He motioned to the chair in front of his desk, then carried on with whatever he’d been doing on his screen, occasionally tapping away at the Bluetooth keyboard with two fingers. I sat down gingerly, afraid that the meeting would be short and sharp.
Raine turned his attention to me again. “Don’t act so terrified. You have nothing to be scared of. You look like you’re being lined up in front of a firing squad. I know I can be an asshole, but I’m not all that bad, am I? Relax, it’s all good.”
I heard the words, but didn’t share the sentiment. I felt anything but relaxed. I did, however, at least try to give the impression that I wasn’t about to shit myself.
“Listen, I had a chance to think some things through while I was out of the office just before, and I want to apologize to you about what went down earlier. I was out of order.” What? Shocked didn’t even cover it. “I mean, I stand by what I said. My medical status is of no concern to you, but on the other hand, I can see how I haven’t handled this whole situation in the best of ways, and lines have become blurred.”
I really didn’t know what was happening. Raine didn’t seem like the type to explain himself, even if he was in the wrong. I waited for the other shoe to drop.
“That’s my bad.” He definitely didn’t seem like the type to apologize, or whatever the fuck this was. “Let me make it up to you. Dinner tonight.”
“Umm... I don’t think...”
“It can be a business meeting. We’ve been eating every meal here together for weeks anyway.” That was true, the Carlisle work had us at the office late most nights, and we’d order in takeout and eat while we worked. “This will be the same, but we’ll actually take a break and leave the office for a little while. Don’t worry, we can keep the chat to talking shop only, that way we won’t lose time, and it’ll be a safe, neutral topic.”
“Okay. Sure. I mean, thanks,”
He smiled in a way that suggested he hadn’t really been asking, but telling. I should have known. Negotiating wasn’t Raine’s MO after all, and as out of character as the whole exchange had been, unless he’d had a radical lobotomy in the time he’d been out of the office, it was unlikely that he had done that much of a one-eighty. It just wasn’t like him.
“Good. Shall we leave here at seven thirty?”
“Umm... okay. I should have covered a lot of the stuff I need to get done for the day by then. Actually, I was going to ask you if I could bring in the details of the new candidates for the PA role that the agency just sent over, but maybe it makes more sense for me to bring my tablet tonight. I can talk you through them over dinner, and we can see who you want to interview.”
“Okay, sure. Whatever you want to do. You like Italian food?”
“Like it? No.”
“Oh, shit.”
“I love it.”
“Ha! You had me for a moment. Good. We can walk there from here. So, seven thirty.”
“Okay. You know where to find me.”
Chapter 29
Raine
* * *
I sat in Mi Famiglia, pushing my Pappardelle alla Fiesolana around my plate while Noa prattled on about this candidate or that. I feigned interest until she took a breath, and I could raise my objections—some of which she bought, others, not so much.
“Well, how about the fact that he wasn’t at Cartwrights for more than a hot minute, and now he’s back on the market again? It doesn’t say it was a temporary role, and now here he is, available already. Red flags everywhere.”
“Okay, that’s fair enough. There were a few others I thought were interesting, though. For example—”
“Lily is my sister.” Noa stopped mid-sentence. I’d cut her off, so she didn’t have much choice, really.
“Okay...?”
“Was my sister. I mean she’s still my sister, but she’s not still... she’s... dead. That’s where I went this afternoon, to her grave. It’s where I go when I want to get my head straight.” Almost fourteen years later, and it was still so hard to say those words, to the point where I had a huge lump in my throat, which I tried to swallow around. I stared at my plate, not daring to meet Noa’s eyes.
“I’m so sorry for your loss.” Still I kept my gaze cast downward.
“You wouldn’t be,