Momentary Marriage(66)

Amy leaned back in her chair, excited contentment in her face. “No. I’ll be his first and last.”

“Actually moving in together. Jeez! When is this going to happen?” Kelsey looked at her younger sister, trying to suppress a niggle of anxiety. Her concern made no sense. Everything she’d done in the last two months had been with this goal in mind. Amy was the best. She deserved this.

“Well,” Amy said after taking a sip from her cup, “we haven’t talked about specific dates. But it’ll be soon.”

“I’m glad,” Kelsey said, affection rising in her as she looked at her only sibling, the younger sister she’d always tried to shelter.

“We talked about his crush on you, too,” Amy assured her. “And Doug says it was just a kid-thing and he’s really ready to move on.”

“I’m glad,” Kelsey murmured, her gaze resting on her sister’s face. “I’m so glad for you both.”

***

“Jared?” Kelsey’s voice was hesitant in the darkened bedroom.

“Mmmm?” He pulled her closer, reveling in the smoothness of her skin against his. He knew she still held back from him on some level, but at least the coldness was gone and he could once again act out his love. With every touch, every kiss, he wanted to show how important she was to him.

“The other day I heard you on the phone,” she said abruptly.

Jared frowned, puzzled by the note in her voice.

“Yeah?”

“This contract you’re negotiating with the union    ,” she said, pulling out of his arms to sit up in the bed.

She paused then, as if uncertain how to continue.

He turned to look at her, searching her profile in the dim light that shone through the curtains.

“I don’t know anything about your business,” Kelsey said, as if throwing out a disclaimer.

Jared sat up, leaning back against the padded headboard with a sense of growing disquiet. “But?”

“Remember, before we got married, I was there at dinner with you that night when you were talking about the contract?” Her voice quavered ever so faintly.

“Yes,” he said, unable to keep the implacable note out of the single word. He didn’t know where this was going, but he couldn’t imagine why she needed to concern herself with his contract disputes.

“I just wondered,” she started with a rush, “if you’re being….”

“What?” he prompted, pushing aside his annoyance at having a moment of intimacy disrupted by what he suspected wouldn’t be a pretty conversation.

“If you’re being fair. Now, I don’t know anything about it,” she repeated, “but I heard you tell Stewart Black one thing and…then say something totally different to your negotiator.”

“Yes,” he admitted readily, still not sure what her angle was.

“Well, then…then the other day, you were on the phone again and you said something about breaking the union    ,” her voice trailed off.

He didn’t respond, battling a confusing mix of frustration, helplessness and anger. Clearly, something was worrying her. He wanted to listen, to sort it through, but his heart was rebelling. With every day that passed she became more vital to him, every day he struggled to make this work.

He loved her, dammit. And she didn’t trust him. Didn’t trust him even to be fair with his employees.

“Are they asking so much, the union    ?” she asked. “Are their demands unreasonable?”

“If I didn’t think so, I’d give into them,” he said as calmly as he could.

“But…they seem to believe just as strongly that they’re within their rights,” she said. “If they’re willing to hold out, it must be for something they need.”

Jared carefully unclenched his hand, reminding himself that she didn’t know how much time and care he put into running the best hotels, how making the work environment good was a high priority. In the last ten years, he’d tripled the size of the company, all on his own. He couldn’t have done that without earning his employees’ loyalty first.

She didn’t understand. That should have made him feel better, but it didn’t.

Kelsey stirred next to him. “I, uh, happened to run into Stewart Black today.”

“What!”

“At the deli down the block from the office,” she hurried to say. “We bumped into each other.”

“And he asked you to talk to me about the contract,” Jared concluded, his voice grim.

“No!” Kelsey assured him. “Of course, not. I wouldn’t have discussed your business with him.”