asked, feeling a pang of sadness. I really wanted to see them. With everything that was going on with Rowan, it felt like the foundation of my life was growing shakier and shakier. I needed my family to help me feel balanced again.
“I don’t know, I might be able to convince him. I know he misses you just as much as I do.”
“I miss y’all, too. See if you can work him. I know Harlow would love to meet you guys, and I’m sure we can manage to make room for y’all.”
I could hear the smile in her voice as she answered. “I’ll talk to him. We’ll make it happen, I promise. But you have to swear you’ll be down here as soon as this kid pops out of me.”
“I swear.” I laughed. “Wouldn’t miss that for the world.”
“You sure your slave driver boss will give you the time off for that?”
Looking at my lap, I picked at the hem of my t-shirt anxiously. All Cassidy knew about Rowan was how rocky things had been when I first started working for him. There was no way in hell I could tell her about the growing attraction I felt for him, so talking about what had happened at the club the other night was totally off-limits.
