Page 56 of Sapphire Storm

Unlike mine,he thought. When his vision misted andhe found himself blinking back tears, he was shocked. He sat frozen behind thewheel before a neighbor’s headlights swung into alignment with his car.

As he opened the door to his apartment, he saw he hadanother text from Roman.

You’re a good man, Ethan Blake.

Given their history, the words meant far more coming fromRoman Walker than they would anyone else.

He slept more peacefully than he thought he would. Untilabout three in the morning, when he woke from a dream of Roman Walker snugglinginto bed next to him, whispering the words of his last text into his ear, theirbodies entwined and grasping beneath the covers.

16

The next morning, Roman found Diana standingin the sand a few paces from the concrete-floored rec room that opened rightonto the beach. Her eyes were concealed by highly reflective, cat-eyesunglasses, her platinum hair pulled back in a ponytail she’d threaded througha pink visor branded with the logo for her top-selling face cream.

“How’d you sleep, sugar?” she asked.

“Great,” he lied.

By the time Roman had gotten home the night before, she’dalready returned from LA and retired to the master suite. She’d made no move tointercept him as he’d hurried to his room and locked the door. Still, he’d laidin bed for hours fearing a knock that never came. Then, right before dawn, he’dgiven up on sleep for good and gone to the kitchen to fix himself a fortifyingbreakfast of egg whites and turkey bacon and was back inside his room beforethe sun fully rose. That’s where he’d stayed until session time, running overthe words he planned to say to his boss once he could look her in the eye.

“Stair sprints,” he announced with as much enthusiasm as hecould muster.

She sighed. They were her least favorite exercise, and thissort of exchange usually preceded each round. The house’s service stairway wastucked between the Castle and its northern neighbor, three flights of concretesteps that sharply ascended the cliff, with high, spiked security gates at thetop and bottom. They’d confine their session to the bottom-most flight. It waseasiest to scale, and the one time he’d tried to make her run up the final andsteepest one, she’d slapped him across the shoulder and accused him of elderabuse.

He opened the gate with his key and started up toward thefirst landing. Diana remained at the bottom, stretching out her hips and quadsthe way he’d taught her.

He pulled his stopwatch out from his tank top, timing herfirst sprint. Two minutes. Not bad, but not her best. “Minute rest,” he toldher as she struggled to catch her breath.

She usually spent these little breaks peppering him withpolite, breathless questions about how he was spending his free time or givinghim updates about his social media campaigns from her marketingteam—businesslike attempts to distract him from the timer so she could steal afew extra breaths. Now, she was silent except for her gasps.

On the second sprint, she beat her time by twenty seconds. Whenhe informed her, she didn’t seem pleased.

“I’ll do it,” he said. “With Scott, I mean. But on onecondition.” She was breathless and hunched over, but he could tell he had herfull attention behind her sunglasses. “I want my trust back.”

She straightened quickly. “Well, technically, it’s yourmother’s trust, sweetie. You were just the successor trustee.”

“And I’d like to be again.”

Carefully, she reached up and took her sunglasses off. “Whydo that to yourself? You really want a house back that’s been torn down to thestuds? Let me finish the renovations and earn you a nice little profit.”

“It’s fine. I’ll figure it out. I just want the house back.”

She nodded, placed her hands on her hips, and studied himbehind her sunglasses. “So you met with Rachel at Sapphire Cove yesterday?”

Every muscle in his body tensed. No way would Rachel have blabbedto her mom about what they’d discussed. Someone else on staff had probably madeDiana aware of the meeting, and the timing had clued her in to the subject. Hisfault for not asking Rachel to keep it a secret in advance.

“What’d you guys talk about?” Diana asked.

“Wedding stuff.”

Diana nodded. “I see. I don’t mean to be rude, darling, butI need to remind you about the NDA you put your name to when you started workinghere.”

“No need. Rachel’s my best friend. I’d never violate herconfidence.”

Diana didn’t move. “And me? What about the one who’s beendoing all these good things for you while Rachel’s been off at theater camp? AmI a friend?”A pimp, apparently,he wanted to say. “’Cause I thoughtwe were family. But this isn’t sounding very familial, you going behind my backto my daughter and all.”

“Really? Don’t siblings complain about their moms all thetime?” Roman managed a sheepish grin.

Diana didn’t crack a smile. “Don’t play dumb, sugar. It’sthe one look you can’t pull off.” Her anger was quiet and forceful, but she’d neverdirected anger of any kind at him before and its arrival felt as powerful as aslap.

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