Page 86 of Silk and Steel

“Don’t mention it. When’s he due to get out?”

“Pretty soon, a matter of weeks.”

“All right. I’ll do my best.”

“That’s all I can ask.”

I head to the door, and stop for a moment before heading out.

“You want me to send Bastian back in here?”

She laughs and shakes her head.

“No, now I’ve decided I’m hungry. He doesn’t know it but he’s about to go on a food run.”

I chuckle and rejoin the others in the office. I say my farewells and hurry out to my truck.

“I hope traffic’s not too bad,” I grumble on my way out the door.

“Just move in with her already,” Ryker shouts right before the door closes. “You’ll save a fortune on gas–”

The door shuts behind me. I can’t help but consider Ryker’s suggestion. I'd been mulling the idea over in the back of my mind for weeks. It would be a lot more convenient, and it’s not like I don’t sleep over at her place as often as not.

I’m running about twenty minutes late when I finally make it into the city. I shoot her a text to let her know I’m running late, but she doesn’t even read it.

We’re meeting at a beachside café for dinner. It’s ostensibly a date, thrown together at the last minute when her latest gig wrapped a day early. Now it’s become the night I’m going to ask her to move in with me. Or maybe I should move in with her. Her place is a lot nicer.

The valet takes my keys and I enter the café. Super upscale, the lobby has no less than four water features. Trendy adult contemporary music wafts through an excellent sound system as the hostess approaches me.

“Hello, and welcome. Do you have a reservation?”

“I do. Cole Drake. Has my dinner guest arrived yet?”

“Let me check on that for you, Sir.”

She scrolls through the tablet in her hands, brow furrowed in thought.

“Your table is ready, but your guest has yet to arrive.”

I frown, and just as I’m starting to worry, my phone dings.

“Perhaps that’s her now,” the hostess says helpfully.

Emory finally got back to me. She’s running late because her father was released from the hospital and she wanted to see him before she went home to change. I kill time by ordering a gin and tonic and scrolling through moving company websites. Just in case.

Jake used to say that when you moved in with a woman, that was the death of the relationship. When I asked him what about it leading to marriage, he said that marriage was the eulogy of a relationship, and definitely the funeral for sex.

I’m not sure I share Jake’s cynicism. Maybe he died before he had a chance to experience the kind of thing Emory and I have. Moving in is a big step, but I think it’s a step up, not down.

I’m so lost in my thoughts that I totally miss Emory’s approach. She clears her throat and I almost drop my phone.

“Hey, gorgeous.” I stand up quickly and pull her chair out for her. “Is it going to rain?”

“I don’t think so, why do you ask?” She settles into her chair and I return to my own.

“You’re wearing a coat and boots.”

“Oh. It’s a little bit chilly.”

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