Page 105 of Failure to Match

I blinked over to Jackson. “Did you talk to them already?” I asked, knowing how little time we had left. “What did you say?”

“Later.” He glanced at his watch. “We’ve got six minutes to get out the door. Tell me what you need to do before then.”

“Brush teeth, wash face, get dressed, feed Toebeans, fix my hair, grab my laptop,” I recited. “Oh and find my phone.”

“All right.” He stood and gestured toward the ensuite. “All your grooming stuff can be done in there. There’s spare everything in the cupboards to your left when you walk in. Your phone’s probably in my office. I can grab it.”

Wait, “But?—”

“It’ll take you three minutes to run to your suite, and another two to make it to the front door. And that’s if you’re not intercepted.”

Damn it. “But Toebeans?—”

“His breakfast will be two hours late; he’ll live. If you don’t want the maids to know you spent the night, I’ll run and grabyour clothes for you as soon as I change. Just tell me which ones.”

When I hesitated, he glanced at his watch again.

“Fine. Okay. Yellow blouse and light jeans, both hung in the closet. Oh, and fresh underwear, please. Top bedside drawer.” I froze,remembering. “Don‘t... don’t look in the bottom drawer.”

I knew I’d fucked up before he even grinned.

He was definitely going to look in the bottom drawer.

26

We made it.

Barely, but we made it.

And, apparently, so had Imogen. Minerva had invited her tarot reader to our meeting, which meant that Jackson’s theory regarding his own attendance likely wasn’t that far off.

“You’re late,” Minerva said as soon as we were guided into her home office. She was sitting on one side of a square oak table, a purring Harry cradled to her chest. Imogen occupied the seat beside her, shuffling a deck of black cards. She paid us no attention.

We weren’t late, but I wasn’t going to argue with her.

“My fault,” Jackson said as soon as I opened my mouth to apologize. “I was taking care of an urgent work matter and lost track of time.”

My heart did a breathless backflip when he pulled out a chair and gestured for me to sit with a secret wink. I took it with a whisperedthank you, warm goo dripping down my chest. He didn’t have to take the blame for me like that.

“Really?” Minerva’s tone was so sharp it was borderline sarcastic. “Because from what I hear, you haven’t been doing much work at all this week.”

Jackson said nothing as he took a seat next to me. My smile died.

That wasn’t information she’d gotten from me.

“Do correct me if I’m wrong, Jamie, but isn’t the whole point of you shadowing him at his office to observe his regular schedule, habits, and interactions?”

“It’s part of it, yes.”

“And? Has he been cooperating?”

I shifted in my chair as I shot a quick glance to my left. Jackson’s expression was blank.

When I didn’t immediately answer her, Minerva said, “Let me rephrase. Has Jackson conducted a single in-person meeting at work over the last week with you in attendance?”

Damn. This wasn’t how I thought this meeting would start.

“No,” I eventually said. “But it’s fine. I’ve been able to gather the information I need to satisfy that dataset regardless.”

---