“You’re not talking about Joni Thompson?” David couldn’t hide his surprise. “Short brown hair? Blue eyes?”
“Don’t look so shocked,” Tom said. “She looks like a million bucks.”
Obviously taking off those few hours must have been extremely productive ones for Joni. Although his administrative assistant was above average in looks, the level of admiration in Tom’s voice was usually reserved for supermodels or beauty queens.
“I guess I hadn’t noticed,” David said.
Tom chuckled. “You’re excused. You’ve barely taken your eyes off your wife the whole night.”
David’s gaze slid across the room. He found Christy standing by the dessert table talking to Sara and her husband.
“She is so beautiful.” David’s heart rose to his throat.
Tom turned to look and his gaze narrowed. “Sara Michaels? Yeah, she is hot, no doubt about it.”
“Sara?” David shot Tom a disbelieving look. “I was talking about Christy.”
Tom laughed and clapped David on the back. “Just kidding. You know what I think of Christy. She’s the best.”
David’s gaze shifted back to Christy. He marveled at the way she interacted not only with Sara and Sal, but with the employees who stopped to speak to her.
“Look at her. She’s such a natural,” David said. “No wonder she’s so successful.”
“She makes everyone feel important,” Tom said. “And that is a large part of her success. Speaking of which, what do you think about our girl going international? She’s really hitting the big time now.”
“International?” David kept his voice expressionless and tried not to show his surprise. “What do you mean?”
“Didn’t she tell you?” Tom raised a brow.
“Sure she did,” David said. “But I was busy with something else at the time and I guess I didn’t pay close enough attention. So—” he brushed a piece of lint from his sleeve “—how many dates are you looking at?”
“Between the ones in the States and the ones in Europe, I can keep her busy almost continuously.”
“Define almost continuously.” A sick feeling filled the pit of David’s stomach.
Tom paused and thought for a moment. “Two hundred plus days.”
David stared disbelieving at Tom. “She’d be gone two thirds of the year. I can’t believe Christy would agree to that.”
“Well, it’s true she hasn’t signed the contracts yet,” Tom said.
David breathed a sigh of relief.
“Though I have to tell you she was excited about the schedule,” Tom continued.
“She was?” David didn’t try to keep the skepticism from his tone.
“Yes, indeed.” Tom’s voice rang with a conviction that David found hard to question. “I know the woman, David. I know what her career means to her. She’ll sign those contracts.”
David wanted to tell Tom that he didn’t know Christy as well as he thought he did. There would be no way Christy would go off to Europe. She’d promised to scale down her travel, not increase it.
“I guess we’ll have to see,” David said. There was no need to argue with Tom over the issue. Soon enough, Christy’s publicist would discover for himself that though her career was important, it was no longer the top priority in Christy’s life.
Tom smiled. “Yes, we will.”
When Joni came by a few minutes later and whisked Tom out on the dance floor, David was relieved. He leaned against the wall.
Two hundred plus days.
“You look like you just lost your best friend.” Sara’s unexpected voice sounded soft and low against his ear.
David’s lips automatically curved in a smile as he turned. Sara was dressed in a silver dress that hugged her every curve, and David had to agree with Tom that she was one beautiful woman. But David knew she was much more than a gorgeous shell. On the inside, she was just as beautiful.
“I want to thank you again for agreeing to sing on such short notice,” David said.
“I appreciate being invited,” Sara said. “Plus I owe you. My manager is convinced that Entertainment Today interview really helped my latest album sales.”
David racked his brain trying to figure out what interview she might be referring to. “You’re not talking about that time at your house?”
“That’s the one.” Sara took a glass of champagne from a passing waiter. “The publicity came at just the right time.”
“But I didn’t have anything to do with it.”
“Sure you did,” Sara said. “I mean, Christy did. Her publicist and I talked earlier and he let it slip that he’d put a bug in their ear suggesting the taping.”
“So that’s why she came back early.” The anguish in David’s voice nowhere near matched the disappointment in his soul. Why had Christy let him believe that she’d come back early for him? “Not for your party or because she wanted to see me, but because of a chance for publicity.”
“It wasn’t like that at all,” Sara said. “She hadn’t realized the party was for her and…”
Sara rattled on, but David tuned her out.
His heart sank in his chest. All these months Christy had let him believe she’d come back for him. If she hadn’t been honest about this, what else could she have lied about?
Christy leaned against the side of the bathroom stall partition. She drew a shaky breath and brushed a strand of hair back from her face with a trembling hand.
Thankfully the ladies’ room had been empty when she’d made her mad dash, the crab puffs she’d eaten earlier pushing at the back of her throat.
What is wrong with me?
The stress of not knowing what was behind her myriad of strange symptoms had led her to make a doctor’s appointment for early next week. But she’d felt so good the past couple of days, she’d been tempted to pick up the phone and cancel it. Now she was glad she hadn’t.
Christy reached down and unraveled some toilet tissue, breaking off a couple of squares to wipe her mouth just as the door to the bathroom creaked open.
“Do you think it’s true?” A feminine voice Christy didn’t recognize spoke.
“I don’t know, but the guy is my boss.” The other female voice sounded vaguely familiar. “I could get fired for talking about him.”
“Joni, chill out. We’re the only ones in here,” the first woman answered. “There’s more chance we’ll be overheard talking in the ballroom than in here.”
Christy stood perfectly still. Obviously they didn’t realize she was in the handicapped stall tucked around the corner. If she were going to reveal herself, now would be the time. But would that be the best move? She would bet that the second voice, the one the other referred to as Joni, was David’s administrative assistant. Though she didn’t know the young woman very well, she seemed the sensitive sort. If Christy announced her presence at this point, it would probably ruin the young woman’s evening.
Christy decided to remain silent and pray they didn’t say anything she shouldn’t hear.
“Okay,” Joni said. “You’re probably right.”