Page 55 of Along Came Amor
Alight with anticipation, he sent her the address.
Camille was watching him closely, so he set his phone aside and went back to reviewing the redesign for Casa Donato’s dark rum label.
“Who was that?” Camille asked, her tone full of feigned nonchalance.
“Don’t worry about it,” he said mildly, zooming in on the label to make it seem like he was working.
“You’re about to make me clear your schedule again, aren’t you?”
Sweat prickled on Roman’s back, and he refused to look at her. “What makes you say that?”
She snorted. “You want me to reveal your tells?”
Now that got his attention. “My what?”
“Every so often, out of the blue, you get this sappy look on your face, and then you tell me you’re going to be ‘busy’ for the rest of the night.” She made air quotes with her fingers.
Roman frowned. “What do you mean,sappy?”
“Like this.” She picked up her phone screen and mimed reading something. Then her eyebrows dipped and the cornersof her mouth pulled down in an exaggerated pout, like she was gazing at an adorable puppy or something. It was anawwface. She tossed the phone back on a stack of papers and pinned him with a look that said,See? Sappy.
“I do not do that,” he scoffed.
“You do. And it’s not the face you make when you hear from your mother, your sister, or one of your few friends. I know it’s a woman, but I’ve never seen you make thatparticularlook before, which tells me—”
“I don’t want to know what it tells you,” he cut in grumpily. “And yes, I want you to clear my schedule for the rest of the night.”
Camille’s lips pressed together like she was holding back a smug smile. As she reached for her laptop, she whispered, “I knew it.”
Was he that obvious?
Apparently, yes.
A jolt of panic seared through him. How would Ava react ifshenoticed?
He had to play it cool tonight. Not because he wanted to, but because Ava would go running in the opposite direction if she had any inkling that he wasn’t abiding by the “no feelings” part of their agreement. He had to keep her from finding out that he wanted to add some strings, too, at least until he’d determined the best way to proceed. Mulling that over in the back of his mind, he continued working.
An hour later, Mikayla stomped off the elevator and into the apartment.
A seed of unease sprouted as Roman exchanged a look with Camille. His assistant had a twenty-year-old son and twodaughters aged fourteen and twelve. She could well spot a teenager in high dudgeon.
When Mikayla saw them, she marched over and flung herself into one of the empty chairs.
Roman slipped off his reading glasses and took in his sister’s creased brow and the slight pout. He kept his tone neutral even as his pulse kicked into high gear. “What’s up?”
“My museum internship fell through,” Mikayla said, her voice wavering. “I’m supposed to start right after graduation, and now it’s all gone to shit.”
“Why? What happened?”
She dropped her hands into her lap. “The person running the internship program is going on maternity leave, so the museum is canceling it. They’re not even going to try to get someone else to cover it, or let us work in other areas. I’ve been signed up for this since February. How am I going to find something else this good on such short notice?”
And then Mikayla did something that really ratcheted up Roman’s blood pressure—she dashed away a tear.
“I’ll call them,” he said immediately. “They can’t leave you in the lurch like that.”
“Oh my god, don’t you dare!” Her eyes went wide in horror. “That would bemortifying.”
“Then we’ll find you another internship. I’ll text Nigella, I’m sure she has lots of contacts—”
