Jack’s mouth dropped, her jaw making a popping sound that bounced o the walls. Was her mother trying to say she’d turned down a marriage proposal from one of the
richest men in the world because she hadn’t been willing to convert? She was about to ask, but Laurie spoke first.
“Would you be willing to contact him and see if he’d consider adding one more proposal to his calendar in June?”
“I was already planning to.” Eileen beamed as Jack responded with grunting noises of total disbelief.
“Sweetheart, why do you think I told you to keep working on that project of yours? I said good things were just around the corner. Now, if you ladies will excuse me, I forgot the shortbread. We can’t drink Barry’s without it.”
Laurie reached for her phone. “I need to call Marian and Andy, get them signed on right away. We’ll meet at my house on Brattle Street in the morning and get started.”
Jack pressed her hand on top of Laurie’s, stopping her from completing the call. “Wait a minute. Aren’t you forgetting something?”
“Am I?” Laurie tilted her head searchingly. “Of course.
Thank you, Jack. I told you I couldn’t work without you.”
It wasn’t the passionate declaration of love that Hollywood movies led people to expect, but for Jack, it was enough. “Considering work is your life, I think that’s the closest you’ll ever come to saying you can’t live without me.”
By way of reply, Laurie pulled Jack toward her and ended the conversation with a kiss that did more than any words ever could to convince Jack that Laurie truly couldn’t live without her.
C H A P T E R N I N E T E E N
A HEATWAVE STRUCK THE NORTHEAST THE FIRST WEEK OF JUNE, bringing with it a string of scorching, humid days. The late afternoon sun beat through the windows with the intensity of a tanning lamp, raising the inside temperature well beyond what a few strategically positioned fans could handle. As Laurie rifled through a stack of papers on her dining room table, which had become a makeshift staging area during the final preparation of the Othonos proposal, sweat dribbled down the back of her neck.
Across from her at the table, Jack tipped back a purple sports bottle, squirting a stream of water into her mouth.
“How can you spend millions of dollars on a house and not even have air conditioning?”
“Because this house was built way before central cooling was a thing,” Laurie defended, not for the first time. “It’s solid brick and was designed to optimize airflow.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Jack hu ed, pealing her sticky shirt from her skin.
“Open a window.” Laurie picked up a folder, squinting to make out the label. She extended her arm as far as it would go, but it was no use. The letters remained too blurry to decipher.
“Looking for these?” Jack dangled a pair of pink tortoiseshell reading glasses between her thumb and forefinger.
“Hmph.” Laurie sucked her cheeks into her mouth to prevent a more colorful response.
At some point soon after Laurie’s house had become the center of operations for their new company, pairs of reading glasses had sprung up in at least half a dozen locations from the kitchen counter to the living room co ee table. She’d quietly started wearing them. This was the closest Jack had come to gloating over her triumph. When Jack brought them to her side of the table, Laurie planted a kiss on Jack’s cheek, which incidentally, was as close as she’d come to saying thank you.
After using the glasses to read the folders, Laurie shoved the spectacles on top of her head. “Marian, any word from Othonos’s assistant about the meeting?”
Marian appeared in the doorway, the lines in her forehead deepened by the scowl on her face. “He still hasn’t confirmed.”
Laurie slapped the folder in her hand onto the dining room table with a loud thwack. “Andy?”
Andy appeared behind Marian, tugging a hand through his hair, which left him looking shaggier than usual. “Yes?”
“Can you follow up with someone over there, right now?
It’s two weeks before Othonos comes to Boston. We need to get this nailed down, people.” After Andy hustled back to his post, Laurie turned to Jack. “You’re sure your mom wasn’t playing a joke, right? You need to assure me she’s not some crazy lady.”
“You’ve met my mother.” Jack’s lips twitched. “You know she’s certifiably insane. But the Othonos connection is legit. I looked into it.”
Laurie pressed her fingers hard into the sides of her head.
“How did I reach the point where my entire career is hanging on information that you verified by calling a trailer park?”
