matter how much I hate it.”
Matt laughed. “Yes. She’s probably telling him to come in on one pretense or another. He’ll be acting surprised, but not too over the top.”
He thought he heard her say “arrogant ass,” but wasn’t sure if it had been directed at him or Michael and decided he didn’t care. He asked her if she wanted anything and after she’d told him she was fine, he sat across from her.
“Should we wait on him or just dive right in? I’m not in any mood to have to repeat myself and, if he comes in, I’m going to be pissy with him enough as it is.” She pulled out a file from her large, brightly-colored purse and pushed it across to him. “You might as well get a head start. I want that much for the Washington building and not one cent less.”
Matt tried to hide his surprise, but he was sure she could see the shock. They’d been trying since Monday to contact the woman, but she’d been avoiding them. And now here it was Thursday and she was right here with a contract. Matt opened it and was on the second page of the impressive thing when Michael walked in.
“Hey, I was wondering if you wanted to grab some—oh, I didn’t realize you had company. Hello, Grace. I’ve—”
“She knew you were coming. Figured it out before she sat down,” Matt cut his friend off. “She wants to sell. I’m just going over the contract now.”
Michael sat at the table near Grace. Matt laughed a little, distracted by the contract, but still found humor in that the girl didn’t seem to care for his buddy. Stacey walked in with a carafe of coffee, bottled water, and a tray of Danish. She was out again before he could thank her.
“Why?” Michael said as he poured coffee for them all. “After all this time you’re suddenly going to sell me what I’ve been wanting for six months? I don’t get it. You’ve gotten a better offer or you’re going to demand more money, is that it? Or does this have anything to do with the phone call?”
The girl paled and, before Matt could tell his friend to back off, Grace snapped right back. He was suddenly glad that he was going to get a front row seat to Michael getting his ass handed back to him on a platter.
“You egotistical, overbearing, pigheaded prick. You practically hound me to death over this fucking building and, when I come here with a legitimate offer, you act all superior and as if it’s beneath you.” She stood up when he did, but she didn’t wait for him to move from the chair before she was shoving him back down into it. “I knew this was going to be a mistake trying to deal with a man whose ego is bigger than his bank account. You wanted the fucking building so either buy it or fucking don’t. I could care less.”
When she stepped away from the table and Michael, Matt started to rise and stand between the two of them before Michael followed through on what looked like murder gleaming in his eye. But he knew the moment that he’d touched Grace, a simple hand on her elbow to steer her away and to safer ground, that he’d made a mistake. Her fist came around so quickly that he’d had only a moment to be impressed with the fact that she’d tucked her thumb in before his face exploded.
He wasn’t sure how he’d ended up on the floor with Michael cussing under him. He wasn’t even sure what the hell Michael was doing in his office. He knew he’d hit his head; there was no way he was going to even consider that Grace had knocked him out, but things were beginning to come back to him about the time that Stacey came in the office looking decidedly unhappy with them both. That was when Matt realized that Grace was gone.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” Michael said as he helped Matt to stand up. “What the hell did you think you were doing standing between the two of us? I had it under control.”
Matt wanted to point out that he most certainly did not have anything under control, but his wife was saying he was bleeding. The shrill whistle from the doorway had them all stop everything. He groaned; the sound of Mrs. Cunningham’s two finger trill had his head