Page 10 of A Reclusive Heart

“Aw, were you waiting for me? Does Edward need my help?”

“I seemed to manage just fine on my own,” Edward said, walking into the living room, wearing only a pair of unbuttoned jeans and a shit-eating grin.

Nick frowned as a thought occurred to him. As desperate as Edward and Dana were for each other, they would never ignore a guest to play mattress leapfrog.

“Where’s Miss Harris?” he asked.

Edward wrapped his arm around his wife and pulled her back against him. “The girls dropped her off at her car a few hours ago.”

“Damn it!” Nick said, rubbing his hands roughly down his face before he dropped them away. “Why didn’t someone call me? I need to see how things turned out so that I know how we should proceed with the press release.”

Dana shrugged. “We did call you, but she wanted to go home and I don’t blame her. She was really upset.”

“Upset?”

Shit!

The makeover hadn’t helped one bit and the little recluse was heartbroken. No doubt she thought a snip here and there, along with a little blush, was going to perform miracles. He could have told her not to expect much, but wouldn’t that have just been cruel?

“She had a big shock tonight, Nick. Just leave her alone and let her get used to it, okay?” Dana, always too goddamn kind for her own good, said.

If only he could listen to her, but he couldn’t. He had a job to do and that meant going over to Miss Harris’ apartment and seeing how much damage control he had to do. If it was really bad, he’d have the photographer do some touch-ups after the photo shoot tomorrow.

Normally, he’d invite himself in just to annoy the shit out of Edward, but he had work to do. After thanking them for all their help, even though it probably hadn’t done much, then again, he hadn’t expected much, he made his way over to Miss Harris’ apartment.

He wasn’t entirely surprised to discover the little recluse lived in a typical city neighborhood. There wasn’t much to set this place apart. It had a convenience store, a package store, and a small bakery that promised half-off coffee rolls every Thursday with the purchase of a large coffee.

Even her building was average, a three-level brick building with a basic security door and buzzer. There was absolutely nothing special about it. He walked up the two front steps and looked over the apartment listings and wasn’t really surprised to see that the little recluse lived on the third floor. It was out of the way and the perfect spot for a hermit.

He pressed the button marked “J. Harris,” and waited. When no response came, he hit the buzzer again.

“Hello?”Miss Harris’ voice sounded from the raspy speakers.

“Miss Harris, it’s Nick Quinn. You were supposed to wait for me so that we could go over your schedule for the next month.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. I just-”

He cut her off. “It’s no problem, Miss Harris. We can go over it now if you buzz me in.”

“It’s kind of late,”she responded quickly.

“I promise it won’t take that long. At the very least, I need to go over tomorrow’s schedule.”

“Can’t we go over it tomorrow morning?”Jamie asked, sounding hopeful.

He had to smile. Poor thing must be so humiliated. Well, it was best to get it over with and see what he had to work with.

“I’m afraid not. We’re not meeting at the office, Miss Harris. I really need to speak with you.”

“You’re speaking to me now,”she pointed out.

Nick closed his eyes and prayed for patience. The first day wasn’t over yet and she was already causing problems. He had no doubt that he could get the little recluse under his thumb. He’d use his charm and if that failed, which it never had before, he’d just use the fact that she was a pushover to his advantage.

“I prefer to speak with you in person, Miss Harris, instead of discussing Rerum Publishing business in public for the entire neighborhood to hear.”

“I’m, uh, tired. So, this will have to wait until tomorrow. Goodnight!”Jamie quickly said before a small clicking sound followed, letting him know that she’d turned off her intercom.

Why that little...

---