628 P.M. #3
A knock at the door saved Miguel from having to come up with an excuse. He sprung to his feet, then hurried to the door. “Tell you what, you’ve been through so much today. Let’s forget everything and just enjoy what’s left of the evening.”
Winslow nodded. “Sounds delightful. Actually, I’m probably going to be asleep ten minutes from now. I can’t remember ever being this exhausted.”
Opening the door, Miguel ushered Indira into the room.
He had the meal set out on the balcony, needing some fresh air to keep himself from feeling as though he was going to suffocate under the weight of his lies.
Tomorrow. He would have to tell him the truth tomorrow. And pray that Winslow would understand.
10:48 P.M.
ANTONIA
“Well, this is just craptastic,” Antonia muttered.
She had just unloaded the entire contents of her toiletry kit onto the bathroom counter, and the sleeping pills definitely weren’t there.
How could she be so stupid as to forget to pack them?
If ever she needed one, it was now—when she was in a strange time zone, in a strange bed, on a boat with a man she needed to flatter and impress and convince to fork over millions of dollars.
It was clear to her that tonight was not the night for her and Ted to resuscitate their dying romance, so sadly her smooth lady bits would go to waste.
He’d come back from the fishing expedition exhausted and sun burnt.
Too tired to even make conversation, he managed to find a way to watch the Mariners game on his cell phone.
So, now all she wanted was to take her pill and have a huge sleep, which was not going to happen. Sighing, she put everything back in the bag, then opened the door and shut off the light. She would just have to hope that all that sun and fresh air would do the trick.
Ted was laying on the bed with his clothes still on, watching the last inning. “Isn’t technology amazing?” he asked. “Here I am, on a yacht in Europe, and I’m getting a live feed of a game happening on the West Coast.”
She offered him a bland smile. “Yes, it’s quite amazing.”
As soon as she climbed into bed, he muttered, “Aww, dammit.”
“What happened?”
“The Padres just scored a run. That’s the ball game.
” He let out a big sigh and got up. Setting his phone on the charger, he said, “I better have a shower and get some sleep. Travis is insisting we go fishing again at dawn.” He rolled his eyes as if Antonia wouldn’t know he was secretly thrilled to have bested him at fishing.
“I wish I hadn’t caught that stupid jack.
We just weighed it and threw it back into the water. ”
She gave him a little grin. “Come on, let’s be honest. It must have felt pretty great to beat him.”
A self-satisfied smile erased the false modesty. “Little bit, yeah. But I better not do it again tomorrow, or we’ll never have a yacht of our own.”
Antonia felt a rush of anger. “I hate that a man like him has control over our lives.”
Ted shrugged on his way to the bathroom. “If it wasn’t him, it would be some other sociopathic network head. At least he’s making us rich. Night, Toni.”
“Night,” she answered, wondering when it was that they stopped kissing each other good night and saying I love you.
As soon as he slid the door to the en suite closed, Antonia found herself staring at the ceiling, wide awake.
Hmmm, maybe they could reconnect when he got out of the shower.
Even if it was just cuddling a little. And maybe that would lead to something.
She unbuttoned the top button of her satin pajama shirt, then tried various positions in an attempt to look alluring when he returned.
She settled on lying on the bed with her head propped up on her hand, elbow bent, then realized if she stayed like that the entire time he was in the bathroom, she’d have a sore shoulder by the time he got back.
So she laid back down and listened as the shower turned on, her mind starting to wander.
It went to their kids first, as it always did when she had a few moments to think.
She realized she hadn’t talked to either of them in two days.
And even worse, she hadn’t even noticed.
Grabbing her phone off the nightstand, she checked to see if there were any messages from them.
Nothing. Probably they hadn’t noticed either.
They were at that age where you forget you even have parents for weeks at a time (unlike her, who had only forgotten she had children for two days).
She sent a quick text to each of them to say they were on the yacht, it was all very luxurious, the Croatian coastline was beautiful, and that she missed them.
After waiting for a few seconds to see if the three little dots would appear to indicate that either of them were writing her back, she gave up and put the phone back on the charger.
From the other side of the bed, Ted’s phone pinged.
It was probably Quinn, writing Ted back instead of her. Antonia sat up and reached across the massive bed and picked up his phone. The text was from Charlotte.
Is she in her drug-induced coma yet? Hurry up and bring your A-game. I have a lot of energy to burn.