Seize the Night

“I could say the same to you,” Remi said as she finally stood up and walked over to him. “Merrick said you’d moved to Paris, and I thought—”

“—Paris, Kentucky,” he said. “How do you think I tricked my family into letting me move here?”

“Smart,” she said.

He smiled again and held out his hand to her. Remi took it and a slight tremor passed through her body when her hand met his. The last time she’d touched him had been far more intimate than a handshake.

“I’m really sorry to show up on your doorstep,” she said, Julien’s hand still in hers. “I was afraid if we called first, you’d tell us to shove it.”

“I am embarrassingly happy to see you again,” he said, and Remi was embarrassingly relieved to hear it. “Mom said you’re Arden’s manager now?”

“Your mother told you about my promotion?”

“Oh yeah,” Julien said, as Salena appeared in the doorway behind him. She put her hand on his hip to indicate she needed to pass by him, and he shifted the necessary six inches. The subtle gesture spoke of an intimacy between them, Salena touching his hip like that and his instant understanding that she needed him to move out of the way for her. Maybe Salena and Julien were more than mere employer and employee. “Mom keeps me up on all the Bluegrass gossip whether I want to know it or not. I know about your promotion. I know that your parents bought a satellite farm outside Versailles. I know that’s your assistant Merrick Feingold sitting on my couch staring at Salena. You went to Harvard?” he asked Merrick.

“I did.”

“What’s a Harvard computer nerd doing working at a horse farm?” Julien asked, sounding both casual and suspicious.

“I have no people skills. It was either Wall Street or animals. And when you work for Remi Montgomery you have the sexiest boss in the world.”

Merrick winked at her. It was an I’m goading him for your sake wink. She appreciated that.

“And how did you know I was a Harvard computer nerd?” Merrick asked. “Did my mother call you to brag?”

“Mom told me that Remi hired some Harvard computer genius who knew nothing about horses to be her assistant. And that he creeped everyone out because he wore black sunglasses all the time and was weird.”

“Is ‘weird’ code for ‘Jewish’?” Merrick asked. The sunglasses in question were currently sitting on his head.