The meeting belonged to him, however many people were on the other side of the screen. And his voice—well, his voice belonged to her. Lise melted into it, listening, listening, and she couldn’t say exactly when, but at some point he started to seem far away. As if she were sitting in the next room, hearing the rumble of his voice through the walls and knowing he was close.
Her eyelids fluttered and then sank. She’d just close them for a minute. Just a little rest.
Raed reached for the next sheet of paper and it wasn’t there.
Nothing was there, in fact, except his empty desk. He didn’t let this show on his face, but when the next speaker popped up on the screen he stole a glance at Lise.
Who was fast asleep in her chair, curled up and snoring.
She shifted, and the snoring got louder. Her chair was positioned just far enough away that he couldn’t shake her awake without it looking ridiculous on camera.
“Sheikh Raed, what is that?” asked one of the attendees.
“One of his assistants,” another one answered gently. “He works them so hard.”
Well, he wanted to snap back, I’ve had to in order to keep this foundation alive. “We all have our moments,” he said with a smile, though a spear of unease pierced his gut. He’d come back early to attend the party—to at least make an appearance—because his chest had ached with the thought of missing it entirely. He’d wanted to be near Lise and celebrate with Jake so badly. But what the foundation needed was a turbo-charged, unencumbered woman who could sit next to him during meetings without falling asleep.
And she needed to go to bed.
Raed’s hands itched to disconnect all of it, to end the call and carry her back to her room. Maybe he should stay the night so she wouldn’t have to get up with Jake. Maybe.
But no.
He moved on to the next item in the agenda, Lise still asleep.
16
Raed sat across from his mother at the family breakfast, the table set up at the edge of the garden and the morning sun bathing them all in a fresh new light. Nenet had been hosting them every morning after they were finished riding, and Raed tried to make it as often as he could, though he hadn’t been able to attend as many as Lise and Jake in the past couple of weeks.
Jake pointed a chubby finger at a bowl of strawberries and said something in his baby voice. At first, the word didn’t register as anything that made sense to Raed, but then it did—the Arabic word for strawberry. The toddler beamed, and then he said something that sounded incredibly close to the Arabic word for more.
“Yes,” Nenet answered him in Arabic, spearing a strawberry with a fork and putting it on the little plate in front of Jake. “More strawberries.” She caught Raed’s eyes, and he managed to shut his mouth in the nick of time. She’d been teaching them. His heart swelled with pride at the thought of his son—and Lise, who was echoing more strawberries—speaking the language of his country. It was the same thing Raed would have done if they’d been together all this time.
His own plate was already empty, and Raed didn’t say a thing.
“So I finished the next chapter,” Lise was telling Nenet. “And honestly, I couldn’t put it down. It kept me up half the night.”
“A good story will do that,” Nenet agreed. “I get too tired to stay up all night, but I woke up early several mornings to finish.” They were talking about a book that Nenet had lent Lise.
Raed had never been part of a scene more domestic than this. Lise was so relaxed, sitting by Jake and feeding him small bites of food, guiding his hand on a child-sized fork and letting him put it down when he wanted to use his fingers instead.
Tali breezed in from the palace, smiling at all of them. “Hello, family,” she said. “I wish we hadn’t got in so late last night. I’m letting Rafiq sleep in a little bit. Lise, I can’t get over how lovely it is to have you here.”
The two women embraced as if they were sisters, not virtual friends based on a shared fandom.
“Your cereal’s next to Jake.” Lise nodded toward the box of Choco Loco cereal that Tali liked. “I take no responsibility if he tries to grab your bowl.” She seemed happy to see Tali, even more relaxed than she had been.
Tali ruffled Jake’s hair. “You wouldn’t do that, would you?” He giggled. “Ah, so you would. I’ll have to be careful of you, you little scoundrel.” She dropped easily into the seat next to his and poured herself a bowl, joining the conversation seamlessly.
They passed around the bowl of strawberries. “Lise, do you do this kind of thing with your parents back in London? Perhaps on the weekends?” Tali asked.
Amusement danced in Lise’s green eyes as she laughed, handing Jake another piece of strawberry. “Not really, no. But we do visit with my father on the weekends. My mother is always working. Actually, I’ve spoken to her more than usual this week.”
“More than usual?” Raed raised his eyebrows. He’d seen Lise on the phone with her at the party. Phone calls—that was it. Nenet had planned these breakfasts on and off over the years, especially during times of transition in the palace, but she had always been the centerpiece. Always there. And now she had even changed the breakfasts. There was the Choco Loco for Tali and waffles and syrup for Jake—and his favorite, the strawberries.
Nenet surveyed all of it with a satisfied expression on her face.
She was matchmaking. Drawing in Lise and Jake with things meant to welcome and comfort them.
Would she be so welcoming to a woman like Katharine? Would she lend Katharine books and talk to her about them over breakfast? Would Katharine even want that? He couldn’t picture her spending her time at a relaxed breakfast. Not with business to be done.
Lise stood up to get Jake some more orange juice from a beverage cart set up nearby, passing behind Raed as she went. He didn’t notice the tension in his neck until Lise paused behind him and rubbed at the muscles there.
“Relax,” she chided him.
“I’m perfectly relaxed.”
“Your neck says otherwise.” She lifted her hands from his skin, and Raed covered the place where she’d touched him with a casual brush of his own palm. Lise had gotten to know him quite well in such a short time, to notice how tense his muscles were without him saying a word.
Did he know her just as well? He knew her favorite color was purple and she liked to be up a little early in the mornings except on weekends, when she fantasized about sleeping in.
His phone buzzed in his pocket. Raed didn’t need to look at it to know what it said. It would be a message from the staff that his visitor had arrived.
“I’ll see you later,” he told Lise, then bent to say the same to Jake, and then he left to meet his visitor.
Miguel Parades waited for him in his office. Raed had been working with a prestigious US publication called Tempo to do an article about the launch of his foundation, and they’d sent Miguel to shadow him for the day to gather background. He rose from his seat as soon as Raed came through the door and gave a little bow.
Raed waved this off, and the two men shook hands. “You’ve come on the perfect day.”
Miguel grinned. “I should hope so. It’s the one we agreed on after weeks of schedule negotiation.”