by Dale Mayer
As he sat here, going through the notes that Levi had sent him on the kid, he thought how Dianne would probably want some coffee when she woke up, so he quickly ordered up room service. When it was delivered, it was brought in by Rory.
“How is she doing?”
“She’s napping right now, since she’s off until dinner tonight, having agreed to an unexpected session as one presenter isn’t feeling good.”
“Good,” he said. “We’ve done a full check and run all the license plates,” he said. “Absolutely no sign of anybody suspicious at the moment.”
“I know, and that’s more worrisome than ever.”
“No sign of Maxwell, no facial recognition popping up anywhere. He is in the city, as far as we know, but he’s hiding out.”
“Well, he also doesn’t know if the cops are after him.”
“I don’t think she contacted them, did she?”
“No, she contacted Levi instead.”
“Which is a good call on her part, yet the cops probably do need to be aware.”
“You could check in with Levi and see if they brought them in on it.”
Rory nodded. “I’ll do that.” Looking around, he said, “I guess we’ll leave you here then, keeping an eye on things for the rest of the evening.”
Noah nodded. “There’s a dinner and then another speaker address tonight.”
“So,” Rory said, “she should be done at maybe what? Nine o’clock or so?”
“Yes,” Noah stated.
“Then,” Rory added, “we will hand her off to you in this room as long as you stay here.”
“That’s the plan,” Noah said, “at least I can protect her here.”
With that, Rory nodded and left. As soon as the door closed, Di sat up and looked at him. “Do I really need to be protected this close?”
“Yes,” he said, walking over to stare down at her. “No point in us only doing a half-ass job.” She laid there, blinking up at him, trying to process the information. He loved the sleepiness in her eyes. “Speaking of which, if we’ll be looking after you, we might as well be really looking after you.” And, on that note, he brought her a coffee.
Her eyes widened, and she sat up. “Seriously?” He nodded. She slid off the bed, took the cup from him, walked into the living room, and said, “Careful. I could get used to this.”
“Ha,” he said, with a smile. “You can’t get too used to it.”
“Why? You won’t stick around?” she asked, as she sat down with her coffee.
“Well, I’m here for a while,” he said in a gentle tone.
“But you’re not sticking?”
“I work for Levi,” he said, “so I’m here. You’re the one who’s leaving.”
“Maybe not,” she said, rotating her neck and head, trying to ease the tension in the back of her shoulders.
He saw that she was still pinched up tight, even after the nap. He walked over and gently massaged the back of her neck and the top of her shoulders.
She moaned and said, “How could you tell that was bad?”
“I saw your back and shoulders were tense all the way up.” He drew his finger across her shoulder and up the gentle slope of her neck. And then he went back to massaging.
“You don’t realize how stressed you are,” she muttered, “until you have your shoulders rubbed like this.”
“Maybe that’s something you should look at, you know? Whether this is the life you want.”
“I don’t think the stress is from my life as much as it’s from the attack,” she said.
“In which case we have to end all thoughts of this guy being able to attack you anymore,” he said, “just so you can be safe.”
“Obviously he’s still angry at Levi, so it would be nice if the two of them could sit down and have a talk.”
“Well, that would be an ideal scenario, but I suspect this guy just wants to let his guns do the talking.”
“I don’t understand that propensity for violence,” she whispered. “Just the thought of it is enough to scare me.”
“With good reason,” he said quietly. “But somebody always must counter those who have a natural bent to violence.”
“Which is what you do, right?”
“Yes, all of us.”
She nodded. “I just like to focus on what is best for the body, like what’s the next best medical health discovery or new product,” she said, “that can make people happy with themselves.”
“And that’s great because the world needs that too.”
She smiled and looked up at him behind her, as he dropped his hands off her shoulders. “It’s just hard to imagine that the world is so messed up.”
“It’s messed up, but there are really good pockets in it too,” he said. “You always must remember that.”
“I guess,” she whispered. She handed him his cup of coffee he’d left on the counter and said, “Here, thanks for the neck massage.”
“You’re welcome,” he said, accepting the cup. He looked down at her and asked, “Are you serious about staying in town?”
“Maybe,” she said, “it’s hard to know what to do anymore.”
“You have to follow your heart on some things.”
“Following my heart is not a problem, but it’s a little hard to sort out business logistics when you’re under attack.”
“So just park everything until afterward. You obviously trust Levi and Ice.”
“I do. We’ve been friends for a long time, and that helps,” she said. “But it’s funny how some of this stuff just, well, until you deal with something, you can’t even focus on anything else because your mind is constantly drawn back to the one issue.”
“And that issue will be gone soon,” he said cheerfully.
Chapter 8
“I wish I had your positive attitude,” Dianne whispered.
“Yep,” Noah said, “but I understand why you don’t. Just hold tight until we can get through this.”
“Thank you,” she said, with a bright smile. “I wish we could just stay here for dinner.”
