Page 52 of Love In Hiding

“He was putting work first. Which I’m sure he would have said at some point.”

“He did. On the drive to the airport, suddenly he wanted to talk. I started snarky, then I played it up as if it was all a joke and I could move on just like him.”

“Then what is the problem?”

She looked into her sister’s eyes. “I don’t know.”

“Yes, you do.”

“Fine,” she said. “I saw another side to him. One I really like, if I didn’t see the annoying side. It confuses me and we are both out to make something of our careers and he thinks we need to focus on that.”

“Agreed.”

She huffed out a breath. “Thanks so much. Maybe if we hadn’t kissed and my body wasn’t so worked up, I wouldn’t be so out of sorts over the fact that I saw him in a more relaxed environment.”

“Without his shirt,” Paris said, her eyes laughing as much as her voice.

“That too.”

“So you’re mad that he’s just brushing it off?”

“Kind of. I know it’s the right thing to do.”

“I think you’re more put out that it sounds as if it meant more to you than it did to him. But I know my sister and you would have tried your hardest to make it sound like it was nothing more than kissing a kid on spin the bottle.”

She continued to munch on her dinner, just at a slower pace. This was where having a twin came in handy. Her sister knew without being told. “I did.”

“So did you stop to think that his pride is just as great as yours and maybe he didn’t want you to think it bothered him you were just brushing it off so casually?”

“No.”

“And here I thought you were so smart.”

15

STRICTLY BUSINESS

“How did the trip go?” Braylon asked him on Friday morning when they met for their weekly meeting.

“Good. There were some red flags right away. But everything seems fixable.”

“Sounds it,” Braylon said. “London emailed West on Tuesday morning explaining the situation with Belinda and then Chad.”

Spencer hadn’t been aware of that. Then he told himself he didn’t need to know those things.

That wasn’t what his job was.

“That will be West’s problem, but I think Belinda saw what happened. I feel for her in a way. She was sick, dealing with health issues and left it in Chad’s hands. She regrets that now.”

“Things like that happen too often. It’s why we monitor all investments as much as we do, then step in when need be. No one likes throwing money around to have it burned.”

“No matter how much you’ve got,” he said.

“Exactly. And how was London?”

“She was good. She knows her stuff.”

“I don’t doubt that. But how was she with the staff? Especially since things didn’t appear to go as well as planned.”