Page 54 of Burning Hearts
“And Cade—” She gave me a wink as big as a porch light. “Retired dispatcher talking here: I can hear a spark through drywall. Lucky for you, that’s not against code.”
My mouth couldn’t be trusted, so I just nodded. She squared a nearby sign, then the curtain took her from my view.
I took the long hall with a folder in my hands, and an unsent text in my pocket.
Outside was pins and applause; inside was one corridor and a choice.
I made my choice.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
ELLIS
I’d stopped pretendingI was doing anything but waiting for Cade.
The room had that hotel quiet that turns up the volume on your own heartbeat. I stripped the room of anything that screamed meeting instead of… whatever this was. I put the clipboard in the closet, lanyard by the sink, and my headset under a magazine. I told myself I was simply clearing the space.
My pulse said otherwise.
My phone lit up with a call from my boss, Jonah.
I winced, assuming he was probably disappointed about losing the prize. Still, I’d seen the popularity of our clips and videos over the past week. He had been thrilled with Signal House’s sudden exposure.
“The numbers are insane,” he said as soon as I answered the phone, without giving me a chance to say hello.
“AllThe Town Talkclips,” he added, “the calm after the Portico fire. Our traffic chart looks like a ski jump, Ellis.”
Good news, especially for my superiors.
“I just got off the phone with the board,” Jonah added, “and you’re our new Executive Producer, effective immediately. Basepay goes up to $125,000 with five percent equity vesting over four years.”
I stood in my hotel room, stunned into silence.
“You’ve carried this entire week, Ellis,” he said, “win or not.”
He let the line breathe in the air.
After years of working hard to prove myself, things were finally starting to pay off.
A car honked its horn outside in the Commons and brought me back to reality.
“I’ll send the paperwork tomorrow,” Jonah said over the line. “I wanted you to hear it from me tonight.”
“Understood,” I said, because I couldn’t come up with anything more eloquent. “Thank you.”
I ended the call and stared into the quiet. Under six figures belonged to an old version of me. This wasn’t a favor based on my last name; this was a raise based on my work. Not bankrolled by the Langford family, but earned. I set my phone face down like a keycard.
As excited as I was about the promotion, there was something else occupying my mind. The anticipation of waiting for a knock.
I ran a hand down my shirt one more time. Not for cameras, not to play the polished Langford—but because, for the first time in a long time, it felt like it belonged to a bigger life than yesterday’s.
The knock came. Two steady beats, close together.
Not tentative, not loud.
The knock of a man who’d already made up his mind.
I opened the door and Cade stood there like he’d just cleared some private checklist. His shoulders were set, his gaze was steady, and the heat of the night still lingered on him. He looked the way he always did when the atmosphere was thick; collected.
