Easy Kisses(39)
“Not awake yet.” I scrub my hands over my face, stretch my arms over my head toward the ceiling, then touch my toes.
“I’m beginning to get the message that you’re not a morning person.”
His voice is dry, but his eyes are warm as I stand and they leisurely travel over my body.
“I didn’t fall asleep until about three,” I reply and gratefully accept the coffee he offers me. “And then I slept so hard, I didn’t hear my alarm or your call. I’m sorry.”
“I’m the sorry one for waking you,” he replies and sits on the couch, then takes my hand and pulls me down with him. He pulls me into his arms and hugs me close, nuzzling my temple and kissing me softly there. “Waking up like that isn’t fun.”
“I’ll be okay.” But I don’t move away. It feels too damn good to be in his strong arms. “You must have gotten up early.”
“I usually do, and I’m a bit jetlagged.” He reaches for the bag of food and sets out toasted bagels with cream cheese and fruit. “I hope this is okay.”
“It looks delicious.” My stomach growls and I immediately reach for a handful of grapes. “You didn’t have to go to all of this trouble.”
I take a sip of my coffee. My head whips up to stare at him in wonder.
“You remembered how I take my coffee. And you’re British.” And we only had breakfast together once in Montana.
“British people don’t remember things?”
“No, they don’t drink coffee.”
“Some do.” He sips his tea and smiles at me. That smile kills me. “I remember just about everything about you, Charly. In case you missed it, I’m quite taken with you.”
I haven’t missed it. But it surprises me, and I want to ask why.
But instead I smile and munch on my bagel.
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. I’ll drive you to work since I left you stranded here last night.”
“Thank you again.” I could argue, but why? If he wants to give me a ride to work, who am I to complain? “How is your bagel?”
“Fair. Once you’ve had bagels in New York, you get a bit spoiled.”
“True. And we’re a beignet town.”
“I’ll remember that.”
“You seem to remember everything.”
He simply smiles and sips his tea, and we settle in to enjoy the sunny morning, our food, and each other’s company.
Chapter Ten
~Simon~
“We need confirmation that you can be in LA on the twelfth of next month to appear on Kimmel and Ellen, and then on the fourteenth, we have you scheduled with Hoda and Kathy Lee.”
“That’s fine,” I reply to Todd and mark it out on my calendar. I keep a real paper agenda, mostly because I’m on the phone when I get the information, making it difficult to add to a phone calendar, and I used to forget to mark things down. “I have a deadline of September first for the next book, and my editor already gave me a three month extension, so don’t schedule me anything else in July and August.”
“Nothing?” he asks, surprised.
“I’ll still do the weekly videos and the radio show. We’ll be present on social media. But I can’t travel, Todd. I have to write the book.”
“Understood,” he says. “I also want to roll out the new webinar programs next month.”
“That means extra video time,” I reply with a sigh and scratch my chin. “We’ll have to do that the week after I return to London.”
“That was my thought as well. Have you done any scouting for the retreat later this year?”
“I did yesterday,” I reply. “I’ll email you some information this afternoon. I think I found the perfect hotel, but they’re rather expensive. Let’s see if we can’t get them talked down. I don’t want to have to drive the price of the retreat up for the ladies coming. It’s already expensive for them.”
“I agree,” he says, and I can hear Kelly speaking in the background. “I’ll be right there, darling.”
“I can let you go. I think we’ve covered it all.”
“One last thing,” he says before I can hang up. “How are things going with Charly?”
I sigh and rub my eyes. I’m not ready to get into this with him yet.
“You don’t have to give me all the details, man, but I need to know something.”
“Things are good,” I reply. “We’re taking things slow.”
“Slow? For fucksake, mate, you’re only there for the week. Don’t take it too slow.”
“Thank you for that, relationship expert.”