Total pages in book: 37
Estimated words: 34442 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 172(@200wpm)___ 138(@250wpm)___ 115(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 34442 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 172(@200wpm)___ 138(@250wpm)___ 115(@300wpm)
The second I stepped outside, warm night air brushed across my face, and I pressed my back up against the brick of the building as I hit dial on the call.
It took three rings before a greeting filled my ears.
“Mr. Kelly!” Haruto exclaimed into the receiver. “How are you?”
“Well, Harry, I’m a little concerned. I expected I would have heard from you by now about how the dinner went. Did they love it?”
“Ah, yes. Well…see…”
His hesitant, filibustering words urged my chest to expand with irritation, but I quickly forced a calming breath into my lungs. I refused to let myself go verbal Hulk Smash on my beloved Haruto. Not only had he agreed to take on the task of flying to Cabo last minute to help my best friend and his wife have an awesome getaway, but his restaurant in NYC was one of my favorite places to eat. And my father had always said, Never shit where you eat, son. You never know when you’ll accidentally take a bite.
“Come on, Harry. Lay it on me. How’d it go?”
“Well…there was a fire,” he replied, almost as if he weren’t telling me some of the worst news I could get. “It was crazy, Mr. Kelly. I’ve never seen my grill have flames that high.”
A fire? Fuck. That was not at all what was supposed to go down when I secretly hired Haruto and his assistants to bring their romance A game to Kline and Georgie’s Cabo getaway. Kline was going to eat my goddamn balls in milk and call them cereal if he found out I was the culprit.
“Harry, when I said give them an exciting dinner show, the exciting part was more figurative than anything else.”
“Mr. Kelly, you’re a very funny man,” he replied on a soft chuckle, his voice unconcerned with the fact that his hibachi grill set my best friend’s suite on fire. “And don’t worry, I was prepared to give Mr. and Mrs. Brooks an exciting dinner experience, but what can I say? Accidents happen sometimes.”
“Accidents, Harry? A burned plate of rice is an accident. A fucking fire is a cause for alarm.”
“Oh yeah, it was a very big fire,” he added. “Mrs. Brooks’s eyes looked like flying saucers.”
Fucking great.
“Listen, Harry. Tell me you didn’t tell them it was me who hired you.”
“Oh no, Mr. Kelly. I did not. Your NDA was very explicit.”
Thank fuck I’d had the foresight to make them all sign the damn thing. It probably wasn’t great for Antonio that he was getting pegged as the source, but it sure took the sweat off my balls. Kline rode a pretty firm line with me. He was much more forgiving of other people.
“Which, by the way, while I have you on the phone, should I send the invoice for damages to your assistant?”
“Invoice for damages?”
“Yes,” he continued. “My grill, carts, basically everything was destroyed.”
Fucking hell. It had already cost me a mint to fix Kline’s boring Valentine’s plans, and now I was paying for the damages from his inability to conform to them.
Obviously, though, none of that was Haruto’s fault.
“Yeah, Harry,” I said through a sigh. “Send your invoice on over, and I’ll make sure it gets paid.”
“Thank you, Mr. Kelly. I will see you back in New York, yes?”
“Yes, Haruto. I’ll come in soon.”
“Good, good. Please do not bring Mrs. Brooks.”
I laughed as Harry ended the call, and I tucked my phone back into the chest pocket of my suit jacket.
It buzzed nearly immediately, though, so I pulled it back out and read the screen.
Whiny Whitney, it seemed, was ready to weep again. Fucking lightweight.
Wes: You better pick out your casket now, bro. I just talked to Kline, and they had a fucking FIRE in their room. I can only assume you were behind it.
Me: Wow, calm down. What’s with the dramatics? It’s all been taken care of, and everything will be back on track tomorrow.
Wes: Back on track? You need to shut this shit down NOW. Kline was still in decent spirits, but I have a feeling that’s only because he didn’t know it was you who started this shitstorm. If something happens again, I will not hesitate to throw you under the bus, blackmail or not.
Me: Relax. Everything is under control.
And it was. Sure, I was a bit defeated that the first big event I had arranged for Kline and Georgie didn’t exactly go as planned, but when I reminded myself of what was to come, I quickly realized that it was all good in the Valentine’s Day hood.
Don’t worry, Georgia girl. Ole Thatcher has made sure the best is yet to come…
Cabo, Friday, May 26th
The sensation of my hair being brushed away from my neck and soft kisses being peppered across my shoulders and down my back stirred me from the recesses of my dreamlike state.