Grounded (Up in the Air, #3)(64)

“Wow! That’s amazing! I’d love to see your work.”

I flushed. “I’m having a gallery showing in L.A. soon. I’ll make sure you get an invitation, though of course, I’ll understand if you can’t make it. It is across the country.”

He waved that off. “I’ll be there. Just tell me when. That is such an accomplishment. I hear it’s near to impossible to get a showing.”

I flushed harder. “To be honest, my boyfriend played a big part there, but I’m still going to give it a shot.”

“James Cavendish,” he said.

I nodded.

“Well, let me know. I’m looking forward to seeing your work.” He sounded sincere.

“I will. It’s still being planned, but I’ll keep you posted.”

“I have a girlfriend,” he volunteered. “She’s very nice. It’s serious. Hopefully you can meet her sometime.”

I nodded. “That sounds nice. Maybe we can all have dinner sometime.”

He nodded. “I’d like that. She works odd hours—a lot of them, but I’m sure we can work something out.”

“What does she do?” I asked.

“She’s a model. I went to one of her shoots. It’s a strange sort of job, but she loves it.”

I smiled, reminded of my recent and similar experience. “I was just at a photo shoot for James. They are bizarre. I swear they had a team just for rubbing him down with oil.”

He laughed. “Yeah, it is a strange business.”

He looked at his phone suddenly, the first time he’d done so since we’d gotten there.

“That’s weird,” he muttered.

“What is it?” I asked.

“It’s from a co-worker of mine, asking where I am. Says my boss is looking for me, but I’m on my own time, so that’s out of line.” He began texting back.

“Did you tell him?” I asked, getting a sick feeling in my gut.

He nodded. “It’s not his business, but I still don’t want to get on his bad side. It’s just bizarre for him to be looking for me on my own time. This isn’t like him at all.”

I’d left my phone at home, but no one should have even known I was gone. So why was I suddenly tense and worried?

I glanced around nervously. “I could be way off, but that might have something to do with my boyfriend. He’s extremely overprotective of me, since the attack.” I knew I was kidding myself with that statement. He’d likely be that way no matter what, with or without the attack as an excuse. It was his nature.

“What attack?” Sven asked, and I remembered that he didn’t know. The attack must not have made the headlines as what it actually was. They’d probably turned my being shipped off in an ambulance and hospitalized for a week into an overdose story, or God only knew what. I hadn’t wanted to check.

“It was our dad, over a month ago. He came to my house and attacked me. That was when I went to the police about what he’d done to my mother. The police and a team of private investigators have been looking for him ever since.”

“Even after all this time, he was still coming after you?”

I explained some of the events leading up to the attack, as far as I understood it, anyway.

“He saw me in the headlines. He saw that I was dating someone wealthy, and he thought that that would make me more likely to turn him in. The crazy part is, he was right, at least about some of it. I was getting ready to turn him in, though money had nothing to do with it.”

Sven glanced around, looking a little nervous. “I’m surprised that he didn’t make you take security here with you, with the attack and all.”

I sighed. “I actually didn’t tell him I was coming. As far as he knows, I’m still asleep in bed.”

“Do you live together?” he asked.

I nodded.

His eyes widened. “Yeah, I’m going to guess that he had something to do with my boss acting strange, then. Maybe I should walk you home before all hell breaks loose.”

I waved my half-empty cup of coffee. We’d spent a half hour talking before I’d finally grabbed a cup. “Sounds good. Let me just finish my coffee and we’ll go.”

I had nearly completed that goal when Sven’s expression froze. My back was to the entrance of the café, and he was facing it, so I knew right away who had just walked through the door.

“Looks like you weren’t way off about your boyfriend,” he said, his eyes staying glued to the door of the coffee house.

I took deep breaths, getting very nervous suddenly. I knew I should just get up and walk to the door. That would be the best thing I could do, as far as defusing the situation went. I told my body to do just that, but I was frozen in place, my body just waiting to see what James would do.

I didn’t turn to look at him, but I would’ve sworn I felt his presence behind me—his eyes on me. I felt his stillness as he just stood in that doorway, and then I felt him move, walking slowly across the crowded room. I knew it with a certainty when he was standing directly at my back.

Sven seemed just as frozen, staring at the other man with wide eyes. It was a good minute before he tried to speak. “H—“ was all he got out.

“Not now, Sven Karlsson,” James said quietly. His tone was more menacing than I’d ever heard it. “You and I will talk later, but now is not a good time.”