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Hard to Resist

Page 108

by Olivia Radwell

“Good. The museum curator is engaged to the dentist I matched him with. I’ve also signed a surgeon and a restaurant owner.” Chloe takes a sip of wine. “And I’m trying to sign Tom Voss.”

Grandma puts down her fork. “Tom Voss?”

“He hasn’t agreed yet.”

“How do you know him?”

“Rachel introduced us.”

Grandma looks at me. “You did what?”

“We met at the Hospitality Awards,” I say.

“I keep offering to find him a wife,” Chloe says. “But instead of signing the contract, he’s started calling just to chat. This morning he wanted to talk about meditation. He even sent me a photo of himself sitting on his office floor with his eyes closed.”

I take a sip of my drink and keep my face still.

Grandma’s mouth tightens. “You should stay away from him.”

“Right now, he’s wasting my time,” Chloe admits. “But if he signs, he’ll be a huge client. If I find Tom Voss a wife, everyone will know my agency did it. I need a win like that.”

“I can see why you want him as a client,” Grandma says. “I just don’t want you getting pulled into that family while they’re trying to build beside the Hartwell. Family comes first.”

“It does.” Chloe answers at once. “I’d never do anything that could hurt Rachel or the hotel. Finding Tom a wife has nothing to do with the development.”

The guilt makes it hard to look at either of them. Chloe is only trying to sign a client. I’m the one secretly seeing Eric and hiding it from them. I can’t stay quiet while she has to defend her loyalty.

“Chloe isn’t helping Voss build anything,” I say. “She’s just trying to charge Tom an outrageous amount of money.”

Grandma considers this. “How outrageous?”

Chloe tells her.

Grandma reaches for the wine. “Well. I suppose business is business.”

We all laugh, and some of the tightness in my chest eases.

After dinner, Grandma brings out the gifts she bought in Spain. Chloe gets a red silk scarf. Mine is blue with small gold flowers.

“I saw it and thought of you,” Grandma says.

I wrap it around my neck and hug her. “I’m glad you’re home.”

“So am I.”

Chloe puts her arms around us, and for a moment, all three of us hold on. Then Grandma remembers a box of chocolates she bought at the airport and goes to find it. Chloe and I begin clearing the table.

“Tom told me today that he plans to take some time off work to find himself,” Chloe says.

I keep stacking the plates.

“He wanted to know whether a long weekend would be enough because he has meetings on Monday.” A small smile touches her mouth. “It’s strange. He has suddenly become the exact kind of man I would never date.”

“Very strange.”

“Very.”

She hands me another plate. “I’ve barely seen you this week.”