Page 84 of Nothing to Do

“Alessia,” she said, linking their hands. “You might want to stop drooling on her fiancé.” Roxie just smiled. “We have dinner to get to.”

Her sister was too excitable. “Is he here? In the hotel? Can I meet him?”

“No! You can’t meet him,” she answered before Roxie could. “He’s not here, and what do you plan to say to him? ‘Hi, you’re so hot and rich.’ How’s he supposed to respond to that?”

“He gets it a lot actually,” Roxie said with a slow head bob. “It’s the first thing I say to him every morning.”

Alessia laughed. “You’re so funny! I love how fun you are!” She growled. “I don’t want to leave my girls alone—”

“I’d be the same,” Roxie said. “Go be with your friends. We’ll have a bunch of chances to catch up.”

Alessia gasped in excitement. “Oh my God, we will?”

“Sure! Your sister’s with one of my guy’s best friends. We’ll be in each other’s lives a long time.”

Now Alessia squealed. Even children at Christmas weren’t so excited. “Can I hug you?”

“Yes!” Roxie opened her arms to gesture her over. “Bring it in.”

At least her sister asked, unlike Lark with Zane. Roxie smiled through. Her sister scurried out of the room fizzing with adrenaline. When she closed the door and dropped against it, she was exhausted like it was the end of the night, not the beginning.

“Do you get that everywhere?”

Roxie shrugged. “You get used to it and I’d never trade it for the alternative.” Of being without Zairn. “I’m better at it than Casanova. Believe it or not, I have more patience for these things, and it’s something I don’t mind taking off his plate.”

“You’re his fixer too.”

“Hopefully no one will have to be anyone’s fixer tonight,” Roxie said. “And on the one serious moment of the night I’ll allow, remember this…”

“What?”

“Someone’s always watching. Even when you think there’s no one watching. Someone’s always watching.”

Whatever that meant. “Okay.”

“Some people, not me, of course, but some people might have suggested in the past that I’m a magnet for these things, that I’m a…”

Roxie cleared her throat.

She laughed. “A crisis event?”

Wasn’t that what Zairn called her?

The narrowing of Roxie’s eyes was almost a growl. “Just be aware tonight. I don’t want you sucked into the vortex. I don’t know how patient Zane is.”

Given how he was with Roman, the man deserved a medal.

“I’ll be aware.”

“Alessia’s got a point,” Roxie said, going to sweep up her purse as she put hers together. “You don’t speak much about your relationship.”

“Will I need a jacket?”

“Are you deflecting?”

“No,” she said, slipping her feet in her shoes. She double checked her keycard was in her wallet and went to open the door. “What do you want to know?”

“Oh, now there’s a dangerous question.” Roxie paused on the threshold. “You won’t need a jacket; you don’t even need your wallet.”

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