All I Ask by Nicole McLaughlin

Author:Nicole McLaughlin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Press

CHAPTER TEN

Thursday afternoon Emily looked out her office window onto the landscape below. It was gorgeous. The willow tree had been treated and trimmed back and the hardscape moved some distance away to prevent future damage. The new small stone retaining wall curved in a natural pattern around the freshly poured, amoeba-shaped concrete patio. Beyond the walls were flower beds full of daylilies and small blooming shrubs. The beds surrounding the base of the tree held the shade-loving plants, like green and striped hostas. The design was lovely, and although she’d yet to go down and see it at eye level, she could already tell it was a million times better than the previous area. It was pretty enough to be featured in a magazine.

Several employees had already commented to her how much they liked it and couldn’t wait to take their lunches outside when it was finished.

Now it was complete.

She’d just watched the last Big Blue Landscaping truck drive away from the building and get on the highway. Reeve had been driving it.

She sighed and sat down at her desk. All day Sunday she had gone over and over the text conversation she’d initiated with Reeve late Saturday night. Every time she read through their messages she was horrified anew at her ridiculous behavior. The entire thing had set her on edge for the week. First she’d been mad at herself, but at this point she was mad and irritated for a completely different reason.

Emily paged Daniel to her office, knowing she owed him an apology. When he peeked his head into the doorway, a look of apprehension on his face, she sighed. She was better than this.

“Don’t look at me like that. I don’t bite,” she said.

“A week ago I would have agreed with you,” he said with a hesitant smile. “But you’ve not quite been yourself lately.”

“I know, and I want to apologize for that. It’s just been . . . I don’t even know. You said it. I haven’t been myself. I’m not sure why.”

Not entirely true. Part of it was work stress—they were rolling out a new marketing campaign for their new line of independent film showings, and she’d just signed a deal to buy out a small chain in Oklahoma. But damn it, that wasn’t the biggest reason. That honor went to the man she’d been waiting on all week to text her back. Or call. He’d done neither.

“Don’t worry about it. We all go through rough patches,” Dan said.

“We do, but that does not give us permission to be assholes. And I’ve been one. So, I’m going to be better.”

“I appreciate that. Don’t forget, marketing meeting in ten.” With that he left her office and closed the door behind him.

Emily sighed, glad to have gotten that out of her system, because although Daniel was too good an assistant to say it, she been a total bitch the past two days.

All week she’d been waiting to hear from Reeve. Instead she’d come in Monday and had the pleasure of watching him work on her property.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.