Page 139 of Dirty Rival
The sound of her phone ringing on her desk has her grabbing my phone to answer it. “Eric,” she says. “One moment.” She glances at me and I nod. “Let me patch you through to Ms. West.” She hands me the phone and rushes away.
“Eric,” I greet. “I’m excited we’re working with you.”
“I’m looking forward to seeing what you can do, and if this is what you do while your apartment’s being burned down, I’m quite certain I won’t be disappointed. I’m about to email you and Reid the agreement. I’m sure I’ll be hashing out the legalities with him, but I wanted to welcome you on board.”
“Thank you. We’ll do an amazing job for you.”
“I know you will. More soon, Carrie.” We disconnect, and I call Reid.
“Eric just emailed us contracts for the rest of the work. I’m about to pull them up and review them.”
“I’ll go through them at the office.”
“I’ll email you my notes.”
His phone beeps. “That’s Eric calling me,” he says. “I’ll let you know if he adds anything new to the conversation.”
We disconnect and the phone on my desk rings. I smile. I love this day. I love Reid. I grab my phone and dive into the craziness. This is where I belong. This is where I want to be.
Reid shows up back at the office mid-afternoon and he and Eric have hashed out our contract. An hour later, we ink a letter of intent to sign a contract with the owners of the Japan event center. We have one month to come to terms or the bids can reopen. We finally leave the office at seven and order from our favorite sandwich place on the way home.
Home.
With Reid.
It’s really surreal.
It’s on the walk through Battery Park that it hits me we haven’t talked about his father’s retirement. “Your father?”
“No response, which means Gabe and I will close out our current projects, take on no new clients, and leave officially in six months. An announcement will go to the staff after the board meeting next week.”
“How do you feel about it?” I ask as we enter the building.
“It’s surreal,” he says. “That place has been my life, but it feels right. Gabe said the same thing.”
Surreal, I think, as we enter the apartment. There’s a lot of that going around today.
Half an hour later we’re both in sweats, on the couch, with wine in our glasses and work spread out on the table, when our sandwiches arrive. Reid sets them out on the table and surprises me by asking, “Is there anything you want to change in the apartment?”
“Change? It’s beautiful. I don’t want to change your place, Reid.”
“It’s our place, Carrie. I want it to feel that way. We can redecorate if you want. Hell, we can sell it and buy something new. I want this to feel like home.”
“We love Battery Park.” I scoot close to him and settle my hand on his leg. “Thank you, but you are what feels like home. I don’t need to make changes. And really, this place is stunning.”
He lays me down on the couch. “You’re stunning.” He leans in to kiss me.
“Oh no,” I say, feeling the press of his erection against my belly. “Feed me first. I didn’t eat all day. Then take me to bed and do all the naughty things you can think of, please.”
“I do believe I can live with that deal.” He pulls me back to a sitting position and we both reach for our sandwiches.
“If we buy a place, Gabe and I could open the office in that building. Of course, we’d have to tolerate him because he’d probably move into the building, too.”
“You really want to sell and buy something new?”
“It’s something to think about,” he says.
We talk about that and I tell him about Cat’s call. “Mom would approve, Carrie,” he assures me. “I hate that you can’t meet her.”