“That’s the kind of magic that happens when you team up with me.” Jack cut her ridiculous boasting short as her phone rang. Her eyes widened as she looked at the screen.
“It’s an international number.”
“Answer it!” Laurie shook Jack’s arm with the impatience of a child pleading for cotton candy at a country fair as the younger woman sat, motionless.
By the third ring, Marian and Andy were huddled in the doorway. All eyes were on the phone, which was ringing and buzzing away in Jack’s hand.
As if released from a trance, Jack finally hit the green button and moved the phone to her ear. “Camelot Associates.
This is Jack.”
Immediately, she jumped up to pace the hallway. It was a recently acquired habit that drove Laurie insane with visions of those sock-clad feet wearing a hole through the runner.
“Uh-huh.” Jack flipped around and headed back in the opposite direction.
Her stomach churning, Laurie motioned for Marian and Andy to join her at the table. She wasn’t going to come out and say it, but this was a moment when she didn’t want to be alone. The future of Camelot—the Kennedy-inspired name Jack’s mother had suggested for their company—depended on whatever was being said on the other end of Jack’s call.
They’d plowed ahead for two months on the proposal with assurances that a spot in Othonos’s schedule while he was in Boston would be left open to meet with them, but until o cial confirmation came, it would be impossible to know if their hard work had been for nothing. Everything came down to whether or not an aging billionaire still held a
soft spot in his heart for a young Irish housekeeper he hadn’t seen in almost forty years.
“Uh-huh. Got it.” Jack pocketed the phone, not speaking or looking at the trio, but her shoulders folded inward in defeat.
A crushing weight settled on Laurie’s chest.
“I have bad news.” Jack palmed the top of her head, looking like a kicker who’d missed the extra point in the Super Bowl.
Marian was the first to speak, her words more hopeful than the expression on her face. “It’s okay. We’ll have other clients.”
“Yeah,” Andy added in his best motivational speaker voice. “The best thing to do is to keep going.”
Slowly, Jack straightened and wheeled about, her face downcast.
“Who’d we lose out to?” Laurie tucked her hands into her arms, giving herself a reassuring hug. “Might as well say it and rip o the Band-Aid.”
“Laurie, I’m really sorry. As much as I don’t want to say this,” Jack’s expression remained solemn, “we won’t be able to go for brunch on your birthday.”
“What?” To say this was not the news Laurie had been expecting would be an understatement, but it was so far out of left field her head was reeling.
“Your birthday. It was going to be a surprise, but I’d been planning on taking you to The Ritz for brunch.”
Laurie’s eyes narrowed. “You kept us all on pins and needles while you spoke to a maître d’ about brunch reservations?”
“That wasn’t The Ritz.” Jack broke into a grin, and Laurie’s heart skipped a beat. “That was Othonos’s personal secretary. Our meeting is on your birthday at 11:00 a.m., so a
leisurely brunch is simply not in the cards this year. It looks like we’ll have to
do dinner instead.”
Marian gasped. Andy whooped, jumping in the air with such enthusiasm that he looked like he was about to click his heels together, musical theater style. Dragging Marian across the room, the exuberant young man pulled Jack into a group hug. He motioned for Laurie to join, but she shook her head, opting to watch her team’s antics from a safe distance.
“Two, four, six, eight,” Jack shouted in her loudest cheerleading voice, putting her hand in the middle of the circle. Marian and Andy followed suit, stacking their hands on top of hers. “Who do we appreciate?”
“Othonos!” Andy bellowed.
“I think you mean my mom,” Jack corrected with a mock-scolding tone. “After all these years of thinking she was full of shit, she gave us the win we needed when it counted the most.”
Laurie approached the others, smoothing the amusement from her face. “Eileen may have gotten us in the door, but we have a lot of work left to do to get the win.”
When all three of the other faces plummeted, Laurie had a moment of regret as she realized she’d jabbed a pin into their balloon of exhilaration. She didn’t mean to suck the fun out of things, at least not most of the time. Not lately. She just valued the importance of staying focused on the goal.
