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I lean back in the chair. “I barely know him.”

“That wasn’t my question,” Chloe says.

“He’s interesting,” I admit. “Annoyingly interesting.”

Chloe laughs. “That’s usually how it starts with you.”

“It isn’t starting at all.”

“Why not?”

“Because I’m working for his family,” I tell her.

“That alone is enough reason not to make anything complicated.”

Chloe doesn’t argue with me. “Fair.”

I appreciate that more than I say.

We move on to other things, and by the time we hang up, I’ve heard about her husband, both children, and the restaurant she wants me to try when I’m back in Chicago. The conversation leaves me feeling more like myself again, which is probably why it annoys me when Ross slips back into my thoughts almost as soon as the call ends.

I carry my plate to the sink and rinse it under warm water. It would be easier if I found him merely attractive. The problem is that I’m beginning to look forward to seeing him.

Chapter Four

Ross

Dinner at the London house is rarely formal unless my mother has invited half the city.

Tonight, it’s just the four of us in the smaller dining room overlooking the garden, with the doors open enough to let in the cooler evening air. My father is halfway through telling Sebastian about a property issue in Newport when my mother interrupts him to ask whether either of us plans to stay there more than three consecutive days this summer.

Sebastian looks up from his wine.

“You ask that every year.”

“Because every year you both claim you’ll be there and then disappear after forty-eight hours,” my mother replies.

“I have a house there,” Sebastian says.

“So does Ross.”

“I’m aware,” Eleanor tells him.

“That doesn’t mean either of you use them.”

My father smiles into his glass.

I cut into the sea bass and say, “I was there for ten days last August.”

My mother looks at me.

“You worked for nine of them.”

“That still counts.”

“It does not.”

Sebastian laughs. “You walked into that one.”