“Almost? That never wins the game.” He opened the door for her and nudged her gently into the limo. “Not when I’ve got an ace in the hole.” He leaned inside and kissed her again. “I’ll join you later. Turn on the videoconferencing. Maria wants to talk to you.” He slammed the door shut and motioned for the driver to take off.

Lara sat there stunned for a moment before she found the videoconferencing app on the console monitor screen and punched it. Maria’s face came on the screen. “Thank heavens you’re here, Lara. What’s Tanner up to?” she asked. “Ever since I arrived here this morning, I’ve felt like I’ve been in the middle of a tornado.” She added, “Not a destructive tornado. Some exceptionally good things, but difficult to assimilate and take in. I decided I’d wait for you instead of trying to dig deep into Tanner’s psyche. That could be very time consuming.”

“I’ve no idea what you’re talking about. Tanner made all the flight arrangements to get us here, and the only thing he told me was that he’d take you to New York to get you settled.” She drew a deep breath. “But I think that you’d better begin telling me about the tornado. First, where are you?”

“Our apartment. Very nice. Not like the Taj, but you’ll like it. Tanner brought me here to okay it before he took me to the office.”

“What office?”

“Tanner has an office on Wall Street. Very sleek, but I think I can make it comfortable.”

“What are you talking about?”

“The first time I met Tanner, I hadn’t been with him for thirty minutes before he was talking about hiring me for a managerial position. He said I was a natural.” She grimaced. “And I thought it was bullshit. I never thought about it again until he took me to that office today.”

“And what did you think then?”

“I could do it.” Her face was lit with excitement. “Give me a little training and I could do a damn good job of anything Tanner’s executives could throw at me. Anything Tanner could throw at me.”

“And you want to try it?”

“I want to try it. I felt alive today.”

And how long had it been since Maria had felt that excitement and hunger for life? Lara wanted to reach out and hug her so that she could physically touch that excitement. “That’s fantastic. Of course you can do it. You can do anything. What else did you do today?”

“Tanner took me for a tour of the city. I liked it better than Las Vegas. That was nice, all gloss and make-believe, but New York is real, sometimes wounded, but always strong. I like strength.”