Page 54 of Substitute Bride

“Calm down,” James was saying. “I can’t understand what you’re saying.”

The buzz of the voice on the other end of the line was high-pitched and incoherent as Rose tried to listen.

“I’m sure it’s not as bad as you—” Again James must have been cut off.

“Okay. Okay. Calm down. Isn’t there someone there you can⁠—”

Rose had no idea what was happening, but it was clear Genevieve was lodging some sort of emergency and expecting James to help.

Maybe the emergency was real, but Rose wouldn’t put it past the other woman to make something up as part of a plan.

Genevieve wanted James back. Rose was almost breathless, waiting to hear what James would do.

Obviously if someone was really in trouble, Rose didn’t want James to completely ignore her, but there were ways of dealing with something like this without running to her rescue.

She prayed James wasn’t going to run to Genevieve’s rescue. That would be a clear sign that Rose wasn’t—and would never be—a priority.

“Okay,” James said, sounding tired, drained. “Just calm down. Give me a minute. Of course I’m going to take care of it. I just need to get to my computer.”

And that was it.

This was the sign she needed.

The obvious reason for him to need a computer was for him to book a flight. Genevieve was in Vegas, after all, and he was jumping at her call.

What Rose wanted was never going to happen, and it would be stupid to keep hoping that it would.

This was over.

She would have to leave.

She couldn’t be his nanny anymore—not when she wanted him to be so much more.

11

The call from Genevieve felt like a barrel of cold water had been dumped on James’s head.

He’d been on the verge of pouring out his heart when the call came in—caught up in some hazy romantic trance—but the sound of Genevieve’s voice brought him back to earth with a hard thump.

Rose had rolled away from him, and she was quiet as he disconnected the phone.

He glanced over at her, his heart aching as he saw her messy hair and mild face. He didn’t want to leave the bed if she was in it.

Surely she wouldn’t want to try to go back to their professional relationship this time. Surely after they’d made love the way they had, she wouldn’t think it was better to just pretend it never happened.

He just needed to take care of Genevieve’s emergency, and then maybe they could figure things out.

“I’m sorry,” he murmured, forcing himself to stand up. “She’s evidently in trouble.”

“It’s fine,” Rose said, her brown eyes wide and unreadable. “You better not waste any time if she needs you.”

He opened his mouth since something about the way she’d said the words seemed wrong as if she was misreading the reality or assuming what wasn’t true. But she was right.

There was a decent chance that Genevieve was exaggerating or making something up to trick him into coming back to her. But, on the off chance that she was sincere, he wasn’t going to be responsible for ignoring her.

“I won’t be long,” he said, reaching over to find his pants and then grabbing a T-shirt to pull on.

“Okay.”