Chapter 8
Trey meant to leave at a respectable hour. Really, he did. But somewhere after round two, as he lay curled with Sandy in her bed, filling in the gaps of what they’d done with their lives in the past decades, he convinced himself it would be okay, as long as he left in the wee hours, so the neighbors wouldn’t see his car in the morning. Except he’d fallen asleep, wrapped tight around his wife, and somehow dawn was breaking.
“You have to go!” Sandy tried shoving him out of bed.
Trey just tugged her back and rolled her beneath him. “I can think of much better ways to start the morning.”
She gave a moan that was half frustration, half arousal before slapping him on the ass and shoving again. “If Delia Watson next door sees your car here, it’s going to be all over town by breakfast that you spent the night with the mayor.”
“I spent the night with my wife.” Saying it still made him grin like ten kinds of idiot.
“Which nobody can know yet. So, you have to go. Before she lets Southern Baptist out to do his morning business.”
He couldn’t have heard that right. “I’m sorry. Southern Baptist?”
“Her dog. Keep up!”
“You can’t not explain that one.”
Sandy gave an exasperated sigh. “Delia got into an argument with Odette Simmons from the Presbyterian Church about whether or not pets have souls. Odette insists they don’t and therefore don’t go to heaven. Delia insists that, of course, her dog will. He’s Southern Baptist. They nearly came to blows over it, and Delia makes it a point to walk SB by Odette’s yard at least once a week to indicate what he thinks of her by peeing on her hydrangeas. But SB is the least of our worries if Delia sees you. You do not want to get on the Casserole Patrol’s radar!” She wiggled out from under him and began frantically searching the floor. “Where are your clothes?”
Trey propped himself up in bed and admired the view. “Probably in the living room, as that’s where you got me naked.”
She went racing out of the room, grabbing a robe on the fly. Clearly, she was serious about this.
With a yawn and a sigh, Trey rolled out of bed. As soon as Norah and Cam’s wedding was over, that honeymoon was going to be his top priority. Along with figuring out when and how they could reveal their own marriage because he had a feeling today wouldn’t be his last day of sneaking around like a teenager after curfew.
Sandy hustled back into the room and shoved his clothes at him. “Hurry!”
Trey snagged her around the waist and reeled her in. “Hey, slow down. Everything will be fine. We’re not doing anything wrong.”
“I know, but I don’t want people to think—”
To put an end to whatever objection she was about to make, he kissed her. She sighed and wrapped her arms around him, fitting her body to his in a way that had him dropping the clothes and backing toward the bed.
“No. No! We don’t have time for this. You have to go! I swear, it won’t be forever.”
Trey sighed. “Fine. But we definitely have to figure out a better system until we go public with this.” He let her go and began to get dressed.
“Trey?”
He lifted his gaze to hers.
“I love you.”
Well, damn if that didn’t just make everything better.
Fifteen minutes later, he was calling himself an idiot as he snuck in through the service entrance of his hotel, surprising the housekeeping staff and making up some kind of malarkey about a surprise inspection and keep up the good work. Given his suit was wrinkled and stiff from having dried in a wad on the floor, they probably didn’t believe him. He could only hope that the fact that he signed their paychecks would buy him a little discretion. At least they didn’t know where he was coming from.
He spent most of his shower split between reliving last night and trying to come up with a better plan. The simple fact of the matter was that after thirty years apart, he didn’t want to be away from Sandy. Not for a single night. Achieving that was going to require some even more significant changes to how he ran his business. Probably he shouldn’t yet spring it on his CFO that he’d be fully moving to Mississippi in short order. Bruce was still reeling over yesterday’s changes. Better to give the guy a little chance to adjust, wait until it was safe to announce he’d gotten married. Everyone would be more cooperative then. He already had the best in telecommuting technology installed here. They could make it work.
Ready to hit the ground running on business, Trey drew up short when he stepped into his office to find Brody. “Good morning. I wasn’t expecting you.”
His former project manager rose from the chair. “Sorry about that. Louis let me in and said you’d be along shortly.” Brody nodded toward the bar. “He made coffee.”
Thank God for that. Trey went to pour himself a cup. From the look on Brody’s face, he was going to need it. “What’s the problem?”
“I just came from the church and a meeting with my night crew foreman. As you know, we had to do some more demolition to get the structure to a