“Hello.”

He turned and saw an attractive woman approaching. She wore a well-tailored suit and high heels. Her dark red hair hung down her back and her stride was confident. He would guess she was about his age. Her name tag identified her as Perri.

“A fan of the senator?” she asked, stopping in front of him.

“I am.”

“Me, too.” She smiled, then tilted her head. “You own a business. Hmm, let me guess. Not aerospace or retail.” She took one of his hands in hers and rubbed her fingers across his palm. “Not construction. So finance?”

“Real estate.”

“I own several day spas.”

“Are the ladies of Seattle into that sort of thing?”

The smile returned. “They are. Lucky me.”

She wore large diamond studs and an expensive watch. Not a surprise considering the lunch tickets were a thousand dollars a seat.

She released his hand. “Too bad your wife couldn’t make it.”

Hardly subtle, but then he preferred women who got right to the point. “I’m not married.”

“Me, either.”

They looked at each other.

Thaddeus knew what came next. They would sit together at the lunch and exchange a few words. At the end of the meal, she would offer her card and suggest they get together.

On the surface, she seemed to have much of what he was looking for. She was bright, successful, attractive and confident. He should be intrigued.

“Can you excuse me for a moment?” he asked.

“Of course.”

He walked toward the front of the restaurant. When he was outside, he scrolled through his contacts and placed a call.

Unity picked up on the first ring. “Hi. It’s the middle of the day. Shouldn’t you be working?”

“I could say the same thing about you.”

“I am working. I’m just finishing up hanging a replacement blind in the bedroom.”

“And then what?”

“I go back home and work on tomorrow’s schedule.”

“Want to go rock climbing instead? There’s a place right there in town.”

She laughed. “Don’t you have an empire to run?”

“I have good staff. So yes or no on the rock climbing?”

“I’d love to.”

“Great. I’ll see you in about three hours.”

He walked to the parking garage across the street and collected his car, then headed across Lake Washington, back to Bellevue. He would stop at his condo and get changed, then drive out to Willowbrook. Anticipation made it difficult not to speed. He had no idea what it was about Unity that got to him, but he’d already made the decision to simply see this thing through. When she was out of his system, he would be able to move on. Until then, he had a date with a beautiful woman.

It was only when he was driving across Snoqualmie Pass that he realized he’d never gone back to the luncheon. Oh, well, he thought. Apparently he and Perri were not meant to be.