Page 33 of Hotshot Mogul

“Will it hold me, too?” I asked.

A smile played on her lips. “This one will. That’s why I chose it.”

My cell pinged with texts. The reception was better up here. I ignored them and sat next to her, so her head rested on my shoulder.

We could see the lake. Whitecaps churned. She left, faded into the tree, ceased to be where I could see her and touch her—then she came back. I would unpack that later. For now, she was with me, and I wanted to keep it that way. “My parents have a friend in South America. She says she sees things that will happen in the future. I never believed in that stuff.”

“What you can’t see or touch, you mean,” she said.

“All of this, you…it’s a lot for me. Kind of like the world, as it is now, is a lot for you. I think I know a little bit how you feel.”

She pressed her face into my neck. She likes that. Her hair smelled like flowers. Where did she go? I settled for asking why. “Why did you leave the meeting today?”

“I felt safe there, inside the tree, before—free from the sadness that ravaged my soul. It was different today. I didn’t want to leave you. My heart hurt thinking you were sad that I left.”

I went with my gut and my heart. “We can’t change the past.” If what she says is true. “Only go forward.”

That sounded like something you read in a fortune cookie. “We’re not the same as we were, er, before.” If there was a before.

It could have been a setup, a smoke-and-mirrors show. Someone could have been forcing her to swindle me. Except Anneliese hadn’t asked me for a damn thing—only to save the trees. I could not believe that this guileless, innocent woman, who fit into my arms like she was made for me, wanted my money.

However, I had misjudged Diana. I’d thought she wanted me, not my money, once before, too.

Anneliese turned to face me. “There is much the same in you as before.”

“I had bad luck.”

The sun sank fast toward the lake. The sky exploded into a riot of pink and orange. I leaned in to kiss her. Tires crunched the gravel.

I dropped my forehead to hers as Rufus dragged the tent toward the tree. Callie followed, hauling trays of food and a burlap bag. “Up here,” Anneliese said. “We’re watching the sunset.”

“Enjoy,” Callie said. “We’ll just be a minute.”

Leaves fluttered in the breeze. Anneliese rubbed a leaf between her thumb and forefinger with such tenderness, I was jealous over a leaf.

Rufus set up Anneliese’s small tent in three minutes flat. Then he lit a candle, hopefully to keep the crawly and flying things at bay. Callie put up a small table with a plate of food, a lacy tablecloth, a bottle of wine and two crystal goblets. Then she turned on a lantern. “There’s bottles of water here, too,” she said.

“We must thank them,” Anneliese said.

“Wait.” The sun would soon drop under the waves like an anchor. “Watch.”

“I love to watch this,” she squealed when the fiery ball dropped. Then she scampered down the tree like a squirrel. I followed, not wanting to know what I was doing to my custom-tailored suit.

Rufus dropped my Jeep keys on the table. “I put your laptop and presentation stuff you left at City Hall into your Jeep.”

Anneliese fingered the lacy edge of the tablecloth. “All of this is enchanting. Thank you for this, and for everything.”

Callie hugged her. Rufus looked around the glade, shaking his head. “Contrived nature, like you have in the first phase, doesn’t compare to the real deal. Remember that. Remember this.”

“I will.” I thrusted out my hand, wondering if he would ignore it. After a beat, he shook it. When they left, I opened the wine with the opener they’d brought. Anneliese peeled the plastic wrap from the food. There was cheese, crackers and chocolate chip cookies, all of Anneliese’s favorites.

“This is our third date,” I said, clinking our wine glasses.

“Hummph,” she said, sounding like Callie. “Callie told me that many couples wait until after the third date to be intimate.”

I waggled my eyebrows to make her laugh and hoped like hell she would say yes to me. “I just want to hold you.” Not, but I would do it to keep her close to me. “We won’t do anything you don’t want to do.”

The wind shifted, clearing the clouds, opening up the sky. After the sky darkened, there were too many stars to count. My phone had bars. I queued up my playlist. I wanted to slow dance with her. I knew every Beatles song, being Carter’s son. Mom said he used to sing them to his passengers while he flew the jets. Dad had taught me the basics of flying a plane. I never could have belted out a song while I did it. I didn’t love flying like he did.

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