“We can’t?”
“No,” she said, “the big dinner tonight at the conference doesn’t start till seven.” She looked at her watch and said, “Wow, I really slept, didn’t I?”
“Well, it’s a quarter to six, so we don’t have too much time. Is there anything you want to do?”
“Not really, just go over my notes for tonight and tomorrow,” she said, “so that I’m prepped and ready to get through each day.”
“Well, you’ve got a handle on that,” he said. “So take your time, and we’ll go down whenever you’re ready.”
She went over her notes, drank her coffee, and generally sat and relaxed. Then she got up and did several yoga moves, just to take more kinks out of her body, and, as she did so, he got up and did them beside her.
“It’s funny,” she said. “I’ve never really thought of yoga as a group activity.”
“It totally is,” Noah said. “All around the world people do things like this together. It often motivates more people to do it.”
“I guess,” she said, “but, for me, it’s always been a stress reliever, so I just get up and do it when I need to.”
“Maybe you should make it part of your morning routine.”
She nodded. “Not a bad idea. Maybe I should try that,” she said. “You know what? It’s always easy to tell other people how to pick up their lives and fix them,” she said. “That’s one of the reasons I like these conferences because it helps me motivate myself. I so often see changes that other people have made and the evidence of how well they are doing. So it’s one of those cases where you see something that you’ve let go and now want to get busy and fix it.”
“I agree. It’s all about motivation, and, once you have the proper motivation for you, then you tend to act on it. The problem is keeping that motivation,” he said.
She burst out laughing. “Oh, my gosh, that is precisely the problem,” she mu
rmured. It wasn’t long before she looked at the time and groaned. “It really is time to go.”
“Yep,” he said. “Are you good?”
She nodded. “I’ll be fine,” she said. “I can’t say I’m enjoying the conference much because of the extra pressure, but, at the same time, it feels comfortable, and it feels right in many ways because it’s what I’m used to.”
“A lot to be said for that.” He got up as she came out of the bathroom the last time, with her makeup fixed. Smiling, he said, “You look great.”
She looked down at the outfit she had changed into. She had put on a beautiful dress that made her feel confident. It was black with a little bit of a white pattern going down one shoulder and across the chest to open as a big flower in her flowing skirt. Dressed in heels as well, she felt stronger and more confident.
He looked at her and whistled. “That’s some outfit.”
She nodded. “It’s not the first time I’ve worn it,” she admitted. “I do like it for classy evening work events, like this.”
He opened the door and said, “I like it anytime.”
She smiled. “You’re just being nice.”
“Am I not allowed to be nice?”
“I guess that’s part of the question, isn’t it?”
He rolled his eyes. “It isn’t a complicated question in any way.”
“With you, everything’s complicated,” she said.
“It’s not supposed to be,” he said, protesting.
“You’re a complicated person,” she said, “so I find myself checking everything you say.”
He stared at her. “Why would you do that?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know,” she said. “I want to take you at face value, but it’s almost like you’re too good to be true.”
Noah snorted. “I don’t know where you got that idea,” he said, “because that’s not true.”
She smiled. “I’ve met a lot of guys, even some of Levi’s crew, but I’ve never felt that same connection.”
“That’s not my fault,” he said.
“No, it isn’t, but it’s not mine either.”
He shook his head. “This is a stupid conversation,” he announced.
“Like many of ours seem to be,” she said, as she walked straight down to the elevator and hit the button before he had a chance to.
“I won’t make you run down the stairs in heels,” he said.
“That’s good because I had no intention of doing so,” she said, laughing.
He rolled his eyes. “Are you always this difficult?”
“No, are you?”
He groaned. “Okay, how about if we just stop this discussion.”
“Perfect,” she said, “it’s kind of a stupid one anyway.”
He nodded. “I just said that.”
“That doesn’t make it any less true,” she said.
“Good Lord, give me strength,” he muttered. Another couple got on the elevator at the next stop. They smiled at him, while Noah just nodded his head, studying them from a whole different perspective, but they appeared to be harmless, like hundreds of other people in the hotel right now. It all just made his job that much harder.
When they all exited the elevator at the same time, Di nudged Noah and said, “You really could be nicer.”
He stared at her in shock. “I could be what?”
“You know,” she said. “You know exactly what you did.”
“I didn’t do anything,” he said.
“Exactly,” she said. “You should have been friendlier to them. You could have at least smiled and said hello or something.”
“Why would I want to do that?”
“It’s called social niceties,” she said in exasperation. “You really do need to work on your manners.”
“No, I don’t,” he said, glaring at her. “My manners are just fine.”
She knew she had gotten to him and, of course, that just made her all the happier. She gave him a cheeky grin as they headed to dinner.
“Says you,” he replied, rolling his eyes at her. “You’re just trying to throw me off.”
