Page 59 of One Wild Kiss

Twenty-One

Brannon’s temporary assistant was sweet, showed up on time and had neat handwriting. She’d also forgotten to remind him about his conference call on Wednesday and he’d missed it. She’d delayed in handing him his messages, and today he’d put off having lunch with an important client until next week to help wade through them.

He missed Addison.

For reasons that far outnumbered professional ones.

“See you, Peg,” he said to his new assistant. She was pulling on a light jacket and waved, her desk cluttered and disorganized.

“See you Monday, Mr. Knox.”

Not a chance.

He’d have to find another temp in the interim. He’d made attempts all week to woo Addi back to work. She must have figured out her Bluetooth because he was unsuccessful reaching her on the phone again. He’d had P&P delivered to her front door, had sent flowers and candy and fruit, every one of them arriving with a version of the same note: Come back to work. We need you.

If he could talk her into sitting behind her desk again, everything else would work out. He knew it. He couldn’t think without her here, let alone examine how he’d been feeling in the week since he’d touched her. Kissed her.

He missed her like crazy.

He wanted her in his bed and in his world. She belonged here. She loved it here. Why was she being so stubborn?

On his way to the elevator, he was intercepted by Royce.

“Are you going straight to the vineyard from here?” Royce asked. “Taylor and I are staying the night.”

“That’s the plan.” Bran didn’t feel like celebrating but he didn’t want his parents and siblings talking about him. And if he wasn’t there—they would. He didn’t want anyone worrying about his state of mind or well-being. He was a grown man, dammit.

They stepped inside the elevator and Royce pressed the lobby button. “Is Addi coming?”

“No, she’s, uh. Busy.” Ignoring him, but still.

“You know no one bought your bullshit excuse about her finding another job, right? You two split up, didn’t you?”

“Yes, but it’s fixable.” Bran had no idea how to fix it, but he was working on it. She was going to come back. She had to. “We need her here.”

Royce remained stoically silent during the short walk from the building to their executive parking spots. “See you there,” were the last words his brother spoke before he backed out of the lot and left. Before Bran could follow suit, his sister shouted from behind him.

He turned to find Gia in tall high-heeled shoes jogging after him, a weekender bag in hand. “Can I ride with you? Are you going straight there?”

“Yes, actually. You mean you don’t want to carpool with Jayson?”

“Assumptions,” she reminded him.

“Get in.” He didn’t have the energy to argue and she was already climbing into the car anyway.

During the hour-and-a-half drive north, she finally pulled her wireless headphones from her ears and faced him.

“I know the last thing you want to do is talk about it, but for the record I told you Addison was in love with you. You didn’t listen.”

“Congratulations,” he grumbled, turning up the radio.

She turned it off. “Did you really not see a proposal coming?”

“How—how did you...?” How the hell did she know about that?

“The watch,” she answered. “I saw it in your lap drawer. I was looking for a sticky note to leave you a message.”

“I knew I should have left it in the wastebasket.”

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