Page 32 of Midnight Secrets

Impulsively, I snapped a picture of the weave I was working on. Delicate oak leaves formed the base in platinum with golden acorns interspersed along the way. It was more daring that anything I’d tried before. Emeralds hung from delicate branches to form one of the earth element pieces.

Me:What do you think?

I started to feel stupid as the minutes passed with no response. Maybe he didn’t like it… My phone pinged and my heart lunged.

Ash:Looks great, but that emerald would look fabulous in a spider’s web.

I laid the necklace out in front of me and stared at it. He was right. Why hadn’t I seen it before? I pinned the piece in place on a piece of paper and sketched the outline of a web at the front of the design. I could put shards of diamonds like the morning dew on the web to give it dimension.

The noise of my phone startled me and I stared at it for a moment in confusion.

Ash:Or not… You’re the designer.

A smile tugged the corner of my mouth. He thought he’d upset me.

I snapped another photograph of what I’d been working on.

Me:Sorry – head in the zone. What do you think?

Ash:You need to complete it and model it for me. I’d have a better visual.

Was he flirting with me? I had no point of reference to work from.

Me:Is it weird that I miss you?

Seconds stretched to minutes and I wandered out into the garden to get some fresh air because the room felt like it was closing in. Maybe I’d read more into this than Ash did. When my phone pinged, my hand tightened around it and my stomach clenched in fear at his reaction.

Ash:The world wouldn’t notice if I went missing.

Everything inside me stilled as I stared at that message. Without thinking, I hit the call button.

He answered after six rings. “Yeah?”

“You’re not thinking of doing anything silly, are you?” I demanded.

His sigh echoed the entire way across the world and into my ear. “Is this a business call?”

“If you want it to be,” I replied. “As your business partner, I need to know you’re not thinking of doing something silly.”

“Lucrezia…” He sounded exasperated… and drunk.

“Have you been drinking?”

His laugh sounded bitter. “Just a bit.”

I sat on the wooden bench that Papa made when we were little. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“Not really, even my therapist doesn’t let me talk about certain things.”

My hand gripped my phone tighter. “I’m not a therapist.”

“I noticed.”

If I wanted to be in the life of this complicated man, I needed to understand him. “The daylight is starting to fade here, and the stars are starting to come out.” Silence greeted me on the other end of the phone. “The moon is just under half fullness in the far corner of the sky and all the trees are starting to disappear in the distance.”

“Everything here is just city lights.”

I relaxed at the sound of his voice. “Sometimes you need to find nature and reconnect for a while.”

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