“No, of course you shouldn’t,” he agreed. “I’ll call you from New York and let you know how things are going. Hopefully I can be back in a few days. I have motivation to get this done.”
She arched a brow. “Oh?”
He smiled. “Yeah, a certain pregnant lady will be waiting for me to return. I’d say that’s pretty powerful incentive to get everything wrapped up so I can get my butt back on a plane.”
“Yeah, well, Rafael? This time don’t get into an accident. I’d really like not to have to wait months to see you again.”
He tweaked her nose. “Smart-ass. If it’s all the same, I have no desire to ever crash again. Once was enough. I know how lucky I am to be alive. I plan to stay that way for a long time to come.”
She leaned into him and wrapped her arms around him. “Good. Because I have plans for you that are going to take a very, very long time to fulfill.”
He gave her a questioning look. “Just how long are we talking about?”
“As long as you can keep up with me,” she murmured.
“In that case, it’s going to be a very long time indeed.”
She kissed him and then reluctantly pulled away. “You should probably go back home so you can shower and get packed. It’ll be light soon and you’ll need to be down to catch the ferry. Rush-hour traffic going into Houston is a bitch and you’re going to be hitting it at a bad time.”
“You sure you’re okay with me driving your car?”
She laughed. “The question should be whether it’s going to hurt your pride to drive my MINI. I could always have Silas drive you to Galveston and you could get a car service to the airport.”
He shook his head. “Your car is fine. Right now my only concern is that it gets me there so I can hurry up and return to you.”
She rested her forehead on his chest. “I’ll miss you, Rafe. I won’t lie, the idea of you leaving panics me because I keep thinking of the last time I said goodbye to you thinking I’d see you again in a few days.”
He cupped her face and tilted her head back so she looked up at him. “I’m coming back, Bryony. A plane crash and the loss of my memory didn’t keep us apart last time.”
“I love you.”
He kissed her. “I love you, too. Now go get some rest. I’ll call you when I land in New York.”
Nineteen
“It’s about damn time you got your ass up here,” Cam said grimly as he got out of his car in passenger pickup at LaGuardia and strode around to help Rafael with his bags. “Devon’s been in a snit ever since you left. Your delaying the groundbreaking just pissed him off even more. Copeland has got him over a barrel with this whole marrying-his-daughter thing. Ryan has been stewing over private investigator reports. I swear no one’s head is where it should be right now. Except mine. It’s obvious that any time a woman’s involved disaster follows,” he said sourly.
“Cam?” Rafe said mildly as he opened the door to the passenger side.
Cam yanked his gaze up and stopped before climbing into the driver’s seat. “What?”
“Shut the hell up.”
Cam got into the car grumbling about flaky friends and vowing all the while never to mix business and friendship again. Rafael rolled his eyes at his friend’s consternation, considering that the four had always done business together.
“So what the hell is going on, Rafael? Dev says you’ve gotten cold feet.”
“I don’t have cold feet,” Rafael growled. “I just think there has to be another way of making this deal go through that doesn’t involve using the property on Moon Island.”
Cam swore again. He went silent as traffic got snarled and he expertly weaved in and out, making Rafael white-knuckle his grip on the door handle.
Anyone riding with Cam deserved hazard pay. Not that he drove often. Cam almost always had a driver and it wasn’t because he was too good to drive himself. Quite simply he was so busy that he utilized every moment of his time to conduct his business affairs and if he had a driver, he had that much more time to work.
Rafael figured Dev must have leaned on him pretty hard to get him to drive himself to the airport to pick up Rafael.
“So you still don’t remember anything?” Cam asked when they’d cleared one particularly nasty snarl. “No. Nothing.”
“And yet you believe her? Have you even started the process for paternity testing yet?”
“It doesn’t matter what happened before. I love her now,” Rafael said quietly.
There was dead silence in the car. Only the sounds of traffic and car horns penetrated the thick silence inside the car.