her.
“She said she loves me.”
“Clearly, she’s crazy. I should get her help.”
“I’m in love with her,” Adam said, knowing that he sounded like an idiot. He didn’t care.
“Again, you are the dumbest genius I know,” Justin teased, making himself comfortable on the couch. “But you get there eventually.”
“She’s going to have my baby.” Adam couldn’t stop the grin from tugging at the corner of his mouth. “I’m going to be a father.”
“Yeah, you are.” Justin’s wide grin was contagious. “And I’m going to be an uncle.”
Adam slipped off his jacket and headed back to his desk. “Well, Uncle Justin, I have a plan to save Redhawk/Ling, get Franklin out of our lives forever and to get Tess what she never asked for. You in?”
Nineteen
“Mia, why are we here?”
Tess paused at the double doors leading to the largest conference room at Redhawk/Ling and squinted at the couple dozen people milling about the room. She recognized a number of them, all reporters from local and national news outlets. A small stage and podium were set up on one end of the room, framed by the view of the gorgeous campus through the floor-to-ceiling windows. Adam had the same view in his office and she’d often caught him staring out the window, his mind a million miles away.
She’d heard nothing from Adam since last week when he’d let her walk out of his office. Tess had scoured the news for any word on the mole but all the news that was fit to print was about the launch of the app. Full steam ahead. No complications. No espionage.
And no invitations to meet up and talk about the baby. About them.
She snagged the back of her sister’s jeans and hissed into her ear, “I don’t think we’re in the right place.”
Mia pulled out the printed email invite and took another look. “Nope. This is the place.”
“This can’t be right.” Tess couldn’t imagine why Justin would have asked them to come to the office and have all these people here at the same time.
When they’d received the email, Tess had presumed that Adam was using Justin as a go-between to discuss the baby, and while that was never going to fly in the long-term, she was willing to take the meeting to get the conversation started. Adam had been radio silent for almost a week and Tess had resolved to give him some space. While the clock was obviously ticking where the baby was concerned, they had time and she didn’t want to push. She hoped that Adam would come around and they could have a life together but with each day that passed, it was harder and harder to believe that she would get what she dreamed about. And now, seeing this large gathering made her doubt if Adam even knew she’d been invited today.
“Tess, Justin said that we both needed to be here. He said it was important.” Mia wriggled free from her grasp and sauntered into the room with the carefree nonchalance that Tess had possessed just a few short weeks ago. “And it’s not like we have somewhere else to be.”
That was the truth. Tess had wrapped up a couple of small cases and she’d referred another one to a colleague. Because of the payment for services rendered to Redhawk/Ling, she could afford to turn down a couple of jobs and nurse her broken heart. It was crazy how much she could miss a man who’d been a stranger a couple of months ago.
Tess moved to slide into a seat toward the back, nodding at several reporters she knew from prior jobs just as Estelle approached the small podium and asked everyone to take their seats. The room was at that point where the A/C wasn’t keeping up with the mass of body heat and the flush across her skin added to the anxious itch that kept her on the edge of her seat. The rustle and noise of everyone settling into position masked the sound of Adam’s entrance but her body went on high alert the second he crossed the threshold.
He was wearing her favorite suit, as midnight black as his hair and slim cut on his athletic build, with a crisp white shirt underneath. He moved like a large cat, smooth and graceful in his individuality, and the beautifully cut suit emphasized every muscle of his body. Adam was a beautiful man, sexy as hell, and several of the reporters murmured their admiration while she bit back the