Losing Streak (The Lane) by Kristine Wyllys

Author:Kristine Wyllys [Wyllys, Kristine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Carina Press
Published: 2014-09-14T21:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

“What are your plans for this evening?”

“Hmm?” I glanced up from my phone’s calendar, frowning at the interruption. Joshua looked at me in the entryway mirror as he adjusted his dull tie. His ties were always dull. Bland. They were proof that all the money in the world couldn’t buy style.

“I don’t have you scheduled for anything. How are you going to spend your night off?”

“Oh.” I frowned deeper. “I’m not sure. I’ll probably go see my mama.”

“And how is your mother doing?”

He didn’t care. Not really. He was asking only because he felt like he was supposed to. Still, I found myself answering honestly, as if it mattered. Maybe just because I wanted it to.

“Okay. She’s on a break from her chemo. It’s this new, semi-experimental kind and it’s pretty rough on her system, but her doctor feels pretty good about it. They’ve seen some significant progress in other patients. Didn’t cure it, of course, but slowed it down to a crawl.”

“Lovely,” he murmured absently, checking himself over one last time. “Well, give her my best, of course. And let me know if she requires anything.”

“I will. She’s fine, though. You’ve done a lot already.”

“Nonsense. We have an arrangement and I told you I would always live up to my end of it if you held up yours.”

I nodded, staring at a point just over his shoulder.

“I’ll be late,” he continued. “I need to run the numbers again at Duke’s and Bar 9. I may stop by the Tap Room after to check on Ted’s as well. He’s a dependable enough man, as you know, but has absolutely no head for business.”

“Should I take over his bookkeeping again?”

“No, that won’t be necessary. Give a man a fish and all that. It’s high time for Ted to learn to be self-sufficient. A kingdom is only as strong as its weakest member. Sometimes the king has to step in and force those inhabitants to toughen up.” He gave his tie a pull and straightened his shoulders. “It’s not easy being king, Rosemary. So many want the throne yet have no idea how difficult the job actually is once they’re seated upon it.”

“Maybe because you make it look so easy?” I offered lightly, knowing that was what he wanted to hear, expected to hear, and I was the one he wanted to hear it from.

“Undoubtedly.” He gave a long-suffering sigh, the weary ruler whose title exhausted him, yet he continued to rule out of the goodness of his heart. This was how he truly saw himself. The poor, delusional soul. “Have a good evening.”

“You as well.”

I waited until he was out the door and presumably in the elevator traveling down to his warehouse below before crossing the dark, perfectly buffed wood floors to the large window that overlooked the parking lot. The lights of the Lane cast the street in a warm glow and from this vantage point, with only a pane of glass between me and it, it was easy to pretend I was a queen surveying her kingdom and people.

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.