Chapter 13
I’m still thinking about Avery when my personal attorney Andrew Beckham walks into my office and sets a stack of contracts and a rolled up blueprint on my desk.
I glance at the cover page on the papers, then look up at Beck. “The deal on the Australian high-rise cleared?”
He nods, looking smugly confident. “You told me to look for cracks in the regulatory code that was obstructing the sale. Well, I found one.”
Intrigued, I lean back in my chair as he takes a seat on the other side of the desk from me. I’ve worked with Beck for years, consider him my best friend in many ways. With his rich brown skin and arresting pale green eyes, he’s the kind of guy who turns female heads every time he walks in the room. But behind the knife-edge cheekbones and smooth-as-silk smile is one of the sharpest minds I’ve ever encountered.
Fortunately for me, he works for Baine International.
“The current tower already exceeds new height restrictions that were passed a few years ago,” he explains. “Because we’re planning extensive renovations and expansion of the existing footprint, our request to be grandfathered in under the old regulation was denied.”
“Which is why we agreed we wouldn’t build up,” I remind him. “But our team on the ground in Melbourne seemed pretty convinced last night in our conference call that our hands were going to be tied on any kind of expansion.”
“They were right.” Beck’s mouth starts to curve, lifting the corners of his trim goatee. “But we can sidestep the regulations if we incorporate a new community area into our plans.”
I frown, already considering our options. “You’re talking about building a small park or playground for the building?”
Beck nods. “It’ll add to the overall cost of the project, but we’ll recoup it in less than ten years simply based on the current building revenue. Plus, we’ll be improving the quality of life for the residents.”
“Good work.” I pick up my pen and scribble my signature on the agreements. “Now we just have to figure out how to make it happen.”
He chuckles. “You mean you have to figure it out. I just connect dots and push paper, my friend.”
We both pause when my assistant, Lily Fontana, appears in the open doorway. “Excuse me for interrupting. Nick, there’s a job foreman from a YMCA construction site in New Jersey on the phone. He says he just received a shipment of drawer pulls and cabinet knobs delivered to him and he’s not sure what to do with them.”
Beck and I exchange a confused look. “Why’s he calling us?”
“Because the shipment is addressed to you. It was supposed to be delivered to the recreation center job site. The supplier sent it to the wrong place.”
“What do we have on site now?”
Lily’s face blanches a little. “Um, nothing. I checked with our site foreman before I bothered you. Rudy says no one realized the parts hadn’t arrived yet. Someone checked them off the punch list by mistake.”
I don’t hold back the harsh curse that rips off my tongue. The rec center is the first thing I’ve actually built from the ground up, not acquired and improved or torn down to start again. It’s personal. More important to me than anything I’ve ever done in business before.
So even a minor fuck up like this matters.
“Have Rudy order the parts again. I’ll pick them up myself if I have to.”
“He’s already tried to get some more delivered. They’re on backorder. They won’t be in until next month.”
“Unbelievable. More than a million in kitchen equipment installed in that place but no one bothered to look at the cabinets? Jesus Christ.” I rake a hand over my head. “Tomorrow we’re going to have a couple dozen reporters out there on a private press tour ahead of the ribbon-cutting in a few days. Are you telling me there’s a chance we won’t have any hardware on the drawers or cabinets?”
“I’ll go pick them up from the New Jersey location,” Lily offers.
“No. That’s all right,” I tell her. Even though she’s always willing to go above and beyond, this is my problem to handle. “I’ll make sure the parts get to the site. I want to walk through again by myself before the press descends on the place anyway.”
She frowns. “Sorry, Nick.”
“Not your fault.” No, it’s mine. I should have been monitoring the progress more closely. The truth is, I’ve had one primary concern for the past week or so and that’s Avery. Although I’d only be lying to myself if I try to pretend my head has been fully in the game for the entire past year. “Thank you, Lily. I’ll handle this.”
