Page 396 of Summer Heat
He flicked the stress monster again.
Before he fully realized he was doing it, his fingers were reaching for his phone and dialing her number.
“Hello?”
“Hey.” Okay, now what? Another flick. “So…we closed the deal for $7.3 billion today.”
The sound of books falling on the other end of the phone line had him sitting up taller. And grinning. She’d dropped her books for him.
“Oh my gosh, congratulations! Was it the carve-outs you renegotiated that sold them? I bet it was. Oh, but what about all those re-management concerns you had for the merger side? Did the spin-off push anything back at all? I know you were worried about the intellectual property on the acquisition end.” Somehow, all of that came out as one long sentence. But she wasn’t done yet. “$7.3 billion?! Holy crap, Connor! Were all the parties happy with the new deal? What am I saying? Of course they were. How are you not completely freaking out right now?!”
Connor laughed silently when Abby finally dragged in a gasping breath. Christ, she was priceless. “When I get home, I’ll be sure to give you the short version of everything that happened, sweetheart.”
“Screw the short version, I want to hear it all. It’s a good thing I made—”
Silence.
“Abby? Hello?”
“Sorry, yes, I’m still here.”
He frowned. “Are you okay? You got cut off there for a bit.”
“I dropped my phone.”
That sounded like a lie. “Okay…well, what were you saying? You mentioned making something.”
“Oh, it’s nothing. I can save it for another night. I’m sure you have some big celebration planned with all your colleagues. So of course the short version, definitely. Even if I’m sleeping, come wake me up okay? I’m dying to know the details.”
For crying out loud, he wanted to wrap her up in his arms and kiss her senseless. She actually thought he was going to celebrate without her tonight. “Abby, I’ve seen way more than enough of my colleagues for the past five months. I want to spend my night with you, share everything that happened today with you. If you don’t want to cook whatever you had planned, we can go out. Anywhere you want.”
“Anywhere I want?” Her voice still had that heart-tugging hesitancy. “We should go where ever you want to go.”
That was a first. To his knowledge, the standard reply to that offer was usually the most expensive restaurant and/or the most exclusive club. At least in his experience with women.
He embraced the novelty. “Well, if you’re going to let me choose, I’d kind of like to stay in.”
“Really?” He could almost see her skeptical frown through the phone.
“Yes. But again, if you don’t want to cook, I will. Or we can do take-out.”
“You’re being ridiculous. Of course I’ll cook. This is your big night. But are you sure you don’t want to—”
“I’m coming home for dinner, Abby. Period. I’ll be there at eight.” Damn, that sounded light years away. Maybe he could cancel his next few meetings…
“If you’re absolutely—”
“Abby.” She was so freakin’ precious.
“Okay, okay. Yes, eight o’clock. But, if you make it nine, you can probably get in some celebratory drinks with your friends and that’ll give me extra time to make something way more elaborate and—”
“I’m hanging up now, sweetie,” he sang out. “See you tonight.”
All he caught after that were razor sharp snippets about pigheads and horse butt as he replaced the phone back in its cradle. Knowing Abby, she could’ve easily been talking about him or the menu she had planned.
Either way, this was already promising to be an interesting night.
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