“I’ve watched him all night. He’s in love with you, y’know.”
She frowned at him. “Weren’t you the one who sat there in the break room just a couple of hours ago, egging me on in being angry at him?”
Major quirked the left side of his mouth. “Yeah. But I’ve had more time to think about it. He was looking for you for a while before he gathered the staff together. I think he was planning to tell you privately.”
Guilt started to replace the righteous indignation she’d used as a shield between herself and George all night.
“You don’t know how hard this is for me to say, but you need to forgive him.”
Tingles started at her toes and shot all the way to her scalp. “I know.”
He crooked his elbow around her neck and pulled her close to kiss her temple. “See if you can convince this George fella to stay around. He sorta grows on a body.”
She patted his arm where it rested across her throat. “Oh, I’ll see what I can do.”
At 2:00 a.m., Cliff and Courtney’s limousine drove away from Lafitte’s, taking the last of the paparazzi with them. George pulled the radio earpiece off and let out a big sigh. “Wonderful job tonight, gentlemen. Let’s go find Anne and see if we can call it a night.”
“Amen to that,” Jonathan agreed. “Fourteen hours is
George shook his head as the man twenty years his junior trudged into the building. Oh, to have to work only fourteen hours at a spell. Several of the service staff passed them, dressed in their shorts, T-shirts, and thong sandals. The boys ahead of him picked up the pace, ready to be released to go home.
Anne sat at one of the tables near the kitchen signing time cards. Major O’Hara straddled a chair behind her, his denim chef’s tunic unbuttoned to reveal the UL–BONNETERRE T-shirt beneath, massaging her shoulders.
George tried not to be jealous, recalling they were old friends, and continued around to the coffee service cart beyond them.
“Plain coffee is brown; flavored is white,” Major said, leaning his head back to tell him.
George lifted the brown carafe.
“Man after my own heart.” The caterer raised his Styrofoam cup in salute.
George returned the gesture and sank into the chair on Anne’s other side. She wrote the time and signed each card as fast as she could, trying to get the kids out as soon as possible. How many of them would leave here and go out now? He’d heard his valet-parking boys discuss some kind of big event going on tonight down on Fraternity Row. Knowing college kids, it would still be going on at this hour, if the police hadn’t been called in yet.
Anne’s makeup couldn’t hide the dark circles beneath her eyes. Limp tendrils of her hair had come out of the french twist at the back of her head, and she tapped the fingernails of her left hand on the table as she worked. She wouldn’t leave until everything was finished and the place locked down for the night.
“Are some of the staff staying to help clean up?” Major asked, looking around at the mess.
“We have a cleanup crew coming in tomorrow,” George answered. “Meredith is supervising that so Anne doesn’t have to come back up here.”
She glanced up at him in surprise. “What? When was that decided?”
“Meredith and I discussed it last week. She said if they run into any problems, she’ll call you. She talked to Pamela and Trevor yesterday and arranged for them to come remove the murals. You’ve already scheduled the rental company to come pick up what belongs to them, and I supplied Meredith with my copy of the list so she knows what to set aside. The rest belongs here, and it’s her staff who will be working, so she didn’t feel your presence would be necessary. I wholeheartedly concur.”
Rather than argue, she surprised him with a smile—the first she’d given him since she’d walked into the kitchen and seen Cliff. “Thanks. I really wasn’t looking forward to spending another full day up here.”
Major rose and returned the coffee service to the kitchen. He returned a few minutes later, a large bag hanging from his shoulder. He leaned over and kissed Anne’s cheek. “Great party, Annie.”
“Wouldn’t have been without you. Fax over that final invoice as soon as you have it, and George will write you a check.” She patted the caterer’s hand. “Won’t you?”
George nodded. “Just ring me up when you have the total, and I can drop it off.”
“I’ll call, then. Probably Monday morning after I have a chance to do a complete inventory and go over my staff’s time cards. Mere and I have that banquet tomorrow night, so it’s unlikely to be any earlier.”
“Monday’s fine.” Anne signed the last time card with a flourish and sent the student away. “I’ll be talking to Mere next week about a couple of other projects we’ll need you for.”
“I look forward to hearing about them.” Major’s gaze shifted to George for a brief moment, then back to Anne. “And remember what I said.”
Anne’s cheeks reddened. “I will. Now get out of here so I can, too.”
“Okay. Kitchen’s locked down tight; lights are off. G’night, you two.” Major beat a path out the front door.
Anne stood and stretched, then bent over to pick up her shoes from under the table. “George, I…I’d like to talk to you if you have a minute.”
For her, he had hours, days, weeks, years. He followed her back to the office, where she shoved the shoes into her bag and pulled out her trainers. He grinned as she put the white athletic shoes on with the black evening gown.
When she finished tying the laces, she didn’t stand but leaned back in the chair, her hands folded at her waist. “I wanted to apologize to you.”
He raised his brows and leaned against the edge of the desk.
“I’ve treated you unfairly tonight. I was angry with you because you didn’t tell me about Cliff. But I can’t hold that against you, for the very reason you didn’t tell me in the first place.”
“I’m not sure I follow.”
She rubbed her temples. “I’m not making any sense, am I? Too long without sleep. I guess what I’m trying to say is, will you forgive me for being mad at you for being an honorable man and keeping your word?”
Grinning, he knelt in front of her, took her hands in his, and kissed her palms. “Gladly and wholeheartedly.”
Leaning forward, she wrapped her arms around his neck. “I’m sorry for being so hard-hearted. It was just… seeing Cliff like that with no forewarning… I guess I really have a lot to work on when it comes to forgiving him, because that isn’t going to come easily. I know that now.”
He held her for a few moments until his knees started to ache on the tile floor. He kissed the side of her neck, rose, and stretched as stress rolled off his shoulders.
She slouched back in the chair. “There’s something else I want to ask you.”
He perched on the edge of the desk facing her, curiosity aroused. “All right.”
She bit the right corner of her bottom lip as she searched his face, then sat up straight, her knuckles turning white as she gripped her hands together. “I know we’ve only known each other for a little over a month. And during that time, we’ve had our share of misunderstandings and communication issues.”
Her skill with euphemistic understatements would put a parliamentarian to shame. He nodded, encouraging her to continue.
“I feel like we have a lot in common, and we obviously work well together.” She smiled nervously. “What I want to ask is: How about making this permanent?”
He nearly fell off the desk. Permanent? Had Anne Hawthorne just proposed marriage to him?
She rushed to continue. “As I said, I know it hasn’t been that long. And I know you’ll need time to think about making a major step like this.”
Every fiber of his being cried out,
She frowned. “Cliff? What does he have to do with my asking you to be my business partner?”
Business partner? He chuckled and shook his head. Yet another example of their typical misunderstandings and communication issues. “Nothing, I suppose.”
