Close Up Read Free Page B

week and Friday until you’re ready for the guests to arrive.”
    Blinking, Kristine stared at him for a second, trying to process the sudden change from personal to business. Not that he had said anything truly personal, really. But he had looked at her in an intimate way. Disappointed, then annoyed with herself for the feeling, she nodded. “Sure.”
    Who gave a shit about security?
    She certainly didn’t. Not at the moment. Well, actually she did give a huge shit, considering this was a super important event for the gallery, and if she screwed this up, she would be fired, and then she would be destitute and living on the street. But at the moment, that didn’t matter. All she could think about was that Sean’s dimple seemed to have disappeared. Was that possible? Could a dimple simply fill itself in?
    It just seemed to her that after ten years, the small talk might extend beyond an obligatory query into her health and a generic compliment before skipping straight to business.
    “Will the caterers be here again tomorrow?”
    Apparently, he didn’t feel the same way.
    Focus. On work, not Sean’s serious sexiness. She could do this. Moving forward, that was her, and he obviously felt the same way. He didn’t appear to have any interest in an extended stroll down memory lane. He didn’t even seem to want to jog it, let alone stroll.
    “No,” she said. “They’re only setting up. They’ll be back around six on Friday with the food.” She strove for a breezy and casual tone, studying him from beneath her eyelashes. It was bizarre to see the man he had morphed into, to realize they had once been intimately connected, physically and emotionally. It felt surreal to finally see him face-to-face. She had been back in Minnesota for only three weeks, and she had been wondering how to go about contacting Sean. Even though it had been a decade, she wanted to be courteous and give him a heads-up about the divorce papers he would be served, but she hadn’t been sure what to say. Whether to be matter-of-fact, funny or friendly.
    It didn’t feel necessary to tell him her exact reasons for suddenly filing. That she had realized in order to grow and become the success she knew she could be, she had to let him go. Walk away from the security he had been and still represented to her. Mostly, she had rehearsed phrases like “moving on,” “wanting to allow you the freedom you deserve,” and “long overdue.”
    In all her considered and discarded thoughts on approaching him, though, never once had she visualized she would be in an art gallery surrounded by a mass-nudity exhibit while they discussed the catering access to the event. It was so surreal, she couldn’t be entirely sure she wasn’t dreaming. She glanced down to make sure she wasn’t standing there in her underwear.
    Which suddenly and inappropriately reminded her of just how smoking hot the chemistry between the two of them had been during their relationship. Sean had been an excellent lover, and he’d been only twenty-one at the time. She briefly imagined all the bedroom skills he might have improved on over the years and shivered at the goose bumps that rose on her skin.
    Not a good way of thinking. Moving forward, that’s what she was doing.
    The divorce papers were supposed to be served to him tomorrow, which made this a perfect opportunity to broach the subject with him. Truthfully, she should be glad he had been put in her path. Now she didn’t have to call him to discuss it. She could tell him in person, which was better anyway. You didn’t marry someone then dissolve that union without at least looking each other in the eye as you discussed it, no matter how much time had passed. Once they were done with the business details, she would ask him to go for a cup of coffee so they could talk.
    That was the right thing to do, and it reflected her new determination to face tough choices head-on, instead of hiding or running away.
    Sean stopped eyeing the