Page 19 (1/2)

"I hope like hell it hurt them when you left," he said

So did she …

"Did you like it there?" he asked "San Diego?"

She’d thought so Until she’d come back here She hadn’t realized in all those years that she’d never really felt like she was home "I missed the snow"

He chuckled "Can’t tell by the car you’re driving"

"Yes, well, you alere a car snob" She paused "And I don’t plan to still be around by the tiot here," he said "In a hurry to leave already?"

"I’ at this as a little break"

"Frohed She shouldn’t be surprised he’d heard

His saze, extre me if I ratted out one of my clients for money?"

He shook his head "I know you wouldn’t rat out anyone"

The words, unwavering, sucked the air fros "You don’t know h" This was said with steely certainty

The blind faith in her actually made her throat burn Her eyes, too, and for a moment she couldn’t speak, afraid she’d burst into pathetic tears "But it was me," she said softly "My boss asked et the salon’s naed

"And so you took the fall for it"

She nodded

"So your boss was a real stand-up sort of person, then"

She’d thought so, at first Michael had run the salon, been her friend, her sometime lover, and sometimes her boyfriend And not only hadn’t he stood at her back, he’d fired her and then blacklisted her as well "It’s actually done a lot," she said "Where a celebrity calls ahead and wants their arrival or departure noted in the press It keeps them in the public eye and relevant"

Aidan never took his eyes off of her "So then why didn’t your boss co so"