“I know it would be here quicker on the Lear.”
“And it might still take me a few days to get a trusted courier who can travel for, say, upwards of six hours on a round trip.”
“I realize that. Put the ball in motion on your end, and I’ll get Missy working on this end to bring what I need to your office.”
“I’m on it, love,” Lorne replied.
“Great. I’ll see you at the gala.”
“I wouldn’t miss it. And I’ll keep an eye out for that email,” he said.
“Thanks, Lorne. I appreciate it,” she replied and hung up.
Avery called Missy, her housekeeper at the Vegas penthouse, and explained the situation. Missy laughed at her predicament, with an only you know how to get into trouble like that air. This had occurred frequently enough that Avery kept a spare state identification card in the top desk drawer in her office in a spot that was easy for Missy to locate.
Missy promised to take both over to Lorne’s office in the morning. Avery also emailed her pilots, Gary and Fred, and asked them to get the jet ready and stand by for a fast trip to Winter Park. She explained the situation, knowing they would get a good laugh out of it.
But by mid-morning, she felt like she had accomplished something. She could pay the ranch for her stay, and give Colt money for the groceries. Because maybe if she showed him that he didn’t need to take care of her all the time, that she was in fact a capable adult, most days, it would work in her favor.
Then he would know that she was with him not because she had to be to survive, but because she wanted to be. And maybe then she could express her newfound feelings, and discuss spending more time with him down the road.
And perhaps, if she was lucky, she could make him fall in love with her too.
At his office, Colt made plans, shifted work around, and handed his sister more responsibility in the running of the ranch—at least temporarily.
He wanted his schedule cleared from tomorrow night through Monday morning. The thought of Avery leaving a week from tomorrow made his heart clench. It wasn’t fair—not when he had just found her, to lose her just as quickly. She had only been in his life for a week, and it felt like he had known her for forever. And there was so much more he wanted to uncover about the sultry scientist. He felt the clock ticking on their time together, and fucking loathed it. He wasn’t a man who believed much in fate, but it was providence that had brought them together. Right time, right place.
And what was more, he wasn’t ready for it to be over and done. He wanted her to stay with him. She could move into his house—that way, she didn’t have to worry about money. He realized that then she would discover he owned the ranch. But if he got her to agree to live with him, stay with him for a while longer before that became common knowledge, he would still know she had picked him because she wanted him, and not the family fortune.
What he didn’t know was whether their relationship was just a fun way to pass the time for her or if she had deeper feelings for him. She was a free spirit. He couldn’t forget that aspect of her personality, even with that brilliant mind of hers. For all he knew, their relationship might be nothing more than an adventure for Avery.
“Earth to Colt,” Duncan said with a black brow raised in question.
Colt startled in his seat and glanced about the conference room as his friends laughed. He’d forgotten where he was for a moment, so lost in thought about Avery that the team meeting had all but disappeared and he could have been on another planet. He shifted, glanced down at his notes, and hid his wince when he noticed he hadn’t taken any on the upcoming slate of fall activities on the ranch. On weekends in September and October, they offered hay rides and apple cider. The weekend before Halloween, they turned it into a haunted hay ride.
“If I didn’t know better, I’d say he’s daydreaming about a woman,” Tanner commented with a sly grin.
“Yes, but you do know Colt. He’s not the type to daydream,” Maverick said with a deprecating laugh.
Was he that predictable? Colt had always thought he was being responsible, like he had been raised to be, trained to be, to take over operations on the ranch.
Noah had actually made it to the meeting, even with the difficulties he’d experienced in the last two years, what with his wife passing and leaving him to raise twin boys alone. Noah snorted. “It’s doubtful Colt has a woman. If he did, we would all know about it.”
Emmett shot him a considering look, his gaze narrowed. “I don’t know. As someone who recently took the plunge, I’d say he’s got the look of a guy hip deep in it and doesn’t even realize it.”
Lincoln rolled his eyes and replied, “But it’s Colt. He never gets his head out of whack over a female.”
“Can we please direct the comments back to the work at hand?” Colt asked, exasperated and not a little worried about some of their comments.
“Well, he’s definitely been doing something. He hasn’t been home hardly any night this week,” Amber interjected.
Colt glared at his sister and wanted to wring her scrawny neck. She shot him an angelic smile full of victory. At her incendiary comment, questions flew around the conference room.
“Where has he been going?” Lincoln asked, perplexed.
“Not to Cabin X, that’s for sure,” Emmett commented.
“And what’s more, who has he been spending that time with?” Tanner posed the question to the group.
“All I know is he’s been leaving the house in the evening, and his truck is still gone when I get up in the morning.” Amber shrugged like it was no skin off her nose and she couldn’t be bothered with his whereabouts. Colt ground his teeth. Avery was off-limits to his friends and family members until he knew where they stood.
“What’s the deal?” Emmett asked him earnestly.
“Yeah, who are you keeping a secret?” Noah quizzed him.
“Are we going to get any work done today? Or are you knuckleheads going to keep acting like a bunch of gossiping women?” Colt snapped.
The room quieted—as in pin drop silence—before the idiots he called his friends let loose with peals of laughter.
“Whoever she is, she’s got you wrapped around her finger,” Tanner said with a shit-eating grin.
“I never thought I would live to see the day when Colt Anderson fell for a woman.” Lincoln shook his head in disbelief.
Even Emmett, who normally acted like a tomcat that had just been baptized, sported a wide grin. “Always knew that when he did, the poor bastard would fall hard and not know what to make of it.”
Maverick asked, “Be honest with us, it’s Maribella, isn’t it? She blew you to kingdom come one night, and you ain’t been the same since.”
Colt glanced at his sister. “This is all your fault.”
“If you didn’t want your illicit activities to be common knowledge, you should have said so before the meeting. Granted, you would have needed to be home to say as much. But as with everything else, you’ve kept me in the dark,” Amber commented with a shrug and satisfied gleam in her eye. It was payback for banning her from Cabin X. Colt knew it from the angry email he’d received from her yesterday, when she’d heard about it because one of the guys let it slip around her.