“All right then.” She does a small, quick wave before walking away.
We leave soon after that. After spending all night trying to keep my hands off Rachel, I’m more focused on getting her alone than on anything else. As soon as we’re alone in my apartment, I do what I’ve been aching to do all night.
By the time we fall asleep, exhausted, Ava is the furthest thing from my mind.
“A little birdie tells me you’re smitten with the writer from Gilt,” Alex tells me after a meeting. It’s my second day in San Francisco, and even though I have a mountain of work to get through, I’ve been spending as much time as I can on the phone with Rachel.
“Tell your little birdie to mind their own business.”
He laughs. “Okay. I just never thought I’d see the day.”
I glare at him.
“My little birdie also told me you had dinner with Ava last night?”
“Why doesn’t your little birdie work for me?”
“Don’t we all?”
“She wanted to talk about Evans,” I say with a shrug. “She’s worried about him.”
“Have they considered rehab?”
“Many times. He doesn’t exactly have a cooperative personality.”
“So, no progress.”
“She thinks if we ignore him, he’ll go away.”
He makes a face. “She could have told you that over the phone.”
“She could have,” I admit. Alex is another person in my life who can’t stand Ava Sinclair.
His gaze turns more serious. “Do you think he’ll go away? We’re having to field questions about unlawful acquisition of properties, coercion, and bullying. How long before the rumors become ammunition for a more powerful enemy? We’ll survive any investigation of course—we’re clean—but at what cost?”
I shake my head. If we go after him now, that will be the story, and I promised Ava I’d let her take care of him, for now. “He’s a failure with a substance abuse problem,” I tell Alex. “Nobody will listen to him.”
Alex looks unconvinced. “Well, once you decide you want to go after him, we can bury him.”
“I don’t doubt it.”
The next day, there’s a round of last-minute preparations and meetings, and of course, Rachel’s arrival. I can’t wait for her to see how the hotel has turned out.
I message her as soon as my watch tells me she should have landed.
Tell me you’ve arrived.
I have.
I can’t wait to see you.
Me neither.
I have no choice but trust her to Tony and Claude as I’m still swamped with meetings, but I call her as soon as I have a moment.
“Are you settled in?”
“Yes. The hotel is beautiful, Landon.”