Say You Will(57)
“This is going to make it all worth it,” Santiago said, plucking an eyebrow hair viciously.
“I was going to save this for later,” Jon began, “but I’ll give you the news now. Omega wants you for a comprehensive ad campaign.”
He nodded. “I hope you haven’t promised anything, because they’re not going to be happy when they find out I’m not racing any longer.”
“Nick, I wish you’d—” Jon frowned. “Wait. Are your toes pink?”
The sound of heels made them both look up. Summer waved at them as she avoided collision with a scurrying assistant. She wore her usual black uniform, but with Rosalind’s scarf tied around her neck.
“Is that your sister?” Jon asked, smoothing his shirt.
“Stepsister,” Nick corrected. “She’s the devil’s own.”
“This is exciting, Nick,” Summer said as she joined them. She kissed his cheek despite Santiago’s warning growl. “I’ve always been curious about your photo shoots.”
“This is the last one I’m going to do, so get your fill.”
“Your last?” She shook her head. “I don’t understand.”
“I don’t either,” Jon chimed in. He held out his hand. “Jon Goody, from the Goody Talent and Media Group. I represent Nick.”
“Not for long,” he said.
His manager glared at him. “Stop talking that way.”
“What way is he talking?” Summer asked, looking back and forth between them.
“He thinks he’s going to give up racing.” Jon held his hands out like the idea boggled his mind. “Talk some sense into him, will you? I need to go talk to the Calvin Klein rep.”
Summer watched him walk away and then turned back to Nick. “Is that true?”
“Yes.”
“Because of Mum?”
He thought about Tabitha. “She hated me racing.”
“I know.”
“But it’s more than that. I want what I do to be permanent. I want to build something that lasts.”
“Like what?”
Like a business. Like a family. “I’m working on that.”
She paused, then asked, “Does Rosalind have something to do with this?”
“I was already thinking of leaving Formula One. Rosalind just came along at a time when I was open to the possibility of her.” He glanced at Summer unhappily. “She doesn’t know about today. Do you know why?”
His stepsister bit her lip, looking like she had when she’d been little and stolen candy from her mother’s purse.
Nick shook his head. “Are you really going to pretend you don’t know that I can’t share details of my life with the woman I’m seriously interested in, because of you?”
“Nick—”
“Tell her, Summer.” He took her hand. “She’s going to find out. Wouldn’t it be better that she found out from you?”
“Maybe.” Summer pulled her hand from his and took a step back. “I’ll think about it.”
He sighed. “Will you? Because it’s only a matter of time—”
“I said I’d think about it.” She touched Rosalind’s scarf as she checked her watch. “I need to go. I’ll see you later, Nick.”
Santiago spurted some gel into his hands and attacked Nick’s hair. “Black doesn’t go with her complexion.”
No, but it went with her actions. He stared after his sister, hoping she came to her senses before she lost more than she realized.
Chapter Twenty-five
“I don’t know of many thieves who take a private limo to break into a place,” Portia said, reclining in the back of Bea’s car.
Rosalind shook her head. “How many thieves do you know?”
“Have you seen our family’s social circle? You have to ask?”
“The fact is,” Bea said, not looking up from whatever she was doing on her phone, “I trust Nigel more than I’d trust a cab driver who didn’t know us. Nigel is loyal.”
“No one is loyal,” Viola said as she stared out the window, her mouth turned down. “Give someone incentive enough and they’ll betray you.”
They all turned to look at her. Rosalind had spent hardly any time with her second oldest sister in the last ten years, but even she heard the bitterness.
“What aren’t you telling us?”
“Nothing.” She paused. “At least nothing until your investigator brings me proof.”
Rosalind frowned. “Do you think Charles is having an affair?”
“Is it so surprising? Father did,” Viola said bitterly. “I’m beginning to think there are no honest men.”