AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’m Nelson,” the driver said.
“Aye, aye, Captain.” She saluted. Then she remembered that that joke would only be funny to Ellen, whose random facts about British history tended to float around the family get-togethers.
The ones Megan had just closed herself off from.
“Terry,” the bodyguard said. Megan gave him a quick glance, but all he shared with Terry Crews was smooth dark skin and shoulders wider than the seat he sat in.
“It’s my pleasure,” she said. “And Nelson, I’m sorry I—”
“We’re here,” he said, and the next thing she knew, Terry was opening her door and standing like a boulder between her and the entrance to Oh Beans! A group of what looked like regular people was standing in a line outside the door. As Megan got out of the car, she noticed a couple of them had very professional-looking cameras hanging around their necks. The wood and metal of the shop were obscured by more people.
Her first thought was to get right back in the car and let Terry and Nelson hide her away. Then she thought of what Old Megan would have done: given everyone a smile. Walked into the crowd and made everyone feel good. Felt pretty good herself when she was done.
Who had she done that for? Megan paused as phones were raised in front of her. This was important. Who was she doing this for?
The wind blew her hair away from her face. She hadn’t wanted to touch the ends of it once this morning. She placed an experimental hand on her hip and posed. The phones stayed up. She smiled, and a few of the people in line smiled back.
“You ready, ma’am?” Terry asked.
She looked at him, making sure he knew she saw him. Knew that if this was going to be a dog and pony show, she was going to make sure he got to enjoy it, too. “I’m good,” she said. “Let me buy you a coffee.”
“I can’t—” he began, but she turned left, and he had to scoot to move the photographers who were on that side.
“Ma’am,” he said as she walked to the back of the line. “You can go on in. They know you’re coming.”
“No way,” she said, thinking of the office Leo had wanted to give her. And that headline, making her out as some hanger-on. If any of them did the math, they might realize that she probably had more money than Alessandro. She didn’t need him. She wanted him. There was a big difference. “I can wait.”
“Megan!” a voice she recognized said through the murmur of the crowd, and Grace appeared with a large paper cup in one hand and a tray with bite-sized morsels of what looked like cinnamon rolls in the other.
“Grace,” Megan said, feeling her cheeks heat. “You didn’t have to come out on my account.”
“To be honest,” Grace said, thrusting the mug into Megan’s hands and pulling a bag out of her apron pocket, “we’ve got a crowd-control problem inside. People are hanging around after they get their drinks to get a sight of you.”
Megan groaned. Just as Alessandro had said. “Grace, I’m so sorry. Tell Roman I—”
“Don’t worry about it.” Grace’s open, friendly face made her almost believe she wouldn’t.
“I’m not the famous one here,” Megan tried to explain, aiming her words at the crowd.
“That’s what Kate Middleton said,” Grace replied, which was when Megan realized Yasmin had given them the heads-up. She’d probably given the gossip sites the heads-up as well, hence the crowd.
“Okay. I… thanks for the coffee.”
“And this is your pecan roll,” Grace added, giving her the bag. Megan wouldn’t get her morning banter, her whiff of the store’s deliciousness, the pretense of choosing a Danish. None of those small moments of joy.
“Thanks, Grace.”
“No problem. We’ll see you soon.”
Grace looked at her a little oddly, then suddenly launched at her to give her a back-cracking hug, almost tipping over her tray. She pulled away just as quickly and turned to the line Terry was now easing her away from. “Roman’s cinnamon rolls,” she said brightly, though Megan thought her voice sounded tight. “Thank you all so much for waiting.”
Terry ushered her into the car, and Nelson scooted them out of there before Megan could even process the hug and what it meant. It had felt like a goodbye.
At the office, she could barely say hi to the security guys before Terry got her to the elevator. He stared down anyone who wanted to go with her and pressed the button before stepping out. “If you plan on leaving the building for lunch, text Nelson,” he intoned as the doors closed.
Well, now Megan would starve before she did that.
She got fifteen seconds to herself as the elevator hummed upward, but when the doors opened, seven people got out of the other three elevators at the same time, making her exit from an empty car all the more of an entrance. She knew them—all of them; she’d made sure of that in her years here—yet now they all gave her a curious stare as though she were behind glass at the zoo. For a second, she got an urge to strut past them with her nose in the air like a she-leopard, maybe with a shake of her tail at them as she went.
