“Oh!”
“Shit. Sorry, Soph. I thought you’d be gone by now.”
I waved off John’s worry. “I should be. Running late.”
He narrowed his eyes. “Were you checking everything three times?”
“Only your room,” I admitted in a low voice.
He clasped a big hand on my shoulder. “Don’t worry about that stuff. Besides, I’ll happily sleep on the floor, or in an unmade bed. You don’t have to check to make sure everything is perfect for me,” he said softly, then gestured to my right ear. “But you might want to check on your earring. Looks like one is about to pop out.”
Lifting my hand to my ear, I felt the edge of the earring slipping from my earlobe. I peered into a small mirror by the door, catching the reflection of a framed photograph of my parents from across the room, my heart lurching briefly at the image, and how much I loved and missed them. “I thought you were working late,” I said as I repositioned the jewelry.
He shrugged. “Yeah, but I figured it’d be nice and quiet at your place, and you’ll be out, so I can work on the case here.”
“Close to solving it?”
He scoffed. “Not even remotely. Talked to some guy today who I’m sure knows something, but he won’t let on what it is.”
“What do you think he knows?” I asked, turning away from the mirror to face my brother, who was unknotting his tie and tugging it off.
“Something that would help me find the other guys I think were involved.”
“What kind of case is it?”
He laughed. “You’re not getting that out of me.”
“I know. I just like asking, because it’s funny to see how many ways you can say no comment.” John never gave up details. He always spoke vaguely about his work so I could never connect the dots. Not that I wanted to. I vastly preferred operating on my side of the world, entertaining the wealthy and privileged and encouraging them to dig deep into their pockets to help those who needed it most: the children, the ill, the underprivileged, the animals who needed a voice. I’d helped raise money for all those causes, and I intended to do just that tonight for the hospital.
Sometime later, after the silent auction of a painting by Miller Valentina, I walked to the podium in the ballroom and thanked the sea of glittering guests in shimmery dresses and crisp suits.
“I am so unbelievably thrilled to share the news that, thanks to your generosity, we’ve raised well over our funding goal for the new children’s wing, which will provide state-of-the-art care,” I said, surveying the tables in the ballroom as the crowd clapped in recognition of the good news.
The man in the green tie hadn’t made it. C’est la vie. I didn’t know anything about him, and it had been silly to want a stranger so badly. Better to move on, and besides, I had a busy agenda for the rest of the evening. “We would not have been able to do this without your generosity,” I said, beaming at the guests. My heart was full, bursting with joy over their willingness to give. “But don’t think I’m going to let any of you gorgeous people—and for the record, you are all my favorite people—slip away this evening. We have Heaven Leigh here with us, and if her voice doesn’t make you want to snuggle up to your date, then I don’t know what will. She’ll be on in five minutes.”
My assistant, Kelley Jeffers, caught up with me as I walked through a small section of the wings backstage. Ever efficient and always prepared, Kelley tapped her clipboard. “You have forty-five minutes until we need you on again to close out the event with the awards.”
“Perfect. I’ll grab a drink and mingle.”
“Be sure to be backstage at nine forty-five so we can stay on time.”
“Absolutely,” I said, then headed to the steps, ready to chitchat and socialize. As I reached the ballroom floor, though, I nearly froze.
I wasn’t sure if I saw him first or merely sensed him. I turned my head, and goosebumps rose on my bare arms as I drank him in.
In the distance, he leaned against the doorway to the ballroom, looking cool, sexy, and debonair, wearing a dark-gray suit that fit him like a glove—tailored and snug where it needed to be, revealing strength and tone. His light-brown hair was messy, but not sloppy. It was the type of hair that was too thick to be contained, that couldn’t be combed into submission, but instead simply invited fingers to run through it.
But then, if I was doing things right, my hands wouldn’t be free.
Across all the tables and chairs, past the dazzling chandelier lights, beyond the sea of designer dresses, he locked eyes with me.
His seemed to say, I’m here for you. I’m coming to get you.
I flashed a smile, aware that it was a high-wattage one, but then that was how I felt—bubbly, buoyant, and powered by the thrill of possibility. I hadn’t misread the moment outside the municipal building. The chemistry had been electric and instant—and intense enough for him to come calling.
As I walked around the dance floor to find my way to him, a flash of gray hair appeared in the corner of my vision. Next came a phlegmy clearing of the throat.
Oh, dear.
Not now.
One of my regular donors placed a clammy hand on my bare arm—Clyde Graser, pushing eighty, sweet as could be, and more generous than virtually anyone.
He was also terribly out of touch with women.
“Sophie, how are you, my dear?”
He received one of my brightest smiles. “I’m very well, Mr. Graser. So good to see you.”
After a minute of small talk, he cleared his throat once more, a sign he had Something Important to Say. “My grandson Taylor is coming back to town. He graduated from Harvard Law earlier this year and has been hired into a corporate practice here. I have a hunch the two of you would get along swimmingly, and I would love to introduce you to him.”
A newly minted law school graduate was probably all of twenty-five. Divorced and thirty-one, I had a clear cutoff. You had to be over thirty to ride this ride. I simply wasn’t into cradle-robbing.
“I’m sure he’s lovely,” I said, doing my best to be kind but evasive.
Clyde’s matchmaking effort wasn’t the first I’d had to deflect. These sorts of offers had been happening with increasing frequency since Holden and I had divorced two years ago. With the money I’d socked away from the sale of my company—even after Holden’s cut of the profits—and the work I did now, many of the city’s old wealth wanted me for their sons.
I wanted no such thing.
“Wonderful. Then I’ll bring him to the Beethoven concert,” Clyde said. The law firm Clyde had founded was a lead sponsor of that upcoming charity event, and I hoped to convince him to pour even more of his corporate cash into a community center that was being refurbished in a section of town that had been a hotbed for a local gang many years ago—a street gang that had been rising up again, which made it all the more important to revitalize the neighborhood.
“I can’t wait,” I said as Clyde walked away.
Then my pulse suddenly quickened.
I knew.
Knew the sexy man had to be mere feet from me. The little hairs on my arms stood on end. This man and I were two elements smashing into each other and setting off sparks. There was no other explanation, because I’d never felt this kind of intense desire for someone I’d just met.