International Player(57)

I glanced up at Edward, who I’d just hired as my head of development. At twenty-six, he was young, but had a solid background in healthcare, and the more I looked into it, thought about it, talked about it, the more that was the direction I was headed.

“It’s fine. Come on up. We’re on the eighth floor.”

She canceled the call without saying goodbye the way she did when she was in a hurry, and I grinned, pleased that filling in for Abigail hadn’t turned her into a different version of herself when she was around me.

“I have to take this meeting, but if you can find a way through to the CEO of Wayford Pharmaceuticals, then the next step is to set up a meeting.”

“Sure, and in the meantime, I can work with the lawyers to find out the best way to structure a partnership.” Edward gathered his papers and stood.

There wasn’t any gap between her knock at the door and Truly bursting into my office. “Oh God,” she said, looking at Edward. “The girl back there said to come right in. I didn’t realize you were in the middle—”

“It’s totally fine. Edward and I were just finishing up.” I glanced at him and found his cheeks flushed and his gaze pinned on Truly.

Yeah, I knew that feeling.

“Hi,” Truly said, holding out her hand. “I’m Truly. Noah’s helping me out with a presentation.”

Her explanation irked me. That was how she chose to introduce herself to a third party? As someone who needed my help? Not a friend, at least?

“Hi,” Edward said, shaking her hand a little too vigorously. “I’m the new head of development,” he muttered.

“Excellent. Developing what, exactly?” Truly asked.

Edward shot me a glance.

“We’re looking at some healthcare stuff, maybe spinal injuries,” I said. She turned to me, her expression a sucker punch to my chest. She was excited, happy.

For me.

“That’s awesome.” She stepped toward me as if she were going to give me a hug, then stopped herself. “It sounds like you’re at an exciting stage.”

Edward was still blushing and couldn’t take his eyes off Truly even for a second. He needed to leave.

“Edward, I’ll catch up with you later,” I said. Truly was beautiful, there was no doubt about it, but he would trip over his own tongue if he wasn’t careful.

As if he’d woken up from a Truly-induced trance, Edward flinched. “Yes, okay. See you later. It was very nice to meet you, Truly.”

She glanced over her shoulder at him as she unpacked her bag. “You too. Good luck.” She had no clue that he was completely captivated by her, which was one of the reasons she was so completely captivating in the first place.

“Hey,” I said, taking a seat.

She glanced up as if she’d misheard me. “Hi?” she asked.

“I’ve not seen you for a few days.”

She paused and pressed her lips together. “You don’t mind me dropping in like this, do you? It’s just that the meeting is this afternoon, and I can use our original new donor presentation, but this donor could be huge. I mean—” She held her arms out wide in front of her. “A really big fish. I’ve done some research, and it turns out he’s a real numbers man, so I changed up the presentation to reflect that.”

I leaned back in my chair, taking in her passion and confidence.

“What?” she asked, grinning at me.

“You look beautiful. It’s weird not having seen you for a few days.”

She rolled her eyes. “I’m sure you had plenty to keep you busy. There’s a busty blonde sitting right outside your office.”

Did she think I was dating other people when I wasn’t with her? She’d said she didn’t want to hear about it if I did date, but I’d thought it was sort of obvious I wasn’t seeing anyone else.

“Come to mine tonight,” I said, ignoring her comment.

She held up her presentation. “I need you to go through this with me.”

“I know. But come round tonight.”

“What if I have plans?” she asked.

Normally, to anyone else, I would have said, No problem, if you have plans, we’ll do it another night. Because I wouldn’t care enough. “Change them,” I said.

Her eyes widened, then her face softened into a smile as she shook her head. “Maybe. Let’s go through this, okay?”

“I’m taking that as a yes.” I tucked my chair under my desk and leaned forward, giving her my full attention. “Show me what you’ve changed.”

She handed me a presentation pack, and we got down to business. She’d changed up a big chunk of the middle in favor of going into much more detail about how the foundation spent its money and measured success. The way she’d presented it was smart and clear. Someone without financial experience could understand it, and someone with financial experience would get more detail and depth.

“And if he wants the underlying numbers for these figures?” I skimmed my fingers down the far right-hand column on the table.

She handed me a printout. “I can go as technical as he wants. I’m just worried because Abigail always told me I was way too detail oriented and didn’t focus enough on the big picture.”

“But from what you said this guy likes detail.”