Read Midnight Promises for Free Online Page B

and winced.
“Too strong?” he asked.
She laughed. “You can’t help it. I think it’s in your genes that coffee’s no good unless it makes your hair stand on end. I’ll dump in half a carton of milk and it will be fine.”
When he’d set their plates of healthy egg-white, veggie omelets and whole-grain toast on the table, he sat down across from her. “Okay, here’s the deal on the gym. It’ll be a division of The Corner Spa. In addition, there will be six partners, all of us with equal shares.”
“Who?” she asked.
“Cal, Ronnie, and Erik, plus Travis and Tom McDonald, and me.”
“How much money do you have to put up?”
“We’re still finalizing all that, but I’ll be making only a minimal financial investment compared to them,” he said. “My contribution will be mostly sweat equity. The way I understand it, that’s the way it was when Maddie went into partnership with Dana Sue and Helen on the spa. I’ll run day-to-day business operations under Maddie’s oversight—at least initially—and continue seeing my personal-training clients.”
Karen looked surprised. “You’re willing to let Maddie boss you around?”
Elliott chuckled. “What do you think she does now?”
“It’s not the same. You’re an independent contractor, not a spa employee. If you got ticked off at her, you could take your clients to Dexter’s. And speaking of those clients, are you just going to abandon them?”
“No, of course not. I’ll still do the senior classes at the spa and see my regular clients. I’ll just have to lighten the number of hours I spend there, so I can spend the bulk of my time at the gym. And they’re talking about hiring someone to be at the gym whenever I’m not, so the place can be open longer hours. It’s a win-win, Karen. We stand to make out nicely financially with a share of any profits, plus I’ll be able to handle more clients since I can work with men there and still keep the women clients I have at the spa.”
“So, there’s no real financial risk at all,” she concluded, looking relieved.
Elliott knew he could let her go on thinking like that, and, in his mind, it was mostly true, but after what had already happened, he knew he couldn’t let the comment pass.
“I do have to put up some money,” he reminded her. “An initial, short-term investment to get things off the ground.”
She frowned. “So there is a risk?”
“Come on. You know none of us would be doing this if we thought it was risky, but sure, any new business can face unexpected pitfalls.”
“How much money, Elliott?”
“We’re still working that out.”
She held his gaze. “How much?” she repeated, obviously sensing that he was being deliberately evasive.
“Ten thousand, maybe fifteen,” he said eventually, then watched as alarm registered in her eyes.
“Our savings for the baby?” she asked, her voice shaking. “All of it?”
“I know to you it sounds like a lot.”
“It is a lot. It’s all we have.”
“But the payoff,” he began, only to have her cut him off.
“ If there is a payoff,” she said direly. “What if there isn’t?”
Elliott felt his temper begin to fray. “Do you have no faith in me? You’re my wife. Shouldn’t you believe in me at least as much as Cal, Ronnie, Erik and the others do?”
“It’s not a matter of not believing in you,” she insisted. “It’s our savings, Elliott. What about having a baby? I thought that mattered to you.”
“We’ll still have a baby, and we’ll have more money than ever to support it,” he insisted.
“Only if this works out the way you envision it,” she said, looking as if she were near tears.
“It’s going to work out,” he insisted. “Have a little faith.”
“I want to,” she said, her expression miserable.
“Just think about it,” he pleaded. “Talk to Maddie or Dana Sue. Ask Erik. You trust him, right? They all have confidence in this.”
“I suppose I could do that much,” she conceded with obvious