Page 75 of The Agent
A tall woman with huge dark eyes and lustrous black hair pulled back in a ponytail stood by the now-familiar black SUV. She wore a white silk blouse and navy trousers.
“Natalie, Jenya here will be taking care of you,” Tully said as they walked down the steps. “Jenya, slight change of plans. You’ll be staying with Natalie in New Jersey the entire weekend.”
A flicker of surprise crossed Jenya’s face before she smiled and came forward with her hand outstretched. “A pleasure, Natalie.”
“Same here,” Natalie said, forcing an answering smile. Maybe it was better to have a buffer when she parted from Tully.
He opened the car door for her and offered his hand to help her climb into the high vehicle. One more painful reminder of how perfect it felt to be touched by him. And then she was in the seat and the door closed firmly between them. Tully lifted a hand in farewell as Jenya pulled the car onto the quiet cross street.
Natalie kept her gaze resolutely forward even as she felt every fiber of her heart and body being ripped away from the man she’d stupidly fallen in love with.
As the SUV rolled out of the courtyard, Tully let his hand fall and trudged up the steps to his house. Walking into the grand entrance hall, he stopped and stared at the piano, images of Natalie spinning through his brain. He walked over to it and ran the back of his fingers up the keyboard in a ripple of sound that echoed off the walls and ceiling.
That was how he felt: empty enough for echoes of her to ricochet around inside him.
He pressed his fingers on a random set of keys, a discordant jangle, as anger seethed inside him.
What the hell had he done to spook her? She wouldn’t be frightened away by his revelations about his family. She didn’t judge people that way.
She was firm on the fact that she didn’t want to get married again, so his stance on that subject wouldn’t have bothered her.
He slammed his hand down on the keyboard once more. What had made her run?
Because that was what she had done.
He tried to hold on to it but the anger drained away, leaving that hollowness again.
He sank onto the piano stool and put his elbows on the keys in another clash of sound before he dropped his head into his hands.
He’d gone into this with his eyes open. He’d been attracted to Natalie since he’d met her at one of Derek and Alice’s parties. When they’d had to spend so much time together during the run-up to the wedding, the attraction had flared hotter and he’d seen the reflection of it in her eyes. So he’d acted on it, figuring they were both going into the relationship with the same expectations.
Natalie had stayed true to hers. He wasn’t so sure he had.
There was always some fallout when two people split up, but it had never before made him feel like his life had turned gray.
So maybe he’d gotten in deeper than he thought. Maybe that was what Natalie had sensed last night. And she didn’t want that from him, so she’d ended it.
Or maybe she didn’t want him because he had so little to offer. She was a smart woman.
But he felt like shit.
Natalie was grateful that it was Saturday and therefore the salon was hopping, although the howl of blow-dryers gave her a headache. Gino made her eat lunch at about two o’clock because he said she looked pale. Little did he know that it had nothing to do with physical hunger.
She had just finished a blowout when Deion appeared beside her chair. She’d noticed the sudden drop in chatter and now she knew why. When she glanced around, most of the customers, as well as her female stylists, were either openly or surreptitiously eyeing him in his well-cut suit. Deion, however, was frowning and oblivious.
“Nat, I need to talk to you in private,” he said in a low voice.
“Give me about three minutes, and I’ll meet you in my office.” She needed to check her client’s bangs for length now that they were dry.
When she got to her office, Deion was pacing the small space in front of her desk. “You look like you’re dressed for work at the mall. I thought your boss let you go without the two weeks’ notice,” she said, sinking into her chair as the depression of Tully’s absence swamped her.
“Someone called in sick, so I did her a favor and filled in.” Deion sat down but exuded a coiled tension that made him seem ready to spring up again at any moment. “I just got back from the store and was unlocking the back door when a woman came up to me. Her name is Sarah Lacey and she says she’s a customer here.”
The name was familiar but Natalie couldn’t put a face to it. “What does she want?”
“To use your guest room to hide from her husband.”
Natalie sat up in her chair. “Tonight?”