“Okay. I’ll text you the address.”
She retreats to her desk and a few seconds later, her message hits my phone.
“Anything I can do?” Beck asks as he takes the signed contracts and slides them into a folder.
“Yeah.” I slant him a wry look as I stand up. “Be ready with bail money in case I discover any other disasters when I get to the rec center site.”
He chuckles as he pivots and heads out the door.
“Hey, you think I’m joking?”
I step out from behind my desk to retrieve my suit jacket from the closet. I’m shrugging into it when my cell phone chimes. No need to look at the screen before my dark mood starts to lift. It’s Avery’s ring tone, the one I set for her more than a year ago. The one I never had the heart to delete in all the time we’d been apart.
“Hello, beautiful.” There is a pause on the other end of the line. “Avery?”
“Hi.” Another pause, followed by her quiet laugh. “I think it’s going to take a little time for me to get used to hearing your voice in my ear. Especially hearing you say that.”
It’s how I often greeted her when she’d call me, and it feels astonishingly normal to be doing so again. I nod to Lily as I walk past her desk on my way out to the elevator.
“Where are you at?”
“The studio. I got here a few minutes ago.”
I glance at my watch and push the button for the executive garage. It’s still early in the day, not yet eleven o’clock. I dropped her off at Kathryn’s around nine. “How did things go this morning?”
“Kathryn was awake when I got there. She sat up in bed for a while and we talked for about forty-five minutes before she started nodding off.” I hear the optimism in Avery’s voice, but I also hear the concern. “Pauline, her nurse, told me she’s refusing to take her pain meds today. Kathryn says they only make her want to sleep more. We already know how she feels about missing out on anything.”
I grunt in acknowledgment. “That’s one thing that’ll never change.”
“I hope it won’t,” she says, going quiet and somber on me. “The minute Kathryn stops caring that she’s not at the center of all the action I’ll know it’s time to brace myself for the worst.”
She’s right about that. I exit the descended elevator and wake my car with a jab of the remote. The black M6 chirps in its parking spot near the lift. “Have you had a chance to talk to your sculptor friend? I’m curious to hear what went wrong with Derek Kingston.”
Although I’m reluctant to bring up yet another worry of hers, I’d rather steer Avery away from fears of Kathryn’s furthering decline. Hell, there are countless things I’d rather talk about other than disease and dying too.
“What went wrong?” Avery seems to choke a bit on the answer. “They slept together.”
“Ah, Christ.” I climb behind the wheel of my car and start the engine. Then I hit the hands-free, putting Avery on the speakers. Hearing her voice surround me is a pleasure I want to savor. “Didn’t I tell you when she met the guy that she wouldn’t want to get involved with him?”
“Yes, you did. The same way a lot of people I know tried to warn me about you.”
I scowl into my rearview mirror as I back out of the parking space. Although I had to concede the point to her on that one, it didn’t mean I had to agree. “Our situation is different. You and I are different.”
“She’s in love with him, Nick. I don’t think she realizes it yet, but I can tell. I can see it in her eyes when she talks about him. Even when she’s insisting he’s the most aggravating man she’s ever met.”
“Maybe I need to have a talk with Kingston, one on one,” I suggest. “Make sure he understands that if he hurts this woman he’ll have to answer to me. Say the word and I’ll head out to Brooklyn Heights right now.”
She laughs. “Don’t you dare! Besides, you won’t find him at Dektech’s headquarters. He just left the studio with Lita. They went somewhere to talk. At least, that’s what they said they were going to do. Personally, I think they’ve got other plans than just talking.”
“Sounds good to me. What are your plans for the rest of the day?”
“I don’t know.” I can feel the smile in her voice. “You got any ideas?”
“Hundreds of them.” Even as I speak, I’m already ignoring the GPS route toward New Jersey, heading instead for Avery’s studio in East Harlem. “I’ll pick you up in fifteen minutes.”