Free From This Moment by Elizabeth Camden Page A

planning on telling me?” she demanded, rising a few inches out of her seat. “I’ve scheduled payments for the electroplating press through the end of the fiscal year. You can’t adjust our advertising revenue without telling me.”
    He smiled tightly. “Evelyn? The contract was signed only this morning. I made the decision to offer a lower rate because we will collect more money in the long run. I am not so innumerate that I would have sold us into the poorhouse.”
    The fire eased, and her head drooped a little. “I’m sorry, Rom. I don’t know why I’m so tightly wound. It just seems that as the magazine grows bigger, so do the problems. I’m terrified of making a mistake.”
    The anxiety in her voice tugged at him. Ever since she’d been a little girl, he had tried to protect her, and some things never changed. “Do you remember our first month in business when we had only three hundred subscribers and not a single advertiser? We would have killed for these problems.”
    Her smile was soft as she met his eyes across the desk. It had been a glorious time, running the magazine out of the two-room apartment Evelyn shared with her husband. The publication was a mere sixteen pages back then, hand-typed and copied at a rotary copperplate press they rented by the hour. They addressed each issue by hand, snacking late into the night on German pretzels because that was all they could afford until the next batch of payments arrived.
    “You’re right, you’re right,” Evelyn conceded. “But please, please  . . . we need to lock down the finances. It seems like each month our expenses keep soaring.”
    “So does our subscription base.”
    “Nevertheless. We’re still paying for the silly parquet flooryou were so adamant on getting. Who even notices that it mimics crystalline structures?”
    “The floor has been budgeted and accounted for.”
    “It was still a stunning waste. I’m sick of paying that monthly bill.”
    He wasn’t going to argue with her about the floor again. Evelyn’s extraordinary mind for detail had a downside, for she remembered every offense and could drag it out to wave it like a red cape before a bull. The floor had been installed two years ago. They’d waged a battle over it, but he’d trimmed expenses in their mailing account in order to make her happy. It should have been settled two years ago, but she brought up his gorgeous, handmade parquet floor every time she fretted about money.
    “If the floor is making you that miserable, I’ll pay off the bill with my own money,” he said. “It’s ridiculous to keep arguing about it.”
    A movement through the office window caught his attention. Visitors were rare on the fourth floor, and whenever he met with Evelyn, he kept an eye out in case anyone entered the managerial office. His eyes widened as he recognized the familiar figure walking through the door to loiter in front of Evelyn’s vacant desk.
    This was going to be a problem.
    “Would you excuse me for a moment?” He stood, fastening his vest and praying Evelyn wouldn’t turn around and notice who had just stepped into their office, for it was probably the last person on the planet she expected or wanted to see.
    Evelyn’s glare was stony. “Don’t think I’m going to forget about this.”
    “I never for a moment thought you would,” he said tightly as he stepped around his desk, relieved she didn’t turn around to see who was standing a few yards away.
    A smile spread across his face the instant he stepped out of his private office and closed the door. “Hello, Clyde,” he said to Evelyn’s estranged husband. “Let’s step out into the hall, shall we?”
    It was the first time Clyde had seen their new building, and he seemed amazed as he scanned the spacious office, noting the high coffered ceilings and shaded wall sconces. His head swiveled to take it all in. “Nice office,” he murmured. Clyde’s blue eyes looked pale against his deeply tanned face,