Page 18 of A Secret Chance
Lauren didn’t have to say anything, the itching and burning from earlier returned and she could feel her face blushing two shades darker than her sister’s lipstick.
Charlotte laughed. “Scandalous. I love it,” she grinned and then winked before shutting the door.
Lauren shook her head. She hated that her sister could read her like a book. She hopped into the car and started it up.
“You’ve got a message.” Tabitha held up the phone.
“Shoot, I guess I forgot my phone in the car.”
She pulled off her glove and blew on her fingertips, the phone a cold brick in her hand. She swiped to read the message; it was the city area code from a number she didn’t recognize.
It just said:
“Dinner tomorrow?”
The message was sent at 6:10, and another message had followed at 6:14, “Business dinner.”
She smiled in spite of herself. With the fingertip of her glove between her teeth, she typed back, “Who is this?” She dropped the phone back into the cup holder and tried not to smirk.
“What was that all about?” Tabitha asked, her eyebrows raised at her mom.
“Business,” Lauren said and put the car in gear.
Chapter 9
THE LIGHT FROM THEphone screen blasted him in the face: 5:10 a.m. Baxter sat up in bed and stretched. His body had become programmed to wake up before the sun, a habit that he had started years earlier and was convinced was the secret to his success. He dressed in his workout clothes and headed to the home gym on the first floor. He hadn’t slept well, he kept replaying the meetings in his mind, wishing that he had reined Thomas in a little better. His executive’s big city bulldozer attitude wasn’t going to fly in this small town.
He stepped on the treadmill and checked his text messages. When there was nothing from Lauren Bunkman, he clicked on his workout playlist and turned the treadmill up faster. Inviting her to dinner had been a mistake, and Baxter wished that he could go back in time and stop his foolish self from pressing the send button. He turned the treadmill up even faster and as he scrolled through his workout playlist his phone chimed with an incoming text message.
I am free for a coffee meeting at either 9 a.m. or 1 p.m.
Very curt and to the point, he thought to himself, slightly relieved that she had replied, but disappointed by the coldness of her response. His heart rate monitor beeped, notifying him that his beats per minute were higher than it should be, but he chalked it up to the altitude, not the fact that Lauren had agreed to meet with him. He resisted the urge to message her back immediately, instead he cranked up his favorite Metallica song and ran a mile in a personal best time.
After he showered and dressed, he found his team exactly where he knew they’d be, at the coffee machine. “Good morning,” he said. He set his briefcase down on the kitchen island and pulled a mug down from the cupboard.
“Morning, sir,” Nicole smiled as she filled his mug with coffee.
