Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 109608 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 548(@200wpm)___ 438(@250wpm)___ 365(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109608 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 548(@200wpm)___ 438(@250wpm)___ 365(@300wpm)
She glanced up at him. “Darling, remind me never to accept the assignment of creating seating charts ever again. I must have had a moment of insanity when I agreed to this torture.”
“The Frick thing?” he asked, moving to her and bending to brush his lips against hers.
When he straightened, she shook her head. “No, the ballet thing.”
“Ah,” he murmured.
Her eyes narrowed on him, reading him, he knew, when she asked, “How did lunch with Ned go?”
Jamie lifted a leg high to step over both of hers in the space between sofa and table, and then he (and Heiress) sat down beside her.
“I wouldn’t count on him calling a family meeting with his daughters anytime soon.”
She huffed.
He smiled, but said, “It has to be on his time when he’s comfortable with it.”
“Marlo Winslet doesn’t strike me as someone who will wait very long for a man to extricate his head from his ass,” she remarked.
“You waited for me.”
“I was hopelessly in love with you.”
He grinned at her and said, “Maybe Marlo is in love with Ned.”
She looked to the charts. “We can hope so…for Ned.”
“Ned had some things to share with me too.”
She refocused on him. Acutely. “Why does your tone warn me to brace?”
“Because it’s some fucked-up shit.”
Her eyes widened, then she lifted a hand to roll it at him to prompt him to divulge.
Jamie did so.
He told her about Paloma, which made Nora appear annoyed. He then cautiously told her about Roland, which made her look shocked. And he made sure she knew AJ had to be involved in this, which made her openly contemplative.
“What?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” she hedged.
He knew her too well, so he noted, “I think you do.”
She shifted in her seat as if preparing, for what, he had to prepare for, before she said, “You may consider me crazy, but I think in that mess, Paloma is the mastermind.”
“I love you, sweetheart, but you’re giving her too much credit. If Roland isn’t, AJ is.”
“Roland can be petty, but this is beyond the pale.”
“You haven’t lost you, twice. And I’ll add, in losing you, for all intents and purposes, he lost his children. I don’t agree with it, but I can see how that would take things beyond the pale.”
“There’s something I haven’t shared…about Paloma.”
Jamie felt the skin at the back of his neck stretch taut.
“What?” he pushed when she didn’t go on.
“Well, as you know, she was with Tom for a time.”
“I know this.”
“And Tom broke things off when he started seeing Mika.”
“I know this too.”
“And Paloma wasn’t happy about it.”
“I could guess at that.”
“Well, she intended to do something about it. And not long after Mika and Tom realized their undying love for each other, I got a call from Hale.”
Now, he was confused. “Hale?”
“Hale, who told me that Elsa had told him that Paloma had been doing some pretty intense digging, and she was close to finding out the name of the woman Tom had an affair with.”
The air Jamie sucked in at that hissed between his teeth.
And then it hit him.
“So you intervened,” he guessed.
“Not exactly,” she dissembled.
“How not exactly?” he pressed.
“I believe it was Hale who made certain the woman wasn’t found.”
“And you?”
She fluttered out a hand. “Well, it was light work, darling. She’d already burned a great many bridges.”
“But you burned the rest of them so there were no more invitations, which meant cutting her off from her means of existence, as she wouldn’t easily be able to meet men of a certain standing, married or not.”
She bit her lip to communicate he was correct.
She then continued, “And she might, well…be banned from the Prada boutique on 5th Avenue.”
Jamie sighed.
“And the one on Madison,” she continued.
Jamie rested his head on the back of the sofa.
Heiress took this opportunity to climb out of his arms and settle between them on the sofa.
“And the one on Broadway,” Nora mumbled.
Jamie returned his gaze to her.
“Prada is her preferred house. Almost to the point she’d made it her signature,” she explained.
“And you cut her off.”
“Hardly,” she drawled. “They have boutiques all over the world, and you can buy online, darling.”
“Do you think maybe, in the several times we discussed her, I might need to know this?”
“Would you believe me if I said it slipped my mind?” she tried.
“No.”
She smiled. “It’s good for our relationship to know I can’t lie to you.”
“Nora, this is about you,” he pointed out. “She’s pissed as shit at you. This isn’t about you having things she doesn’t. This isn’t a society catfight. She’s coming at you.”
“Tom’s business is not mine to tell, Jamie,” she said softly.
“I know all about his business, Nora. We’re close. He’s confided in me. And you know why.”
Her face scrunched.
She knew why. Then again, everyone did. Belinda made sure of that.
When he’d sought connection and intimacy in another woman’s arms, that woman not his wife, he’d been separated from Belinda and had already filed for divorce.