Page 53 of Turning Up the Heat

His tone made herself feel like she was being dismissed. “Okay. Well, that’s too bad.” She shrugged, trying to not let him know how much it did bother her.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m great,” she told him. “We’ll probably see each other next weekend.”

“Probably?” he asked. “Are you still coming up here?”

“Yeah, sure thing,” she said, noncommittal.

“Gemma, are you okay?”

“Me? I’m fine.” She wasn’t sure why she was being so confrontational, or why him not making the trip down this week bothered her so much. She was annoyed by herself. For even letting it affect her. “I’m going to go now so I can finish getting ready.”

He frowned. “Okay. I’ll talk to you later.”

“Sure thing.”

“I love you.”

She looked away from the phone and nodded at her own reflection. “I love you, too,” she said before disconnecting the call. She’d said the words; she’d meant them. But as she thought about the conversation, and the confusion she felt at his lack of information, feeling it tore her heart out.

Picking up her liquid eyeliner, she attempted to continue the line she’d started on her eyelid. But her hand was shaky, so she threw down the wand in frustration and wiped at the mess she’d made.

She was frustrated with herself for behaving that way. She’d never let herself feel that way about a guy. So what if he couldn’t make it this weekend? It wasn’t the end of the world. She could get by for one weekend without him. He told her something had come up, and that should be enough for her. She had no claim on him. She trusted him, but she was left with the impression that there was something he wasn’t telling her.

Tom stared at his phone screen for probably a minute after it turned black. Gemma obviously hadn’t been happy by the way the conversation had turned out, but hell, neither was he. He’d had every intention of going to Miami tomorrow. But since he’d seen the new ad campaign, he knew he had to work to cover it up before it debuted. But not only that. He’d made the right decision for himself. He had some feelings he still had to sort out. And he couldn’t do either of those things from her bed in Miami.

His phone rang again. He hoped it was Gemma, but instead, it was Bill from marketing. He answered. “Any news?”

“We’re not pulling the ad.”

“Why not? It can’t be too late.”

“If we wanted to pull it, it would take a matter of minutes to write a few emails.”

“Then what is it?”

“Tom.” Bill sighed into the phone. “I don’t know what kind of family drama you and John have going on, but I don’t want to be in the middle of it.”

“What is it?”

“Your father and his wife came to visit my office about an hour ago.”

Tom frowned. “Yeah?”

“They told me that under no circumstances are we to stop it. No matter what you said.”

Tom formed a fist with one hand, and he could have crushed his phone with the other. Every day he entered the building and worked with the other employees, never once bringing his father’s name into his business. But now his father had gone around him and brought him up to an employee in a disagreement. No, that wasn’t appropriate at all. He thought about asking Bill if there was another way, but he’d already made the man’s day hard enough.

“Okay, thanks, Bill,” he conceded. “I’m sorry about the awkward position we’ve put you in. It shouldn’t have happened.”

“Thank you. I appreciate that.”

“Have a good night.”

He’d once looked up to his father, had once respected him. His opinion of his father’s actions of the past several years had lowered his opinion of him, but this time? This time he’d gone too far. The old bastard had found out about his relationship with Gemma. His goal was to embarrass them both and drive them apart.

Tom had no idea how to make it right with Gemma. He already knew that she would be pissed about it. He would have to tell her—get ahead of it—before it was plastered on billboards, magazines, posters and internet banner ads. He picked up his phone again and called her. It went straight to voice mail.

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