Page 54 of Journey to You

“A double shot espresso would be great.” He patted his case. “Help me get through these projections. I’ll take it upstairs.”

Fritz saluted. “No worries.”

As he turned away, Fritz called out. “Almost forgot. Tamara’s popping in soon. She came in earlier, asked when you’d be back, and I told her. She said she’d come back.”

His heart bucked and he carefully blanked his expression before nodding. “Thanks. Give me a buzz when that coffee’s ready. And throw in a hot chocolate for her.”

“Shall do, boss.”

He trudged up the stairs to his office, too weary for this confrontation. If it had happened a few days earlier, when he hadn’t had time to mull his foolishness, he might’ve been more receptive to hearing what she had to say.

But now? What could she say that would change any of this?

She was still in love with her dead husband.

He was in love with her.

A no-win situation, something he never dwelled on in business and he’d be damned if he wasted time wishing things were different now.

After flinging his bag down and bumping the door shut with his hip, he headed to his desk and sunk into the chair, rubbing his temples.

They’d both been angry that day she’d walked out. Hell, they’d probably had a case of mild jet-lag, but that didn’t explain her reaction to that baby. Strange thing was, she’d been more upset by the baby than her husband’s infidelity.

Unless…he sat bolt upright and slammed his palms on the desk.

She must’ve known about the affair.

But for how long? Surely a woman of Tam’s calibre wouldn’t put up with that?

Something niggled at the edge of his thoughts, something she’d said in India… another bolt of enlightenment struck as he remembered her saying something about wives putting up with their husbands to keep the peace or some such thing.

The ache behind his temples intensified as the impact of what he was contemplating hit him. He thought he’d known Richard: capable, gregarious, master in the kitchen. But while Richard may have been a talented chef it looked like he’d had a whole other side to him.

A tentative knock had him striding to the door and yanking it open, all his logical self-talk from the last few days fleeing as he stared at Tamara, looking cool and composed in a simple black dress, her eyes wide and wary as they met his.

“I need to see you.”

Stepping back, he gritted his teeth against the overpowering urge to sweep her into his arms. “Come in.”

“How have you been?”

He gestured at the stack of paperwork on his desk. “Busy. Business as usual.”

She didn’t glance at the desk, her wide-eyed gaze fixed on him. “Yeah, Fritz told me you’d been away since the day we got back.”

Shrugging, he indicated she take a seat. “Duty calls.”

“I admire that about you.”

He searched her face for an indication she was anything but sincere and came up lacking. But there was something in her tone, as if she was judging him for his work ethic.

“Especially your ability to slot back into the groove as if nothing has happened.”

“Plenty has happened, Tam. I think I’m better suited to business than figuring out what went wrong with us.”

She winced and he thrust his hands into his pockets to stop from hitting himself in the head for letting that slip out.

What happened to his legendary control around this woman? Shot down, like his hopes of ever being anything more than a vacation fling for her.

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