“Mutual, Kat. And I’m thrilled about you and Cole. I mean, that’s been a long time coming.”
“No kidding.”
“Listen, I have a meeting in a minute, but tell me quick what’s going on with your house.”
“I close tomorrow,” I said, unable to keep the excitement out of my voice.
“I thought it was tomorrow. That’s so cool.”
“I’m giddy,” I admitted. “It’s like a rite of passage or something.” I hesitated, then pressed on. “Listen, about the house. There’s something else—”
“What’s wrong?” I heard the sharp note of concern in her voice.
“Nothing. I swear. It’s just this thing I’ve been thinking about. You know, my ever-present plan to get rich quick. Only I’m not sure this would be quick.”
“I’m intrigued. Tell me about it over drinks?”
“You get married in a week,” I reminded her. “When are we supposed to do that?”
“Maybe before the bachelorette party? Or breakfast? Anytime really, if I can tear you away from Cole.”
“Speaking of, I need to try again to track him down. And you need to go to your meeting. We’ll figure it out,” I promised, then we said our goodbyes and ended the call.
Angie was smart. If getting into real estate was a bad idea, she’d tell me. Mostly, though, I just liked knowing that I had a friend to share my plans with.
I sat in my car and ran my fingers through my hair, wondering when in hell I’d become so settled?
And how the hell could I be settled with a missing con man of a father, and two of Chicago’s most wanted escorting him around the city?
The knights own a lot of businesses, and I called every one of them. No Cole, no Evan, no Tyler. And the more time passed without any word—without any report as to where they’d taken my dad or what the plan for keeping him safe was—the more my temper soared. And, yes, so did my worry.
I had no real reason to go see Sloane, but I did anyway. I told myself I wanted to know if she had a clue. And if she didn’t, I wanted a distraction. But it was more than that.
I was about to buy a house, I was getting serious about a guy, and I was thinking about pursuing an actual career outside of the coffee-pouring arts.
I was putting down roots, just like I had told my dad.
In other words, I was looking dead center at Big Life Things, and coming clean with my friends was part of making those things happen.
This new life I was building—this life that I’d be starting tomorrow when I signed my closing papers—needed a solid foundation. But until I cleared up a few lies of omission, that foundation didn’t exist, and I was terrified that one day everything that I’d built would crumble, and everything I wanted and loved would shake and fall and turn to rubble.
I didn’t want to risk that. Not now. Not when I was falling in love with my life and my world. And, a tiny voice in my head added, with Cole.
I found Sloane destroying the punching bag in The Drake’s gym.
“Getting a workout?” I asked. “Or working something out?”
“Both,” she said, then landed a hard punch. “Or maybe neither. Shit, I don’t know.”
She got in one final blow, then stood back, breathing hard. After a moment, she held out her hands to me and I helped her off with the gloves.
“Are we ladies who lunch now?” She glanced up at the clock. “Correction. It’s cocktail hour. Are you here for a drink?”
“I wouldn’t turn one down.”
“Come on.”
I followed her to the service elevator and then into the ornate suite she called home.