Page 21 of If We Never Met

She disconnected the call before he could get another word in. He blew out a breath, knowing the hard conversation still needed to be had, but he was fine to leave it for another day.

Keira had to wait ten minutes for Mark Langley to finish up a meeting, and every one of those minutes increased her dislike and distrust of him. He'd set this time to meet. It irked her that he thought she had ten minutes to just waste away in his outer office. She could be at the store right now or looking at a contract that Brenda had sent through for a rental property they were managing. Or she could be designing Hannah's wedding dress. But instead, she was waiting, and she'd never been particularly patient.

Finally, his office door opened, and he gave her an apologetic smile. "I'm so sorry," he said. "We had a minor emergency with some equipment that seems to have gone missing between Denver and Whisper Lake."

She got to her feet. "That doesn't sound good."

"We managed to find it. Please come in."

"I don't have a lot of time, but I would like to go over some properties you might be interested in."

"Perfect." He turned to his assistant, a woman named Andrea, who had been nice enough to make her some tea while she was waiting. "Will you hold my calls, Andrea? And thanks again for coming in on a Saturday. If you can stay until one, that would be helpful."

"Of course, Mr. Langley," Andrea replied.

Mark waved Keira into his office, which was a luxurious executive suite with large windows overlooking the lake, an enormous oak desk with a brown leather chair, as well as a seating area with a small table and four chairs. He showed her to the table.

She was happy to be joining him there rather than sitting across from him at his desk, where he would be in the power position.

"I've found several properties that I think you might be interested in," she said, pushing a file folder across the table. "Two of the properties are two-bedroom single-family homes. I also found a three-bedroom house and a luxury one-bedroom condo with a loft near the heart of downtown. You can walk to everything." It was also the farthest one from her mother.

"I'm not sure how big of a place I need, but I would think two bedrooms at the least, maybe three. I can turn one into an office."

"Of course. Do you anticipate having a lot of guests? Perhaps family and friends will be coming to visit? My mother said you have a son."

"Yes, I do," he said, his tone somewhat heavy. "But I don’t think he'll be visiting. We don't see much of each other."

"That's too bad."

"He has his own life. He's studying to be a veterinarian. I'm very proud of him, although, sometimes, I have a difficult time accepting that he's grown up."

"My mother has the same trouble. Where does your son live?"

"Los Angeles."

"I know you went to high school in Denver with my mom. Do you still have family there?"

"No. My parents have passed away, and my sister moved to New York a long time ago. Perhaps I don't need more than two bedrooms, although this one looks nice." He tapped his finger on the photo of the three-bedroom home. "It's in your neighborhood, isn't it?"

"About three blocks away, but I think it's overpriced for the square footage."

Mark gave her a thoughtful look. "Is that it? Or do you also think it's too close to your mother?"

She hadn't been expecting such a direct question. "Uh, no. You can live wherever you want."

"You seemed bothered by the fact that I was with your mom last night."

"I was surprised. I thought she was at home watching a movie. She doesn't go out much and never with people I don't know."

"But she knows me."

"She didn't recognize you when she first saw you," she countered.

"I took her by surprise, and I've changed a bit. I used to have dark-brown hair."

"That's what she said." She paused. "I don't know how much my mom told you about her life—"

"She told me she was in an accident and that she had a brain injury. It sounds like you have done an amazing job getting her back to health."

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