Logan’s sweet kiss from earlier drifted to the top of my thoughts. I didn’t know if it was that or my daughter’s pleading that made me say what I said next.
“There is a nice little diner near here.” I shrugged. “If we go right away, I guess it wouldn’t be a big deal.”
Juniper jumped off Logan’s leg to let out a squeal of delight. Logan’s restrained smile turned into a wide grin.
Chapter Fourteen
LOGAN
Two days later on Friday, I was sitting in my office looking through documents. For all the power and wealth that came with my job, it mostly consisted of me spending my days reading very boring documents and e-mails. Heavy lies the crown, I suppose.
As I sorted through the details of buying controlling interesting in a company specializing in the mining of rare earth metals, my mind kept drifting to something very different: little children singing about spring at Juniper’s school festival.
I liked Juniper. She was a sweet girl, full of life. Innocence was something I didn’t see much of in my line of work. When millions and billions were on the line, people couldn’t afford to be happy and innocent. It’d been a long time since I was.
My memories of Juniper turned to thoughts of her mother.
When we’d gone out to the diner, we’d had a fun time discussing the rest of the performances that night and Juniper’s detailed analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of everyone in her class. She might be a little thing, but she had a good mind for analysis, and she was also realistic about her own abilities. Someday, she might make a good financial analyst. I even told Emily such, and she’d laughed. Then again, she was a risk analyst herself.
For all the entertaining conversation about Juniper’s possible future in the financial services sector, we didn’t talk about what I thought was the most important. We didn’t talk about what Emily and I actually had together. A relationship? A friendship? Something in between?
I didn’t understand Emily or what was going on inside her head. All I knew for certain was that I wanted her, and every second I spent with her, I wanted more than just a friendship.
The chemistry was there. The memory of that first kiss with her haunted me at night, left me awake and hard, yearning for something more than a mere kiss. Even then, sitting there in my office remembering her in that dress, I couldn’t help but want to see what that curvy, perfect body of hers would be like without those distracting clothes.
Even during that sweet kiss I laid on her at the school, a spark of passion singed me. It wasn’t just attraction. It burned hotter than that and had for some time.
It was from the fire kindled by our first kiss at the fundraiser dinner. Each time I’d met with her fed that fire until it burned intensely hot.
I didn’t know what this all meant for the future. My body craved Emily—that much was for certain—but it went deeper than that. Her smile lit up my heart, and I laughed when chatting with her. It relaxed me in a way that even playing with my boys couldn’t achieve.
I sucked in a breath. My mother’s little plan looked like it was starting to work. Annoying but still true. Not to say I was ready to ask Emily to marry me, but I was hooked on her. I needed to do something to make things clear to both of us.
A nice dinner, spending time with her daughter, those were a start and fun, but they were just the beginning.
My phone rang, breaking my concentration, and I picked it up, muttering. I was at work, after all, so it wasn’t like I could spend all day thinking about a woman.
“Logan,” my secretary said over the line. “Just got a call from a representative of Mr. Ishida. They want you to come to Japan after all.”
“Oh?”
“Yes. They were very insistent on that point.”
“Were they now?” I chuckled. I’d been working the Japanese deal for six months, and they’d been dragging their feet that entire time, acting like they weren’t interested in my investment deal. “I’m guessing they want me there sooner than later, then?”
“They said they wanted you there by Wednesday.”
I burst out laughing. “They are really trying to control things now, aren’t they? All right. Go ahead and contact them and let them know I’ll be there.”
“Really? Are you sure?”
“Oh, I’ve dealt with quicker turnarounds than this before. The key is to let them know that just because they want me there sooner doesn’t mean they get to call all the shots.” I scratched my chin. “When you contact them, tell them I’ll be flying in and arriving on Tuesday afternoon Tokyo time. If they want an earlier meeting, I’m fine, but if they want to wait until Wednesday, I’m fine with that. Plenty to do in Japan.”
“Yes, sir. I’ll take care of it right away.”
Hanging up, I shook my head. I hadn’t intended to go on another international business trip so soon, but hundreds of millions of dollars were on the line. I could suffer a little jetlag for that much money for my company.
Really, though, it wasn’t about the money. I had more money than I could ever spend, especially with my modest tastes. The money was just a way of reminding myself I was doing something important that influenced a lot of people.