Tessa’s eyes widened. “Ready to leave?”
She had that desperate Please don’t make me be the one to tell my ex that his current is leaving him look. If there was an acknowledged look to go with that situation, that is. Vanessa merely smiled. “I guess he’ll have to wonder.”
She got back to her lunch and was ready to enjoy the rest of her day.
Because tonight would change everything.
Two hours later Vanessa stood in the lobby of the building she’d come to think of as home. Tessa was with the manager of the building, a frown on her face. “What do you mean there’s been a problem on the penthouse floor?”
There were several workers in uniforms, toolkits at their sides, waiting in the lobby. It looked like two different crews from their uniforms.
The manager was an older, distinguished-looking man. “It’s been a crazy day. Everything has gone wrong. Our plumbing system here on the first floor went insane. There was some kind of commotion up on the penthouse floor. One of the two units had an alarm go off. We think it’s malfunctioning, but we can’t be sure.”
“Oh, it’s all kinds of malfunctioning.” Chelsea Weston sat on a bench, her daughter by her side. Sophy had a tablet out, obviously playing some sort of game. Chelsea had a laptop open in front of her. She’d dragged a table over to form a desk. “Some asshole tripped the entire floor and I panicked, and now I can’t get back up until some Agency dudes check it out because I have classified shit up there.”
Tessa’s jaw dropped. “I thought you weren’t supposed to admit you still did that.”
Chelsea shrugged. “Maybe if I admit it enough they’ll fire me. It’s only part time. Only when the really bad stuff happens. Sorry I said shit, baby.”
Sophy’s lips curled but she didn’t look up from her game. “I didn’t notice, Mom. And you help keep us all safe. You know if they fired you, you would sit up all night wondering what’s going on and driving the rest of us crazy. It’s best you stay close. Dad’s proud.”
“Well, Dad’s going to be annoyed,” Chelsea said with a sigh. “Because he’s coming home in a couple of hours, and we’ll probably still be down here. He’s going to give me so much hell about not being able to deal with the security system.”
“Can I go up and check it?” Tessa asked.
The manager perked up. “You’re on the list. I can let you go upstairs. I’m still waiting on the work orders for these gentlemen, but my system is down. I’m trying to get the homeowners to verbally approve them. Thank god one of them is a plumber because the men’s toilet is overflowing, and my super had a car accident this morning.”
It sounded like the manager was having a day.
Chelsea looked at Tessa over her laptop. “That would be great. We can’t stay up there. The alarms won’t turn off. It’s something wrong with the physical system. I tried to fix it online, but it’s the actual unit that’s got the issue. You’ve installed them?”
Tessa nodded. “I had some of the installers teach me the system, and I’m handy with a wrench when I need to be.” She looked over at Vanessa. “Stay here with Chelsea. It shouldn’t take long. I think this is one of the older units. I can get it fixed quickly.”
“The system cut off the elevators,” the manager said. “Well, the private elevators to the penthouse floor. You can take the regular elevators up to eight, but you’ll have to walk from there.”
Tessa turned distinctly disgruntled. “Yeah, I remember. Damn paranoid people.” She held up her phone. “Give me a heads-up when the suits get here. I’d like to not get shot.”
“Oh, they don’t wear suits,” Chelsea said with a frown. “Today’s Agency asshole is surprisingly casual.”
“Mom,” Sophy groaned.
“Sorry.” Chelsea looked Vanessa’s way as the doors to the elevator opened and Tessa hopped inside. “We tried to use a curse jar but we were going to go broke.”
It looked like she wouldn’t have as much time as she’d wanted. She’d intended to prepare the small playroom Michael kept for a superhot scene with her Dom. At the end she’d intended to tell him that she wasn’t going anywhere and that they had some talking to do.
She’d listened to his voicemail after lunch. Ava had left to go back to the ranch with promises of visiting very soon and then Vanessa had sat down and turned on her phone. Michael had said all the right things, and now she knew he meant them.
He wasn’t going to change his mind. They couldn’t know the future, but he wanted one with her. He cared about her, and she was worthy of that care.
They could build trust from here. Starting tonight.