Getting a time slot was great, but there were plenty more hurdles to jump, Laurie knew. Why pretend otherwise? It was that kind of thinking that had kept her motivated to accomplish so much in her life, but it struck her now that not everyone processed things the same way. Some needed to savor the steps to victory, not keep bulldozing to the bitter end.“That doesn’t mean we can’t celebrate an important milestone,” she added in a softer tone. There were a few
sparks of interest on her team’s faces, but nothing like the unbridled joy they’d exhibited before she opened her big mouth and rained all over the parade. “How about a toast? I have a bottle of champagne in the fridge. We can all have a glass before getting back to work.”
Instead of the enthusiasm she’d expected, Laurie caught both Andy and Marian sneaking worried glances at the clock.
Laurie looked at her watch, shocked to discover it was after five.“I mean, of course, I’ll stay if I’m needed,” Marian said diplomatically, “only I was supposed to babysit the twins tonight.”
“I sort of promised Maddie I would be home in time for dinner,” Andy said, his cheeks turning pink. From the padding that had started collecting around his belly ever since he and his girlfriend had moved in together, Laurie gathered Maddie was a good cook.
“Okay, then. I guess we can stop for the day,” Laurie conceded, though in reality she hadn’t intended to keep them past the usual time. That was something Jack had insisted upon when they set up shop. It was one thing for the two of them to stay late, but apparently allowing the rest of the team to have something resembling a home life had been important to her business partner. Laurie clapped her hands twice in dismissal. “Rest up this weekend. The real work starts Monday morning at eight on the dot.”
“What have we been doing all these weeks?” Andy’s brow furrowed.
Jack laughed. “Go. Have a good night, and don’t worry about the Laurie guillotine hanging over your head.”
“It’s a hatchet, not guillotine.” Laurie playfully sco ed, acting out stabbing Jack with one.
“I’ve never understood that. A guillotine seems quicker, and you’re always saying we don’t have time to waste.” Jack
stepped away, anticipating Laurie’s swat on the back of her head.
Jack walked Marian and Andy to the front door. They stood chatting for way longer than Laurie saw any reason for, and much too giddily for it to have anything to do with work. What could they possibly find so interesting to discuss? They’d spent a whole week together. If leaving the o ce on a Friday afternoon was really that important, Laurie couldn’t comprehend why Marian and Andy didn’t bolt out the door immediately and be done with it.
By the time Jack returned to their makeshift o ce in the dining room, Laurie had her reading glasses perched on her nose and was busy devouring the latest reports from Paige’s team. Instead of returning to her computer, Jack stopped to massage Laurie’s shoulders.
“Why don’t we stop for the night?” Jack purred into her ear.Laurie leaned back, taking o her readers and letting out a moan. When was the last time she’d stopped work so early, other than that one time when her world was falling apart and she’d needed a wise Irish bartender to set her straight?
The temptation to leave the rest until morning was strong, but the timing was terrible with only two weeks to go until the presentation. “I wish we could, but there’s so much to do.”
Jack continued kneading her shoulders. “I think you’ll find a good night’s rest is what you need.”
“I’m not sure I can sleep.” Laurie tapped her reading glasses on the table lip. She was so wired that she’d never be able to relax.
Jack slumped against her with a heavy sigh. “Has it occurred to you that I had something else planned to take your mind o of things?”
Laurie’s pulse sped up as she finally caught on to Jack’s true intent. She arched an eyebrow but kept any other sign of excitement under wraps for the time being. “Is that right?”
Never one to be subtle, Jack grinned and waggled both eyebrows. “Yep.”
Laurie studied her hands as if her fingernails had suddenly become very interesting. “Do you care to share?”
“In this department, I find actions speak louder than words.” Jack caught Laurie’s earlobe between her teeth, sending a frisson of desire to Laurie’s core. Why did there have to be so much work?
As Jack continued to nibble, Laurie sucked in a breath through her teeth then let out a whimpering sigh. “Can you give me one more hour?”
Jack pressed her forehead to Laurie’s shoulder. “You can be as much fun as a cold bucket of ice water over the head sometimes.”
