Huge Deal - Lauren Layne Page 0,80

her to hear it.

She searched his face for a long moment, and Kennedy held his breath.

“Good speech, Dawson.” She said it quietly, but it hit him like a slap anyway. “But we’ve just screwed a few times. Don’t romanticize it.”

His hands dropped, his arms falling limply to his sides as pain splintered through his entire midsection.

Kennedy loved her. More than anything. But she wasn’t the only one who needed to self-protect from hurt. And right now, the one with the power to hurt him was her.

So Kennedy forced himself to nod. Step back. Turn. And walk away.

30

Monday, June 10

“Wolfe Investments, this is Kate.”

She tucked her phone under her ear as she repositioned the egg on her Starbucks breakfast sandwich so it was centered.

“Kate. It’s Christian.”

She licked cheese off her finger and put the English muffin back on top. Then shoved it away. She wasn’t hungry. Hadn’t been hungry in more than twenty-four hours. Not even for cheese.

“Hey, you sound awful,” she said to her protégé. “Did Genevieve give you that nasty cold? I told her last week she should have stayed home.”

“I guess,” he said glumly. “I’d come in, but—”

“Don’t,” she ordered. “Nothing is more annoying than the moron who brings his snot into the office to show what a trouper he is, and then takes out the whole office with his cooties.”

“I know. But I’m so new, and it feels lame to ask you to fill in for me this soon. I’ve only been there a few weeks . . .”

“Don’t worry about it,” she said, though her decisive tone was wavering as she realized what Christian’s absence would mean. She’d have to fill in for him. As Kennedy’s assistant.

She hadn’t seen him since that night, and the thought of coming face-to-face again . . .

Her stomach roiled with queasiness. She swiped the breakfast sandwich into the trash before she barfed.

Kate flicked her mouse to wake up her computer, desperate for a distraction. “I still have access to Kennedy’s calendar, but is there anything I should know?” She carefully kept her voice professionally indifferent.

“Well, that’s actually the good news,” Christian said after blowing his nose. “Kennedy’s out today.”

She froze. “Out?”

Kennedy was never out. He took maybe one vacation a year, usually a golf trip. But spontaneous days off? Never. As far as she knew, the guy didn’t even get sick.

“Yeah, he just texted me an hour ago and said he was taking a personal day,” Christian said, blissfully unaware of how atypical that was for Kennedy. Even more unaware of why Kennedy was taking a day off.

I did fall, Kate. I’ve fallen all the way.

“I’ve already called and rescheduled all of his meetings,” Christian was saying. “So other than manning the phone, you should be Kennedy-free today.”

Oh, she’d be Kennedy-free a lot longer than that. She’d made sure of that, hadn’t she? She didn’t think one could ever come back from her good speech, Dawson bombshell.

“There’s a folder on my desk of stuff to be filed,” Christian was saying. “But Kennedy made a point of saying it was low priority, so it can probably wait until tomorrow.”

“I’ll get to it if I can,” she said absently. She knew the routine. Kennedy had fully embraced the digital age and kept electronic copies of everything in the cloud. But Kennedy, being Kennedy, also kept hard copies of things he deemed especially important. It was a good sign that he’d asked Christian to file them. It meant he trusted his new assistant.

“Thanks, Kate. I appreciate it.”

“Of course. Let me know if you think of anything else, but mostly focus on getting better, okay? Lots of sleep.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

She hung up with Christian and stared unseeingly at the computer screen. She took a sip of coffee. It had no flavor. Since when did coffee have no flavor? Kate mentally slapped herself. She wasn’t going to be that girl. This was her decision. She was the one who’d made the smart call, rather than the emotional one. She would be smart. Independent. Maybe take up kickboxing.

“Kickboxing, Kate? Really?” she muttered to herself.

She tried to focus on her computer for real, and as she went through her normal routine of checking the guys’ calendars, it hit her . . .

None of the guys were coming into the office today. Ian was on his honeymoon in Paris. Matt and Sabrina had decided to extend their stay in the Hamptons after the wedding.

Kennedy was out.

Which meant Kate was good and truly alone at the office. She couldn’t remember