Page 15 of Mine to Love

They wouldn’t be wrong.

But I hate him for many more reasons as well.

CHAPTER SIX

I didn’t expect to see Reese standing behind the counter at CCU. And I sure as hell wasn’t prepared for her anger at me. The office in Acadia Falls is the smallest of the four branches so I put the least amount of my restructuring energy into it, leaving most of the work on my team back in Texas

They had to have had their reasons for demoting Reese. I buckle my seat belt and set my briefcase on the passenger seat. The last and only person to sit there was Reese. I look down at the steering wheel and can still picture her with her back arched against it when I touched her. While she rode me like a Texas cowgirl. Her scent still fills the car.

I unbutton my suit coat and crack the window letting in the cool air. The drive to the Bar Harbor branch takes less than twenty minutes, which is not enough time to erase Reese from my thoughts. When I’m settled behind the temporary office set up for me, I call Doug.

“Your meeting with Bates has been moved to the Oceanside Financial Services conference room at four o’clock Maine time. Dinner reservations have been made at Pierre’s for seven o’clock for ten. If the number changes, let me know and I can adjust. Your flight home on Sunday was changed from eleven-ten to noon with an arrival time at Houston at two-thirteen. Your Audi will be in lot three. I’ll text you the exact location after I park it. Any special requests for Rosa on Sunday? Otherwise, she’ll buy your usual groceries which will go mostly uneaten. Her offer to make you meals for the week is still on the table.”

Reason number four hundred-fifty-two why I’m never letting my assistant go. He’s efficient and doesn’t waste time on idle chatter, something I respect and look for in others.

“Perfect, and tell Rosa thank you but there’s no need to cook for me.”

I love a home cooked meal from time to time but not from my housekeeper. From my mother, my sister-in-law, my brothers, and hell, maybe even a girlfriend.

I can’t imagine Reese cooking or being domestic around the house, but it’s a sight I’d love to see. It isn’t a chauvinist want to see her barefoot in the kitchen. Hell, I want to be there by her side. Barefoot and cooking side-by-side. Or at least taste-testing. Tasting her, preferably. I want to see her naked in my living room, in my bedroom, on my kitchen table. Definitely again in my car. Next time in my car though and not some random rental.

Next time.

“Mr. Pierce?” Doug’s voice echoes through the phone speaker bringing my attention back to the conversation.

“Sorry, Doug. There’s a lot going on here. What was that?”

“Dinner. Do you know if it’s still for ten?”

I go through the list of those who will be at the signing. “Yeah. Ten sounds right.” I clear my throat hoping not to give any edge of personalness away. “Can you tell me about one of the employees at the Acadia Falls branch?”

“Of course. Which one?”

“Mr. Pierce?” Chanelle Dempsey, Frank Bates’s longtime secretary taps on my open door. “Mr. Bates is on the phone. Do you have a moment?”

“Sure. Patch him through.” My investigation on Reese will have to hold off until another day. “Doug. I need to go. I’ll see you Monday morning.”

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