Take a picture of her bat and send it to Gabe?
Not one of her better ideas.
She did a bit more work before finally retiring with a book, feeling both unnerved and comforted at the presence of the softball bat and the concern of friends.
Seventeen
Gabe sat on a couch covered in drop cloths in his living room while Shannon paced in front of the windows. She stopped abruptly and faced him, studying him. “You’re going to need a few more days to get your bearings,” she said. “You’ve got that ‘I need more mosquitoes and black ice in my life’ look. It’s the Knights Bridge effect. Happens every time you go home.”
More like the Felicity MacGregor effect, but Gabe smiled without comment.
“Nadia Ainsworth stopped by this morning, Gabe. She’s a problem. I’m telling you.”
“I thought she went back to California.”
“She did—for forty-eight hours. She took the red-eye last night and landed in Boston early this morning. She was on the same flight as Marty Colton.”
“Who is Marty Colton? Any relation to Russ Colton?”
“Marty is Russ’s older brother. He’s an aspiring screenwriter who makes his living tending bar in Hollywood. Several people with Knights Bridge connections are regulars. Marty was severely injured in a helicopter crash. His and Russ’s father was killed in the crash.”
“That’s awful,” Gabe said. “I had no idea.”
“Not the sort of thing that comes up in casual conversation, I imagine. Marty recovered from his injuries, but he has scars and he doesn’t like to fly.”
“How do you know all this?”
Shannon flicked her fingers. “I got it from Nadia.”
Gabe frowned. “Marty told her his life story?”
“People do things like that when they don’t want to think about how much they hate to fly. It’s a long flight to Boston from Los Angeles. Talking probably helped, and Nadia’s easy to talk to.”
“Got it.”
Gabe reached for his cold-brew coffee on the side table. Nadia. Damn.
What was she up to?
He drank some of his coffee and set the glass back on the table. “What did Nadia want to talk to you about?”
“Nothing. She wants to talk to you. She’s obsessed with you, Gabe.” Shannon spoke matter-of-factly, as if Gabe must have seen this for himself by now. She adjusted a drop cloth on the back of a chair. “It’s not romantic—she wants to manipulate you into doing something for her. My guess is it’s money related. Work, ex-husband, new start-up idea she has. Something. She told me how you give her credit for your success, she’s been with you from early on, loves working with start-ups—how you two have a special bond given your history. She laid it on heavy.”
“Did she mention Knights Bridge?” Gabe asked.
Shannon nodded. “Nadia found out that Marty was Russ’s brother while she was in Knights Bridge. She said Russ misinterpreted her interest in the boot camp. Isn’t holding it against him.” Shannon rolled her eyes. “Good of her, don’t you think?”
“Did she say why she came back here so soon?”
“Her grandmother’s estate. That was it. She said she hadn’t expected being back at her grandmother’s house to affect her as much as it had. I guess she’s got an offer on it. It’s actually not that far from Knights Bridge.”
Gabe ignored a tightening in his gut. “Did she tell you her plans?”
Shannon shook her head. “Didn’t say.”
“Did she mention anyone in Knights Bridge besides Russ?”
“Morwenna Mills—Kylie Shaw Colton. Nadia said she’s reading the Badgers of Middle Branch series and hopes the launch party goes well. My kids love those books, by the way.” Shannon paused, standing back from the chair. “Nadia reminded me she’s an expert in customer development and its importance to start-up entrepreneurs. She noted she wasn’t invited to speak at the boot camp.”
“Why would she have been invited to speak?” Gabe asked, mystified.
“You got me.”
It had been a good lineup of speakers, with a diversity of backgrounds and experience. Nadia would have fit in and had a lot to offer given her experience both working for him and as a solo entrepreneur herself, but he couldn’t fathom why she would have been on Dylan McCaffrey’s radar to invite. It certainly hadn’t been a slight.
“Did you invite her to your boot camp party?” Shannon asked.
Gabe shook his head. “It was for people at the boot camp. I had no reason to personally invite her. She shouldn’t read anything into it. She lives in California. The McCaffreys don’t know her.” He stopped himself. “I can’t believe this is even an issue.”
“Nadia’s overstating her relationship with you. You’ve had that happen before, Gabe. People sometimes convince themselves they’re essential to a successful person when they’re not. Nadia did good work for you and contributed to the success of your company, but she wasn’t indispensable.” Shannon beamed a smile at him. “Even I’m not indispensable.”
Gabe glanced around him. He’d done well in a short time. He had decades ahead of him. Nadia had always seemed rooted in reality, if caught up, at least to a degree, by her fantasies of her life with her hard-driving narcissist of a husband.
Acting out a fantasy could be harmless, but whatever Nadia was up to, that wasn’t it.
“Anything else?” Gabe asked.
Shannon shrugged. “Nadia said she was more taken with Knights Bridge than she’d expected to be. I can understand that, to be honest, but I thought it’d be a hellhole. I had really low expectations. It didn’t have far to go to beat them.”
Not entirely Gabe’s doing, either. He got to his feet, grabbing his cold brew. “Where is she now, do you know?”
“No idea. I asked her what her plans were. She said she wasn’t sure what she was doing after heading to her grandmother’s
