Page 108 of One Wrong Move

I swallow hard. Company plane. Right. Contron has its own jet. I wonder how much it gets reserved for the Connovans themselves.

My eyes drift back to him. Nate is ten years older than me. That age gap has never been conspicuous between us, but hearing him talk as he is now, seeing him command respect just by entering the gallery where I work, or being able to simply drop two hundred pounds for a tip at the small inn on the weekend…

It highlights those differences between us.

I’m nowhere near where he is in life.

Age is one part of it, but he came from a different background than I did. Just like Dean did. Advantages I never had. Nate also has a clear direction in his life. Confidence, self-assuredness, maturity… in many ways, it feels like he has it all figured out. Like he’s pleased with where he is.

I bet he’s never written a Thirty under Thirty list in an attempt to find himself again.

He hangs up with a soft click. “Sorry about that.”

“No worries. Work?”

“Partly. It’s only early afternoon back in New York.” His eyes rest on mine, and I get the sense that he’s hesitating. “My family is considering coming to London.”

“They are?”

“Yes,” he says. “We’ll see if it happens.”

“That would be fun. Your siblings?”

“Yes, and their partners. My niece and nephew.”

“Aw, they’ll love London, I bet.” But then I frown. “Although, they’ve probably been here before, right?”

“They haven’t, at least not all together,” he says. “With work, my brother flies out alone whenever needed.”

I lean my head back against the seat. “He usually stays in my room, right?”

Nate’s jaw tenses. “Yes. He does.” His eyes shift away, towards the window. “We’re almost there… remind me what this movie is about again?”

I roll my eyes. “You’re the one who invited me!”

“Yes. But it’s a Jane Austen adaptation, and I know you’re the expert.”

“The first big-screen adaptation of Sense and Sensibility that’s been made in almost thirty years,” I say. Excitement, like a current, has flowed through my body all day, and it seeps into my voice. “Do you think we’ll see the actors?”

“I could probably speak to them, if you’d like.”

My eyes widen. “You’re not serious.”

“I am,” he says with a crooked smile. Confident. “They’ll be busy, but there’s no harm in trying.”

“You just go through the world like that, don’t you?” I ask. “With completely unfounded confidence.”

He raises an eyebrow. “I wouldn’t say it’s entirely unfounded.”

A blush rises in my cheeks. It happens in an instant, my mind jumping directly to the way his long fingers had felt, stroking my insides.

His smile turns smug as he reads the thoughts on my face.

“Okay,” I admit. “Maybe not entirely unfounded.”

“Tell me about this movie,” he says. “What’s Sense and Sensibility about?”

“Okay, so Elinor and Marianne are sisters, and they’re living with their mother and younger sibling at a beautiful estate. Their father has just died.”