“No,” she said, “I’m trying to forget.” And, with that, she strode quickly toward the back of the dining room, where all the tables were set up. So far, the doors hadn’t been opened to let in all the attendees, but that would happen soon enough. As she got up to the front, one of the organizers walked over.
“Everything good?” Di asked.
“Everything’s fine,” she said. “You’re the second speaker of the night.”
“Sounds good,” Di said. She sat down at her place at the table. The name tag beside her read Noah Wilkerson. She wouldn’t get rid of Noah anytime soon. He sat at her side, and, somehow along the line, he had changed clothes too. “You look very nice, by the way.”
“You didn’t even notice at first,” he said.
She looked over. “Did I hurt your feelings?”
“No,” he said in exasperation, “you didn’t.”
“Okay,” she said, “that’s good.”
“Why is it good?”
“Well, I wouldn’t want to deliberately hurt your feelings, at least not in that way. I mean, to bug and to tease you is one thing,” she muttered, “but obviously I should have recognized that you had changed your clothes because you recognized that I did.”
“No reciprocal compliments, please.” He sighed. “Forget it.”
She glared at him. “I was trying to apologize.”
“No apology needed,” he said.
She turned to face him.
A woman from across the table said, “You two are great together. I didn’t even realize you had a special partner.” Di grinned at the woman. As she went to open her mouth and say something, she got a sharp nudge from Noah, and immediately turned to look at him with a frown.
He just batted his eyes at her. “Oh, we’re often like this,” he said to the woman. “We just have a little fun with it.”
Di winced. “That’s true enough,” she admitted. “I do take great delight in teasing him.”
“That’s lovely to see,” the woman said, with a smile. “It’s funny how different relationships are. But it’s always great to have someone you can joke around with and just have fun with.”
“Absolutely.” Noah nodded.
“How long have you been together?”
At that, Noah jumped in again. “Not too long,” he said, “but, when it’s right, it’s right.”
Dianne looked at him, smiled, and said, “Neither of us have done very well in that department in the past,” she murmured, “have we, dear?”
He gave her a bright smile. “Nope,” he said, “we haven’t. But that’s what makes this so special.” She rolled her eyes at him, and he leaned over and kissed her gently on the cheek. “Besides, you’re very special.”
“Oh, isn’t that so sweet,” said the woman across from them. “How nice it is to see a couple in love, like you two so obviously are.” And, with a bright happy smile, she picked up her glass of red wine, and the discussion turned to the seminar and the speakers for the evening.
Outside of sending Noah a look that spoke volumes, Di could hardly refute the woman’s observation.
Dianne was grateful when the evening was finally over because something about his words, the tone of voice, and the look he had sent her, made her rethink her past relationships and made her wonder about the relationship with Noah that she knew they didn’t have, yet now he was confusing her. So was he just a hell of a good actor or was something here?
No doubt she really appreciated him being around during this stressful time, and they joked and kibitzed back and forth, which was a lot of fun. He was also looking after her, and this was his job—so it’s not like it was a romance. But it got her thinking about how long it had been since she had had one and how strange the concept of a good relationship seemed to be.
She became a little pensive, just thinking about it. She tended to spend a lot of time
filling her spare hours and minutes with activities and other people and work, all so that she could substitute this alternative activity for a real relationship. Something that she hadn’t given a lot of thought to, but just maybe the whole scenario with being attacked—or maybe just being around Noah—had her rethinking it all. As she stood around this evening, socializing with everybody, Noah came up beside her, with a glass of wine in his hand.
“How you doing?” he asked.
She smiled. “Not too bad.”
He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and tucked her up close, she presumed to keep up the appearance and leaned into him quite happily. “You enjoying it?” he asked.
She nodded. “Yes, and no,” she said. “I’m tired.” With that, she yawned and covered it with a laugh. “Sorry,” she whispered. “It’s just been a very long day.”
“Even though you had a long nap,” he teased.
“And I’d forgotten about that,” she said, with a shake of her head. “I guess the whole thing’s finally catching up to me.”
“And that’s good,” he murmured. “It’ll give you a chance to unwind tonight, and then tomorrow morning, you should be ready to tackle it all over again.”
She smiled, nodded, and said, “That sounds good to me.” She looked around and said, “Can we leave now, do you think?”
“That’s what I came over here to ask you,” he said, with a smile.
She nodded. “I think I’m ready to go.” They turned and walked toward the exit. “I still can’t believe nothing’s happened.”
“That’s a good thing,” he said. “It’s not a waste if we’re here the entire week, and nobody comes after you.”
“I’m glad you said that,” she said. “I have to admit to feeling a little guilty.”
He chuckled. “Guilty that you haven’t been attacked?”
She shrugged. “I know it sounds foolish, but all of this is in place to keep me safe, and it doesn’t look like there’s even any hint of a threat.”
“Which is when it’ll be that much more dangerous,” he said quietly.