“After fifty years, I’m not likely to change,” Laurie said, not upset at Jack’s observation about her, since it was essentially true. “Besides, as you pointed out before, it’s roasting in here. Ice doesn’t sound half bad.”
“There are two weeks until your birthday. Still plenty of time to teach an old dog new tricks. But to show you I can be understanding, I’ll give you thirty minutes to wrap up in here.”
“Fifty-five,” Laurie countered with a deadpan expression, inwardly laughing and dying to know what the response to her countero er was going to be.
“You’re terrible at negotiations.” Jack traced the edge of Laurie’s ear with her tongue. Cold as ice? Not after Jack’s hot breath stoked the fire inside her to a boiling point. “Twenty-nine minutes. Final o er.”
“Now who’s bad at negotiating? You’re counting the wrong way.”
“Oh, am I?” Jack’s tongue darted into Laurie’s ear, nearly causing her to fall out of her chair. If this was part of Jack’s negotiating technique, then far from being terrible at it, she was a fucking master of the craft. “Try me again, and it’ll be twenty-five.”
“Twenty,” Laurie squeaked as Jack’s hand circled her breast.
“That’s more like it.” Jack nuzzled Laurie’s neck, peppering it with butterfly kisses. “I’m going to get some dinner started. See you in fifteen.”
SCARCELY TEN MINUTES LATER, Laurie was engrossed in wrapping up her report when a solid chunk of something ice cold slid down the front of her shirt. She jumped up from the chair, tugging the cloth to get at whatever had fallen in. She whirled around to find Jack behind her, giggling like a naughty schoolgirl.
“What the fuck?” Laurie unfastened the top three buttons of her blouse so she could fish whatever it was out of her bra.
“That’s freezing.”
“It’s supposed to be,” Jack said blandly. “It’s ice. The humidity is brutal. I was only trying to be helpful.” Jack sidled up to Laurie, undoing the rest of the buttons and slipping the blouse from her shoulders, letting it flutter to the floor before unclasping the
bra. “Here, this should make it easier.”
“Easier?” Laurie raised an eyebrow but didn’t try to stop her as the bra fell beside the blouse. “For me or you?”
“I think of it more as a win-win scenario.” Cupping a breast in each hand, Jack circled Laurie’s nipples with her thumbs, teasing them to hard peaks. “Wouldn’t you agree?”
“Mmm,” was the only answer she could manage, which had been intended as sort of a ho-hum but came out as something much closer to a take me now moan as Laurie’s skin turned to goose flesh.
“Well, look at that.” Jack grazed a finger across the bumps, causing them to double in number.
“I’m just cold,” Laurie lied. “I told you the house was built to optimize airflow.”
“In that case, let me warm you up.” Jack took Laurie by the hand, leading her through the living room to the base of the stairs. “I think the bedroom will be much less drafty.”
“You know. It hasn’t been fifteen minutes. We had a deal.” Even as she argued, Laurie followed Jack up the steps without hesitation.
“What can I say? You get me hot.”
“I’m cold; you’re hot,” Laurie mused. “Maybe I should dump ice on you.”
“Sounds unpleasant.”
They reached the bedroom, and Laurie pushed Jack onto the bed, not wasting time to pull back the pu y comforter.
“I can think of better ways to get attention.” Laurie climbed on top of Jack, getting to work unbuttoning the shirt and placing her hand over the swell of Jack’s breasts, under which the woman’s heart beat at the speed of a hummingbird’s wings. “Yep. My method seemed to have worked.”
Jack raked her hands through Laurie’s hair, threading the golden strands between her fingers. Laurie lowered her mouth, trekking down to the hollow of Jack’s throat.
Jack’s breath hitched. “This is getting dangerous.”
Laurie licked and nibbled her way to a soft lavender bra, reaching under Jack to free her breasts. “Does this help ease your mind about your fate?”
“Not convinced you’ll let me survive.” Jack inhaled a deep breath, her eyes squeezing shut. “But it’s not a bad way to go.”Laurie ventured to the other nipple. “You’re really resigned for what’s about to happen?”
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