Page 53 of The Grand Duel
I’ve barely said a word to her in three days, and when I have spoken to her, I’ve been short and snappy. She probably thinks I don’t like her, when in reality, it’s the opposite. I can’t get the woman out of my head.
Edna has taken Luna and Daisy on a walk, needing the fresh air. Which leaves only Lissie and me in the office.
After our email exchange last night, which was unprofessional of me given the time, everything feels a little more awkward today. I need to squash the entire situation. Start over with the woman.
I knock on the door to her new office, which is opposite Edna’s, a small boxy room Edna had decorated for her.
“Come in.”
I push open the door and find Lissie sat at the desk, her cream jacket discarded over the back of her chair and her thick brown hair down, sweeping over her shoulder and down her arm.
“Charles.” She forces a smile.
So, it’s Charles now. “Good afternoon, Lissie.”
I don’t miss the way her face softens at her name. “I’m sorry I’ve been so quiet this morning, I’ve been looking over that file you gave me and some of the ones Edna showed me yesterday.” She looks up from the open file on her desk. “Actually, I was going to ask, am I able to take these home with me?”
My brows lift in surprise. “The cases?”
“Yeah. I understand if it’s not a possibility, but I was mid shower last night and had the biggest epiphany for the case with the woman…” She flips through the files.
I lean against the doorjamb and watch her, crossing my ankles.
“Kerry. Kerry Turner’s case.” She picks up a couple of files and then stands, heading right for me. “I’ve made some notes on these. You might think it’s absolute crap but?—”
I reach out and take them from her. “I already know it’s not crap,” I say, having looked over her references from college and university.
Lissie Elton was top of her class, an asset to any firm, and a model student—her professor’s words.
She lifts her eyes to mine, her head tilting back.
And for the first time since we met, from the moment I said hello to her in that room at the club to yesterday when she ran out on me mid meeting, she doesn’t fight the silence that settles between us.
She just looks at me.
“Thank you for this,” I say, my voice betraying me and growing thicker.
Her throat works. “I wanted to apologise for yesterday. For leaving early and my emails. In all honesty, I thought you were going to fire me.”
I frown, not expecting an apology.
“After you told me you had a matter to discuss with me, and you’d made it clear you didn’t want an assistant…I shouldn’t have presumed, but I’ve not long lost my job, and after the meeting with Hannah…” Her throat works again, and I itch to reach out and soothe her. To calm whatever it is that’s made her feel not okay. “I just didn’t have it in me in that moment to be fired by you.”
My eyes search hers. “I wasn’t going to fire you.”
I should…but I’m not.
I can’t.
“I guessed as much last night after your email.”
I nod, my eyes greedy with her so close to me, desperate to find anything I might have missed. I knew she was pretty that first night I met her, but her eyes were shielded from me, hidden. Seeing her now, so close I can make out the five—no…six—freckles that reside on the bridge of her nose, I can’t help but wonder if I’ve ever seen anything more beautiful.
Her brow creases, and it instantly snaps me out of it.
Fuck. I step back and away from her. “Right. Thanks for this.” I back up and out of her office completely.What the fuck am I doing?“We have our follow-up with Dennis and Hannah this morning.”
She drops her eyes, face falling. “Scott should be on his way,” she tells me, clearly one step ahead of me. “I can come and get you once he’s here.”