Indulge Me Tonight

“Listen to me, Ti.” Laura came over to join Tielle on the desk. “You’re all over the place right now. This entire retreat hit you out of nowhere. You’re entitled to be a little scattered.”

“I’ve already told myself that.” Tielle hugged herself. “I know it’s true, but it is what it is. Grae being here is gonna make this week more insane than it already is.”

“Then get out of here. Go.” Laura nudged Tielle’s shoulder with her own. “No one can blame you or make you stay.”

“Grae’s already asked me to stay. He says something’s going on or about to happen and he needed me...” She slapped her knee. “Why’d I agree to it? Why can’t I ever say no to him? And please—” she raised a hand to Laura “—don’t say it’s because I love him.”

Laura gave a small smile. “Okay...”

Tielle dragged herself behind her desk and put her head down.

* * *

“As a man who can’t stand any of his ex-wives, I now know what it feels like to see an ex you still love.”

“I think I finally understand the phrase ‘pleasure and pain.’” Grae topped off his OJ while speaking to Leo Cartright over the phone in the retreat’s library.

“Do you realize this is the first time you haven’t snapped at me for claiming you still love her?” Leo asked after a measure of silence.

“I’ll give you one better.” Grae sighed, browsing the library’s shelves without actually reading the books’ titles. “I didn’t snap because it wasn’t true—I snapped because I couldn’t do anything about it.”

“Do you want to do anything about it?”

“I want my wife back.”

“Well, you’re in the perfect place for it. You guys were married there, spent your honeymoon there.”

Grae smiled. The idea held more appeal than Leo would ever imagine. “I’ve got other reasons for being here. How am I supposed to prove to Tel that I’ve changed when once again I have to play the role of big and bad for my family and while she’s here to see me do it?”

“Why would you want her to stick around for that?” Leo asked, confusion evident in his voice.

Grae sipped his juice, and strolled on past the shelves. “It’s one thing to handle board members, clients and the press—and another thing entirely to handle my family for something like this and with no anchor.” He slipped a hand into a trouser pocket, clenched a fist. “Handling this without...my temper’s getting worse, Leo.”

“There’s a chance you won’t have to take this there.”

“We both know I will, Leo.”

“How are you gonna tackle it?”

“By waiting. He’ll tip his hand sooner or later.”

“Amen to that.” Leo chuckled. “Boy never was any good at cards.”

“Thanks, Leo,” Grae said once their laughter had softened.

* * *

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