Homecoming Proposal: Book One

Chapter 22 - Surprise

Nic: I'm a fucking idiot.

Taylor: ?

Nic: Client today... talk about a blast from the past.

Taylor: Meaning?

Nic: It's THE girl from high school. Taking her to dinner.

Taylor: You know Carmen?

Nic: Since we were kids. The one we've tried to find.

Taylor: Want me there?

Nic: Sure. Debating if I tell the others she is here.

TaylorI would.

Nic: Ok. Calling them in. Meet @ University Bar & Grill at 6.

***

Nic to Group: If able, be @ University Bar & Grill at 6. 1st round's on me. Phone is off.  Dress to impress my client.

***

CARMEN-after lunch

After lunch, Nic dropped me off at my hotel before taking Cora to the airport. She had only come in for the meeting today. I had almost asked her to stay a while longer, but I wanted to spend some time with Nic catching up this evening more. Evan came up to my room with me so he could say hi to the kids.

"So you gonna tell me how well you and Nicholas know each other?" Evan stretched out on the couch in the sitting area of my suite. I sat across from him and toed my heels off as I pulled them up under me.

"Very well. We were friends from childhood. There was very little he did not know about me, and I knew him about the same." I laid back against the arm of the couch, facing Evan. "He knows more about me than Cora."

Evan's eyes widened. "And you're going to sit here and tell me you had no clue he and Taylor were partners?"

"Absolutely none. I was one of Taylor's first potential clients, and that was before he and Nic officially started working together. I never really looked into the company when they joined forces, as I trust Taylor.  He never steered me wrong. Though I admit, I don't know how I would have handled things had I known."

"You looked pretty stunned this morning. I take it from the way you two touched that you had pretty powerful feelings about your friendship?"

I felt the grin pulling my facial muscles tightly. "Oh, definitely. Nic was one of my guys from day one, and of them, he knew me the most intimately."

Evan raised his brows questioningly. "How intimately?"

"Well enough to know about my off-switch, as Cora called it."

"Yeah, what was that about?"

"As I told her, it was from a previous conversation. It is something Nic and I came up with after a mishap." I didn't want to discuss this with Evan, though I could see the questions forming. Fortunately, my phone rang. I stepped out on the balcony to talk to my kids, leaving him to relax.

    If not published under the name Gigi Foster, this is stolen and in violation of Copyright laws.

When I came back in, I found Evan asleep on the couch. Fortunately, I had not shared with the kids that Evan had planned on saying hi, so I was able to pop off the call.  I pulled an extra blanket out and draped it over him before heading over to my bed. Laying on my stomach, I pulled out my laptop and began writing another chapter.

Simultaneously, my phone went off, and a pounding resonated in the room from the door. I jerked awake to find myself face down on the mattress, hands poised to continue typing. Pushing up, I reached for and answered my phone as I walked to the door. Hearing Nics's voice, sleep fled from my eyes and brain as I registered his presence on the other side of the door. Opening the door, I heard him say hello in surround sound.