Page 151 of Embracing the Change

“Did you share with Charles that you had uses for the ranch?”

“I did, and he was amenable. That said, he’s asked if he and the others could play with AJ for another few weeks. Give him hope he has a lifeline, then yank it around the time AJ runs out of funds, is facing default, and then I can move in.”

“Obviously, you said yes to this,” she purred.

His lips tipped up. “Obviously.” He tilted his head to the side, “Though, one thing I wasn’t certain about during our lunch was that he said Roland had contacted him just that morning, making some murmurings about how he may no longer wish to be involved in that deal.”

Her expression turned thoughtful as she murmured, “That’s interesting.”

“What did you say to him last night?”

Nora tipped her head to the side. “Nothing I’ve not said before.”

“Could it have gotten through?”

At that question, she lifted a shoulder. “No idea. Possibly. But if I had to guess, how honest his son was with him was probably what started to make him think.”

Jamie could see that.

“Now, dearest, hit me with it. What’s the bad news?” she asked.

Reluctantly, he told her why Chet was in town, and that Dru had seen him outside the brownstone.

“I worked with Elsa to kill the story,” he finished. “But that doesn’t mean he won’t shop it around.”

“So that was who Dru was looking at,” she said.

“You saw him too?”

“No. But she mentioned someone watching us, and she seemed…not quite right about it. I put it down to the media attention our group gets. She never seems comfortable with that.”

“Well, she recognized him.”

He hated to see it, but there was no beam from her eyes now.

“This is unsettling, Jamie.”

She was very right.

“She has a man on her at all times, as do you,” Jamie reminded her. “They’ve been informed of this latest. Elsa is going to keep her ear to the ground in case Chet, Pop or Paloma looks for some other place who will air his lies. I can’t imagine she’d be able to catch the story anywhere he shopped it so we could kill it. But Kateri also knows this is a possibility, she has even more connections, so maybe, between the two of them, we can cut him off at the knees.”

“So, hopefully, we’ve sorted the two major issues. Charles and his cronies can have some fun with AJ. And in a few months, this will all be over.”

“Hopefully.”

“And then, Jamie,”—she pressed deeper into him, her gaze serious—“it’ll be time to deal with your real father.”

Yes.

It would.

As she always did when this came up, she made her point, then sensed his emotion around it, so she changed the subject immediately.

“In the meantime, Nico is spending the weekend with us, I have a fabulous adoption party to plan, and Allegra tells me my blood pressure is perfect.”

“Excellent news, baby,” he murmured.

“Oh, and I’ll need a new dress for the party, so will Dru, and this means shopping.”

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