Elastic Hearts (Hearts #3)(90)

“I’m pretty sure the entire beach heard us,” she said.

“Good.”

She laughed and went back to the kitchen while I ran to my room and into the shower. I had thirty-five minutes to get to work. Fuck.

I was finishing putting on my tie when Nicole walked into the room.

“I brought you coffee. Do you have time to eat?”

I looked over my shoulder at the clock on the nightstand. Eighteen minutes. “Nope. I’ll have Corinne get me something on her way.”

“You look hot.”

“Thank you.”

“Really hot,” she said, lowering her voice. I closed my eyes.

“This is going to be a problem,” I said, looking at her.

“What?”

“Me having to go to work and wanting to stay home to f*ck you instead.”

She smiled, looking at the floor between us. I walked over to her and lifted her chin.

“No matter what happens today, I love you. That’s not going to change, and I want you here, that’s also not going to change.”

She swallowed and looked at me. “I’m going to have Marcus pick me up. I should probably stay over there a couple of days. I do pay bills, you know.”

I let go of her chin. I didn’t like that idea at all, but I understood why she felt the need to go. I’d have to find someone to take over her lease so she could move in with me. That topic hadn’t been discussed as of yet, but it would be soon, and that was a battle I’d win.

In the office, everybody greeted me a little warily since I’d been a complete ass for a few weeks. It made me wonder if they hadn’t been informed of anything. When I got to the conference room, only William was there, sitting at the head of the table. He looked up from his phone when he heard me come in.

“Have a seat.”

“Where’s Bruce?” I asked as I unbuttoned my suit coat and sat down where I normally did, beside him. Bruce was the other partner.

“I decided not to call anybody in for this.” He paused, setting his phone down. I looked at it, wondering if he’d set it to record. As if reading my thoughts, he chuckled and lit it up so I could see the home screen. “So paranoid about some things, so careless about others.”

I let the jab slide. He was right.

“How’s Nicole? Did you speak to her about . . . your situation?”

I tried to keep my face impassive, but my lips twitched into a smile. If he only knew how many situations his daughter and I got into over the weekend . . . “I did.”

“And?”

“I already told you. I wouldn’t have gone through the trouble with her if I didn’t know it was the real deal.”

“And how do you know it’s the real deal? How do you know that in five years you won’t be in this office talking about your own divorce? I know your track record.”

My brows rose. Good questions. Fair questions. How did I know . . . how could I explain that?

“I don’t,” I said. “I have no idea what will happen in five years. I came in here thinking there was probably more than a fifty percent chance I’d get fired, or demoted, and I still haven’t been able to stop f*cking smiling, and that’s the only way I know that. Who knows?” I shrugged. “Maybe it won’t work out the way I want it to, but I sure as hell want to try, and when I think about my life five years from now, the only thing I see with sureness is Nicole.”

Will tilted his head, his eyes assessing me. “When do the finalized papers get here?”

“They should be here soon. Possibly next week. I rushed Judge Matthews.”

Will nodded. “You know how I feel about you as a person and as an employee. You’re like a son I never had, and that’s one of the reasons I’m being hard on you about this, because as much as I love you, I love my daughter more.”

He picked up his phone and pushed a couple buttons, turning on the speakerphone. Three rings later Nicole’s voice seeped through the room. My breath caught in my chest. I glanced up at him, and he shrugged as if to say let’s see what she says about this.

“Hey, Dad,” she said. My heart gripped at the sound of her voice.

“Hey, sweetheart. I have a question for you, and I need you to answer honestly.”

Nicole groaned. “What now?”

“Promise?”

She stayed silent for a second. “Promise.”

“Are you involved in any way with Gabriel?”

She stayed quiet again. My heart constricted. “No. Argentina was the last thing I was going to attend with him. Why?”

“I mean romantically, Nicole.”

“No.”

“That’s a definite no? What about in Argentina?”

My heart squeezed again. I didn’t want to hear this. I didn’t want to know. Out of mind, out of sight. That had been my motto.

“No, Dad. Why are you asking weird questions?”

“What about Victor Reuben?”

“What about him?” she whispered.

“Last time I asked you, you said nothing was going on with you guys. Were you lying?”

She breathed into the phone.

“Promise, Nicole.”

She breathed into the phone again. “Yes.”

“Yes you were lying?”