Chapter 164
Scheduling Plans
Logan’s POV
Cli
Not because I was giving up. But because staying here and driving past the house every few days wasn’t accomplishing anything. It was just costing me time at the company and not delivering any results.
If I couldn’t get to Sedona directly, I needed to think about what else was possible at this point.
The divorce papers were almost processed. My lawyer had been clear about that. Weeks, he’d said, before a court date was assigned. After that, it was done.
If the divorce finalized, I lost whatever legal standing I had as her husband. Whatever small remaining argument there was for her having an obligation to deal with me.
I needed to slow that down without her knowing.
Or I needed to deal with the problem differently.
I picked up my phone. Called Marcus Reeve.
“The second man,” I said when he answered. “At the Preston house. Not Wells. The other one. Younger, dark hair, usually arrives midmorning. I need to know who he is p>
“I’ll look into it,” Reeve said. “Anything else p>
“Wells,” I said. “Is he still in Seattle p>
“As of this morning, yes. His departure hasn’t changed p>
“When he leaves, I want to know immediately,” I said.
“Understood p>
I ended that call. Sat for a moment.
Then I called a different number. The one I’d called before. The one I’d called to arrange something and then called back to cancel.
It rang three times.
“You canceled,” the voice said when it picked up. Flat. Not angry, just stating a fact.
“I know,” I said.
“And p>
“I want to reopen the conversation,” I said. “But differently. Not immediately. There needs to be time between now and when it happens. If we do it now,it would be a problem for me because I don’t have to be here and it has to be done in a time when I wouldn’t be suspected of having a hand in it. So basically that means enough time that I’m not in the city anymore. Enough time that nobody looks at the timing and connects it to me p>
Scheduling Pins-
A pause. “That’s more expensive than what you are offering for the first one p>
“I know,” I said.
“How much time?” He asked, his voice gruff as I thought about it for a moment before replying
Clarm
“A few weeks,” I said. “Maybe a month or two to be safe. I’ll be back in Chicago by the weekend. I need to be established there, back in my routine before anything moves forward from end p>
your
“And the target is the same p>
“Yes,” I said. “The same. With the other new one, the other man. Find out who he is first and let me know. His relationship with my wife will determine what to do about him. Nothing should be done to the kids though p>
“All right,” the voice said. “We’ll be in touch p>
I ended the call.
Put the phone face down on the desk.
I looked at the reports.
The Pacific acquisition needed a decision by end of the month. There were two board calls I’d been pushing back and had been getting angry calls about them threatening to move forward with another company if they can’t reach a compromise with me.
My assistant had flagged three contracts that required my signature before they could proceed. A month away from the office had left things in a state that needed hands-on management and I needed to be hands on.
I had a company to run. A son at home who had just cheered up when I’d said I was coming back. A divorce that was almost finalized and needed to be dealt with through legal channels I was still figuring out and looking for a loophole to tilt the case to my side.
I had a plan in motion that needed time to unfold from a distance. I needed to go home.
I opened my laptop and booked a flight for Saturday morning. Direct to Chicago, early enough that I’d be
home before Nick’s bedtime.
Then I called my assistant and told her I’d be in the office Monday morning and she should schedule the board calls and clear the backlog of contracts for review.
She sounded relieved, which told me the month away had been more disruptive than she’d let on in her reports.
I worked through the rest of the evening. Emails, documents, the accumulated work of a man who’d been sitting in a motel room in Seattle prioritizing the wrong things for too long.
At some point I ate something from a bag I’d picked up earlier in the day.
At some point it got fully dark outside.
I thought about Nick asking if I’d found a way for them to talk.
23
Scheduling Phons-
thought about him saying he missed her, in that quiet voice, and then moving on to the soup and the crayon story because he was six and that was how he managed things he couldn’t fix.
He didn’t know she was twenty minutes away.
Clam
He didn’t know about the house or the family or the tree or the two small boys who got to sit next to her in the garden.
I was going to fix this.
I hadn’t figured out the how yet. But the plan with the voice on the phone needed time anyway. And while that time passed, I’d be in Chicago. I’d be present with my son. I’d be running my company and looking like a man who had moved on, who had come home, who was getting on with things.
Which made the timing cleaner.
Which made everything cleaner.
I closed the laptop.
Packed what I needed for the morning. It wasn’t much-I’d been living out of a bag for a month, so basically it was its own kind of information about what life I have been living.
I set an alarm for five-thirty.I Lay down on the motel bed.
Thought about Nick’s voice when I’d said I’d be home before the weekend.
*Really? You promise p>
He was going to be glad to see me. That was real, whatever else was complicated. My son was going to be genuinely glad to see me and that was something I hadn’t been giving him enough of for a month.
I was going home.
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Florence
A passionate storyteller who brings emotions to life through her words. When she’s not writing, she finds peace nurturing her garden.