Free A Secret to Keep by Railyn Stone Page A

to say something just as Gates spoke up.
    “Sounds good. I’ll have to give this a little more thought. I’m not saying it’s a go, but you’ve given me something to think about.” He placed the proposal on the desk before standing and reaching for his buzzing cell phone.
    “Okay. Again, thank you for allowing us the time to present to you and if you have any further questions, Liyah and I’ll be happy to answer them at any time.” Gates nodded and motioned to his phone.
    “Good. Well, ladies, if you’ll excuse me, I have a phone call I need to take. Evan, can you wrap things up?”
    “No problem.” Evan watched his boss retreat from the room then turned to the two eager faces watching his every move.
    “So, what do you think?” Sloane waited on baited breath to hear Evan’s point of view as she placed her notes into her briefcase.
    “Sloane, you and Liyah made a great case for the hospital. I don’t see any negatives to the project. But ultimately, it’s Gates’ decision.”
    “That’s a safe answer, Evan. What do you really think? Is he going to do this or is he stringing us along?”
    “Sloane, you did great. Don’t worry, okay.” Evan offered as he packed up his briefcase and moved toward the boardroom door. “Hey, he’s listening to you at least, right?”
    “I guess now we hurry up and wait.” Liyah looked over at Sloane as they watched Evan leave the room and both continued packing up their things.
    “Yeah, I guess so. I don’t know, I kind of thought he would’ve been a little more receptive or would’ve asked more questions. I’m guessing introducing him to Chase wasn’t as great of an idea as I thought.”
    Liyah stopped what she was doing to look at Sloane. “What?”
    “Yesterday, when he came to the office. After you left, Chase showed up. We were supposed to go to lunch and I’d completely forgotten about it. I guess I, well, I kinda gave him the impression Chase and I are together and I’m pretty sure he saw the picture of Brayden behind my desk.” Watching her friend’s jaw go slack, Sloane waited for the fall out she knew was coming.
    “You WHAT! You didn’t?”
    “Before I knew what I was doing, I made it seem like Chase and I were a happy couple.” Biting her bottom lip, Sloane tried to explain that she panicked and before she knew it one lie was piling up on another one. “It’s not like he wasn’t assuming it already.”
    “I can’t believe you did that. Why did you do that?”
    “Because, it was the only thing I could think of at the time. It’s just until he leaves and then things can go back to normal.” She tried shamelessly to defend her actions as well as convince herself she’d done the right thing. At least she hoped things would go back to the way they were. There were no guarantees and she really wasn’t sure about much at this point.
    “Don’t look at me like that.”
    “That’s kind of dangerous. What happens when he finds out?”
    “He’s not going to find out, and how can it be dangerous?”
    “I’m not just talking about Gates. I’m talking about how you commandeered Chase’s life. Did you consult him, or better yet, did you consult Hannah before you decided to do this? This has the potential to be very bad and you should get it over with and tell Gates the truth.”
    “I can’t, Liyah, not now. And you know I’m not doing this to inconvenience Chase or Hannah. It’s harmless.” She couldn’t deny the truth; she was deathly afraid of telling Gates about Brayden. So much so, that she hadn’t really taken anything else into consideration when she told the fib. Of course this wasn’t the way she wanted things to go, but now she’d started the ball rolling and there was no stopping the momentum.
    “Sloane, be careful, okay?”
    “I will.” For the first time since she opened her mouth with the latest lie, she stopped to think about Chase and how she’d involved him in this whole mess and how it could affect his life.