me with lunch at my desk, he’d left to take care of things at his own offices with the promise that he’d pick me up promptly at… Oh, hell. Now.
“Tea and Crumpets will be here any second,” Jane yelled after me as I shouldered through the front door.
“Stall him!” I called over my shoulder and bolted for my bathroom.
My phone rang. It was my mother.
“Mom, I can’t talk right now,” I said, turning the water in the shower on. I kicked my heels off across the bathroom. One landed on the tufted ottoman shaped like a daisy. The other landed between the vanities. Thank God I had very nice, organized people who cleaned up after me, otherwise I’d never find both shoes again.
“Are you ready yet? I want to see a picture of your dress.”
“I’m not ready yet,” I growled, yanking my shirt off over my head and kicking it in the direction of my shoes.
Shit. I was out of body wash. It had been on my shopping list.
“What do you mean you’re not ready yet? You’re supposed to be there in an hour!” She made it sound like I was running late for a life-saving surgery.
I grabbed a short robe from the bathroom closet and dashed out of the room.
“Traffic was bad. I’m home now and getting ready, which would go a lot faster if you’d stop calling me.”
“Don’t you dare be late, Emily. I’m not posing with your father’s ex-wife with both of my children conspicuously absent. What will everyone say?”
My mother’s motto in life.
I found Jane and Luna in my kitchen snacking on cheese and crackers. I snagged one out of Luna’s hand and stuffed it in my mouth.
“Maybe they’ll say it’s nice that you get along with your husband’s ex-wife?” I guessed.
“Emily, don’t speak with your mouth full!”
I mimed scrubbing down my entire body.
Jane pointed at the tote bags on the kitchen counter. At least one thing had gone my way. My personal shopper had left her bounty like a magical fairy.
“Gotta go, Mom,” I said, digging into the first bag and hanging up on my mother.
“Well, it’s an unorthodox look. But you’ll certainly have people talking,” Derek announced behind me.
“Traffic,” I yelled, finding the body wash and taking off down the hall in a barefoot sprint. “Hi, Luna!”
I jumped in the shower and did the fastest wash of hair and body in human history.
Toweling off, I realized I still didn’t know what I was wearing.
Back to the kitchen I went. “Dress?” I asked expectantly.
Derek had joined the girls for snacks and what looked like a nice white wine. “In the garment bag on your bed,” he said.
I snatched his glass of wine from his hand, cursed his perfectly tailored tux, and hauled ass back to my bedroom.
I shimmied into the dress, forgetting both bra and underwear. Neither would be good for the lines of the dress anyway. It wasn’t one that I’d had in my closet. I would have recognized it. This was a sleek, black, off-the-shoulder gown that clung very nicely to my breasts.
“You decent, boss?” Jane called.
I had wet hair, a bare face, and an unzipped dress. “Enough.”
She appeared in the bathroom doorway. “Bad news. Hair can’t make it. They got stuck in traffic downtown and got rear-ended by—get this—a $250,000 Bentley.”
“Shit.” My hair hung, damp and limp in my face. My mother was going to murder me. “Okay, it’s fine. I’ll just do some kind of bun thing,” I decided.
Maybe a chignon or a simple knot.
“Find me some big jewelry that will take attention away from my hair,” I instructed her, turning my hair dryer on full blast.
“Derek’s already on it,” she yelled over the sound.
I rolled my eyes. I was beginning to think the man had a fetish about pawing through my closet.
Derek poked his head into the bathroom, holding up sapphire drop earrings to his own lobes. “Yes?”
“You’re ridiculous. Yes.”
My phone buzzed. It was a text from my mother.
Mom: We’re leaving now. You’d better be on your way!
“Agh!”
He grinned and stepped inside. He dropped the earrings on the vanity and zipped my dress. “You know I’m not going to think about anything but you being commando under that dress all night,” he teased.
“Derek, unless you’re a secret hairstylist, I need you to get the hell out of my bathroom right now,” I screeched over the hum of the hairdryer.
“It would seem that once again, I’m exactly what you need.” He plucked the dryer out of my hand and grabbed a