Page 35 of One Wild Wedding Weekend

Daley’s baby sister glowed. She was tanned and relaxed, and she radiated happiness.

It was hard not to feel a twinge of envy.

The one thing Daley had not done was see Tristan. Though she visited Harold’s office on at least four separate occasions, Tristan had made himself scarce.

Daley knew she should be glad about that. He was keeping his end of the bargain. But the truth was, she missed him. Still, it was clearly for the best.

A week before Daley had moved her office to Lieberman and Dunn, John had showed up at her old office. He quizzed her at length about her relationship with his brother. Daley told him politely to mind his own business.

But John had been like a dog with a bone.

“Either you tell Tabby what happened at the wedding, or I will,” he said. “I don’t want her finding out later and thinking I deliberately kept her in the dark.”

Daley glared at him. “Then you tell her.”

John shook his head. “No. It will be better coming from you. I’d rather not get involved.”

As much as it irritated Daley to have her personal life dissected, she knew in her heart John was right. So she found a quiet moment one day over lunch to tell Tabby a much edited version of the truth.

Daley had spun the encounter as an impulsive hookup born of wedding excitement and one too many glasses of champagne.

That last part was a lie. Daley and Tristan had been dead sober. But Daley had to offer some excuse for her aberrant behavior.

She might have also left the impression that intimacy with Tristan had happened only once. No need to go into details that might shock her little sister.

Tabby hadn’t seemed too surprised or upset. But she had issued a warning. “He doesn’t do long-term. You know that, right?”

Daley had laughed it off. “Of course,” she said. “You don’t have to worry about me. It was a weekend fling. Over and done with. But let me tell you about the guy I met at the coffee shop last week...”

Now, Daley sat in her new office feeling slightly guilty about how she had misled her sister. But she didn’t regret it. Daley and Tristan were no longer an item. No need to make a big fuss about what had happened between them. It meant nothing. It was only sex.

In her car driving home, she pondered all the reasons that calling it only sex made her uneasy. She had never been a woman who chose reckless physical encounters. She was more comfortable getting to know a man before she was intimate with him.

And even then, there had been only a handful of guys who made it into her bed.

Tristan was different. She knew that.

She didn’t like it. But she wasn’t going to lie to herself.

They had Monday and Tuesday off for the Fourth of July, so it was Wednesday before she and her staff met up in the new digs. Audra, one of her copywriters was visibly awed. “This place is off the charts,” she said, keeping her voice low. “They even have two-ply toilet paper in the restrooms.”

Daley grinned. “Our old office wasn’t that bad. Try not to look like a country bumpkin in the big city. We might have been slumming it, but we were successful enough to catch the attention of Harold Dunn. That’s something to brag about.”

The phone rang, and soon the day was in motion. Daley was pleased to see her team pick up where they left off without missing a beat. There would be new clients soon. Or so she hoped. It was important not to fall behind.

At five o’clock, everyone went home.

Daley lingered to straighten her new desk.

When there was a knock at her open door, she looked up and saw Harold framed there. He smiled at her. “How was day one?”

“Very good, I think.”

“I thought I’d give you time to catch your breath. Tomorrow at ten, though, we’ll have an all-staff meeting, and I’ll introduce you to the rest of our folks. They’re eager to meet you. We’ll have a few light refreshments, and you can give them a brief pitch about what you do with your social media focus.”

“I hope that won’t ruffle any feathers. I don’t want anyone to think I believe my way is best.”

“Relax,” he said. “It will be fine.”

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