Page 154 of Square Deal

It wasn’t just her body I thought about.

It was her smile. Her laugh.

The way she always got quiet when she was working. The way she would have her hair pulled back in a short ponytail and stick her ink pens in it for safekeeping.

I thought about the way my mind quieted when I was around her. Every other moment of the day, my brain was a noisy, busy place. But, with her, everything stilled.

My eyes snapped open as we arrived at the Taylor Creek Inn. I stepped out of the car and buttoned my suit jacket.

I strolled into the lobby and stood at the front desk. There was no attendant seated there, so I waited.

My phone vibrated again. Spenser had forwarded me an email from William Solomon. The deal we were working on was moving at a snail’s pace.

The seller and the buyer were both being cagey with each other about what was on the table. I wanted to yell at them to piss or get off the pot, but they wouldn’t have the first clue about what that meant.

Thanks to Hannah, I did.

The front desk attendant hadn’t returned, but I spotted Kristin walking toward Hannah’s office. “Kris,” I called out as I left the desk. She would be more helpful anyway.

Kristin looked shocked to see me. I couldn’t quite tell if it was plain old shock or the “oh shit, he’s here before we have the grave ready”kind of shock.

“Kristin, hey,” I said, trying to catch up to her.

“What do you want?” she snapped.

“Hannah Jane.” There was no sense in beating around the bush. “I need to talk to her. Is she here?”

Kristin crossed her arms. “And why on God’s green earth do you think I’d help the likes of you?”

I surrendered, hands up, ready to take the blows. “I know. I fucked up, but I need to see her.”

She sighed and looked at her phone. “A wedding rehearsal just started out in the courtyard. She probably won’t finish up until at least nine o’clock tonight.”

I turned and started for the courtyard, but Kristin cleared her throat and I skidded to a halt.

“If you don’t want her to skin you alive, I suggest not being a wedding crasher,” Kristin advised.

I glanced at the time. Nine o’clock was hours away, and that made me antsy.

Kristin looked left and then right. She unclipped a key card from the badge reel on her hip and handed it to me. “If anyone asks where you got that, you found it on the ground, and you were on the way to the front desk to return it.” She cracked a smile. “Hannah might run into her office if there’s an emergency, but likely, she won’t be back until she’s ready to leave.”

I took the key card from her. “I owe you big time, Kris.”

Hannah’s office looked the same way it did the night of Maddie and Luca’s wedding.

Funny—I was right back where I started.

Her emergency outfit hung in a garment bag on the coat rack. Tonight it was a black pencil skirt and black chiffon blouse. On the floor was a pair of sensible shoes that she always kept around to change into after the guests left, even though she never did.

Her desk was neatly organized with sticky note reminders. Pretty cursive handwriting swirled across the calendar.

There was a new addition to her desk decor: a mason jar filledwith sand sat on the corner of her desk. The glittery label read,Ashes of Problem Employees.

That made me chuckle.

I popped open her desk drawer to find—huh.No champagne.

I checked the mini-fridge. No champagne there either. That would go on the list of things we needed to discuss. Among them, why the hell was she paying for her own coffee again?

---