Eve Devon - The Love List

She was good at this, wasn’t she? Nora grinned like a Cheshire cat, feeling lighter than she had in weeks. ‘I’ll have one of my corporate solution professionals phone you to discuss your requirements.’

‘Okay. I really want to push forward with this. I’m happy to listen as long as you don’t start wanting to move my entire company into some cold City office tower. I assume you’re open to discussion about the finer points?’

‘Of course. Absolutely.’

‘And if I want to I can deal with you directly? I may not like being handed over to a posse of staff as soon as I sign on the dotted line.’

‘Well, I usually assign a personal account manager, but of course I’ll make myself available if you feel something isn’t being handled appropriately.’

Nora’s mind whirled. Ethan hadn’t simply given a good presentation; he’d saved the day and clinched the deal. It seemed an official upgrade to Mr Knight in Shining Armour was in order. She wanted to whoop for joy when she thought about being able to announce to the board who she’d snagged as their latest client. And if some of the property in Italy was worth hanging on to, their property portfolio would get a healthy bump, too. Barely managing to cling to any semblance of professionalism, she heard Eleanor speak again.

‘I’m having a little party next week, a celebration for being back in London. You should come. Bring Ethan, too.’

‘I’d love to. Um, I can’t vouch for Ethan. He’s very busy,’ she excused.

‘Well I’d love for him to be there, there are a lot of people I’d like to introduce you both to. It won’t feel like a proper celebration without him. I’ll send invitations out to you.’

Nora didn’t have to work very hard to read between the lines: Ethan was expected there. ‘I’ll see what I can do,’ she answered in her best non-committed tone. ‘And thanks again, you won’t regret having KPC handle all your property needs.’

Nora replaced the handset and pressed her hands to her lips. The grin started somewhere deep inside her chest and worked its way quickly up to her lips. Could it be true? Was it possible that a day that had started so abysmally could have turned around so fantastically?

She spun in her chair.

She’d done it. She’d actually done it.

Or rather, Ethan had done it.

Feeling dizzy, she stopped spinning and rose to pick up her bag as an overwhelming need to buy Ethan a special thank you present filled her.

Opening the office door she saw Fern tapping away on her keyboard. ‘Why don’t you switch everything off and finish early?’

Fern looked up at her with a frown. ‘It’s 5:55pm.’

‘And that’s early by your standards. Go on. Go home and phone the boyfriend. Maybe cook some pasta, open a bottle of wine…’

Fern smiled. ‘Well if my boss is ordering me, who am I to disagree? I take it the phone call went well?’

‘Ethan certainly seems to have charmed Eleanor Moorfield, so keep your fingers crossed.’

‘That’s wonderful.’ She took in the handbag Nora was holding. ‘Where are you off to, then?’

‘Quick shopping trip and then back here for some more work.’

‘Uh-huh. Okay. Or…you could go another way, and, say, stop by a certain hotel, where a certain hot guy might be staying—’

Nora’s eyes narrowed a fraction.

‘—to, you know,’ Fern continued, cautiously, when she deciphered the warning look, ‘discuss his brother.’

‘Good night, Fern,’ Nora said, mock sternly. ‘I do not expect you to be here when I get back.’

‘Yes, boss. Um, you might need your coat?’

Nora rolled her eyes, thinking that her head was all over the place. Popping back into her office, she dragged her coat off the coat-stand and was about to turn around and head straight back out the door when she spotted the Moorfield bag. An image of her standing in front of a hotel room with a bottle of champagne, wearing only her coat and whatever was in that bag sizzled and then her eyes crossed. Yes—because turning up at the door of a man you had only met that morning with nothing but a bottle of champagne, a coat and a pair of shoes, was such a subtle message, wasn’t it? She could only imagine her sister’s face when she had to explain quite how well Ethan and she were acquainted. Wracking her brain she tried to remember if Sephy had ever mentioned Ethan when she’d been seeing Ryan. Not that during those years Sephy and her had been sisters who’d confided everything. Mostly Nora had used university as an escape from dealing with the fallout of Jared leaving and Sephy, well, she’d kind of used Ryan as her escape. After graduating Nora had spent all her energy immersing herself in KPC, working hard to ensure no one could ever accuse her fast-track through the business as not being fully earned. Then things with Sephy and Ryan had fallen apart when she’d got pregnant with Daisy and Nora had launched straight into over-protective mode.

She wondered what Ethan and Ryan’s relationship was like. It must be solid if he had flown all the way from Italy, but surely Ryan was all right if Ethan could take the time to help her out first before discussing it?

Bundling into her coat, Nora bid Fern goodnight again and made her way down the stairs and out into the cold evening air to hail a taxi. Once she was in the vicinity of the large department stores that stayed open late, she got out and wandered over to the first huge display window she came to.

Sometimes she couldn’t imagine ever working anywhere but in the centre of London. Amongst the buzz and the hustle and the bustle.

Although, lately, whenever she made it back to her fabulous apartment with its views over the Thames, she felt drained from being so switched on all the time, as if she had only two modes: full-on or empty. At least full-on mode didn’t give her time to think or feel. And if the emptiness started to overwhelm, she always had the family home to visit.

She stared, unseeing, at the goodies on the other side of the plate-glass window. Surely her mother had been joking about selling the forty-acre family estate in Heathstead, twenty miles outside London? Nora knew it had to be hard—understood that despite the fact that the hospital bed and nursing equipment was now gone, the memory of Jeremy King’s last months were frozen very much at the forefront of her mother’s thoughts. But the house stood for so much more. It had been in the family for generations. Where her father had lived for KPC, her mother had breathed life back into the estate and even now Sephy and Daisy lived in the specially built three-bedroom apartment built over the vast garages. Where would they go if her mother decided to sell? Where would her mother go? Was she really ready to leave the place she had spent years loving and tending so that it thrived as a home. What if Jared decided that one day he and Amanda wanted to come back to the UK? Surely as the eldest of the Kings, the house reverted to him? The will-reading had probably gone through this, but at the time she hadn’t really paid attention. The only specifics she’d registered were that KPC wasn’t affected and that Jared, Sephy and she had each received a letter from their father.

She shivered and walked to the next department store, determined to move away from thoughts that tugged at the veil of numbness she had got so good at wearing since her father’s death.

Work. Work was what would see her through. Work was the only fitting way to honour her father and feel his loss less.

Sephy and Jared had already opened their letters.

She wasn’t ready yet.

Not that she had to ever open the letter, she counseled herself as the curtain of grief threatened to descend.

All the time she kept the letter sealed, his silence wasn’t final.