Page 80 of Embracing the Change

I dug my keys out of my Bottega Veneta clutch and handed them to him.

Therefore, when we entered the elevator, he touched my fob to the reader and hit the button for my floor.

“Your bag?” I murmured.

“I’ll need to leave some things here,” he said. “Might as well leave the things already packed.”

I felt my lips curl up.

I knew how fiendishly smug my smile was, and I could not care less.

We were let out on my floor to see the usual table across us that held two vases of bright, fresh flowers, this sitting below a striking abstract painting, and, hand returning to my back, Jamie directed me to one of the two sets of double doors situated on either side of the table.

The set on the left.

Charlene had called my housekeeper, Alyona, I knew, because we were still a few feet from my door when she opened it.

“Welcome back,” she greeted through a smile.

“Lovely to be back,” I replied, going to her and touching cheeks before I swept in.

“Congratulations, Mister Jamie,” I heard her say behind me.

“Thank you, Alyona.”

“Miss Nora texted pictures, he’s adorable,” Alyona told Jamie.

“He’s a lot more than that,” he replied proudly.

I moved into the living room and tossed my clutch on one of the sofas.

Jamie moved directly to the bar cart.

Alyona followed us but stopped just inside the entryway to the room.

She was a live-in. And salaried. And I’d been away for nine days, most of which (not including that day, obviously) I’d given her off to have her own holiday.

Even so, I didn’t like to take advantage of her hours, and seeing as it was on the wrong side of 7:30, she needed to be off duty.

She knew my penchants with that, so she followed us and said, “I’ve prepared some sandwiches, there are chips, and I got that chocolate cream torte you like, Mister Jamie.”

Hmm.

Seemed Alyona might be prone to matchmaking too.

“You spoil me,” he said to her, and after she smiled at him, he asked me, “Martini, sweetheart?”

“Please,” I replied.

He went back to Alyona. “I’ll have a bag coming up too.”

Alyona’s eyes widened and grew happy, and she looked at me.

My smug smile returned.

“For tonight, you can unpack just the essentials, dear,” I told her. “Then you’re off. Thank you for waiting for us to return.”

“Always,” she said, directed a large, happy grin to me, then she left to go to the service elevator in order to direct the arrival of our luggage.

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