“Not your fault.” No, it’s mine. I should have been monitoring the progress more closely. The truth is, I’ve had one primary concern for the past week or so and that’s Avery. Although I’d only be lying to myself if I try to pretend my head has been fully in the game for the entire past year. “Thank you, Lily. I’ll handle this.”
“Okay. I’ll text you the address.”
She retreats to her desk and a few seconds later, her message hits my phone.
“Anything I can do?” Beck asks as he takes the signed contracts and slides them into a folder.
“Yeah.” I slant him a wry look as I stand up. “Be ready with bail money in case I discover any other disasters when I get to the rec center site.”
He chuckles as he pivots and heads out the door.
“Hey, you think I’m joking?”
I step out from behind my desk to retrieve my suit jacket from the closet. I’m shrugging into it when my cell phone chimes. No need to look at the screen before my dark mood starts to lift. It’s Avery’s ring tone, the one I set for her more than a year ago. The one I never had the heart to delete in all the time we’d been apart.
“Hello, beautiful.” There is a pause on the other end of the line. “Avery?”
“Hi.” Another pause, followed by her quiet laugh. “I think it’s going to take a little time for me to get used to hearing your voice in my ear. Especially hearing you say that.”
It’s how I often greeted her when she’d call me, and it feels astonishingly normal to be doing so again. I nod to Lily as I walk past her desk on my way out to the elevator.
“Where are you at?”
“The studio. I got here a few minutes ago.”
I glance at my watch and push the button for the executive garage. It’s still early in the day, not yet eleven o’clock. I dropped her off at Kathryn’s around nine. “How did things go this morning?”
“Kathryn was awake when I got there. She sat up in bed for a while and we talked for about forty-five minutes before she started nodding off.” I hear the optimism in Avery’s voice, but I also hear the concern. “Pauline, her nurse, told me she’s refusing to take her pain meds today. Kathryn says they only make her want to sleep more. We already know how she feels about missing out on anything.”
I grunt in acknowledgment. “That’s one thing that’ll never change.”
“I hope it won’t,” she says, going quiet and somber on me. “The minute Kathryn stops caring that she’s not at the center of all the action I’ll know it’s time to brace myself for the worst.”
She’s right about that. I exit the descended elevator and wake my car with a jab of the remote. The black M6 chirps in its parking spot near the lift. “Have you had a chance to talk to your sculptor friend? I’m curious to hear what went wrong with Derek Kingston.”
Although I’m reluctant to bring up yet another worry of hers, I’d rather steer Avery away from fears of Kathryn’s furthering decline. Hell, there are countless things I’d rather talk about other than disease and dying too.
“What went wrong?” Avery seems to choke a bit on the answer. “They slept together.”
“Ah, Christ.” I climb behind the wheel of my car and start the engine. Then I hit the hands-free, putting Avery on the speakers. Hearing her voice surround me is a pleasure I want to savor. “Didn’t I tell you when she met the guy that she wouldn’t want to get involved with him?”
“Yes, you did. The same way a lot of people I know tried to warn me about you.”
I scowl into my rearview mirror as I back out of the parking space. Although I had to concede the point to her on that one, it didn’t mean I had to agree. “Our situation is different. You and I are different.”
“She’s in love with him, Nick. I don’t think she realizes it yet, but I can tell. I can see it in her eyes when she talks about him. Even when she’s insisting he’s the most aggravating man she’s ever met.”
“Maybe I need to have a talk with Kingston, one on one,” I suggest. “Make sure he understands that if he hurts this woman he’ll have to answer to me. Say the word and I’ll head out to Brooklyn Heights right now.”
She laughs. “Don’t you dare! Besides, you won’t find him at Dektech’s headquarters. He just left the studio with Lita. They went somewhere to talk. At least, that’s what they said they were going to do. Personally, I think they’ve got other plans than just talking.”
“Sounds good to me. What are your plans for the rest of the day?”
“I don’t know.” I can feel the smile in her voice. “You got any ideas?”
“Hundreds of them.” Even as I speak, I’m already ignoring the GPS route toward New Jersey, heading instead for Avery’s studio in East Harlem. “I’ll pick you up in fifteen minutes.”
Chapter 14