Summer was very convinced of her conjecture. Others may not have been able to find the lead, but not Leonardo. His self-confidence was kind of hardwired into his system. She could not shake the thought out of her mind.
After work, she took a cab and hurried home. She could not wait to confirm her thoughts with Leonardo. But when she arrived home, Leonardo was not home yet. By the time Ava got dinner ready, he was still nowhere to be seen.
Ava looked at the clock and told Summer, “Mrs. Emerson, why don’t you eat first? We don’t know what time the young master will be home.”
“It’s okay. I can still wait for a while.”
It was normal for Leonardo to be up to his neck in work on his first day in Emerson Group.
She waited for a little longer but there was still no sign of him coming home, so she decided to call him.
As soon as she took out her mobile phone, it rang.
She looked at the screen and saw that it was Leonardo.
“What time are you coming home?” she asked as soon as she picked up the call.
“I’ve just finished a meeting. I could be late tonight. Please go to bed, you don’t have to wait for me.” Leonardo spoke with a low voice, and there was a hint of gentleness and weariness.
It was a long meeting, and he had lost track of the time.
He immediately called Summer the second the meeting was over.
“I know…”
They did not go to work and come home together, but they still left and arrived home at the same time in the past.
Now, she began to feel like she could not get used to being alone in the room.
After dinner, she went back to the bedroom and started to write scripts on her laptop while she kept an ear out for the sound of any car outside.
Not long after, however, she crashed out as she leaned on the headboard, probably too tired from work.
The heater was doing its bit to keep the room warm, and when Leonardo came home, he saw her asleep with her head lying sideways on the headboard.
Her hands were resting on the keyboard while her bangs were pointed up and her long hair was spread all over.
Leonardo tiptoed over, reaching out to take the laptop from under her hands. He kept the noise down so as to not wake her, but it still jolted her out of her shallow sleep.
She opened her eyes groggily, and when she saw the man in front of her, she muttered, “You’re back?”
She had probably fallen asleep with her head slanted on the headboard for too long, so the moment she moved her body, she fell sideways.
Just as that happened, Leonardo lunged forward, buffering her head with his hand and wrapping her waist with the other to help her lie down nice and slow.
“Yup. Now, go to sleep,” he murmured in reply.
She acknowledged and fell back to sleep in less than ten seconds.
Leonardo’s eyes were fixated on her peaceful face for a moment, and he could not help but reach out to pinch her nose, mumbling, “You’ve found your pig heaven?”
After washing up in the bathroom, he went to bed.
As though Summer knew that he was there, she wriggled into his arms.
He looked at her with gentleness, hugging her as he went to meet her in pig heaven.
…
When Summer woke up the next morning and instinctively reached to find her man, he was nowhere to be found.
She bounced up from bed. Did Leonardo not come home last night?
No, he should have been home.
She looked around and found her laptop on the settee.
Now she remembered. Leonardo was back last night. He had put away her laptop, but where was he? Had he left again?
She got out of bed, put on an overcoat, and scurried downstairs in a pair of flip-flops.
When she reached the upper floor landing, her eyes caught Leonardo walking out toward the door.
“Leonardo?” she called him.
He looked back at her, but it was just a glance, and his brows were slightly knitted. “Get changed, I’m heading to the office now.”
“Okay,” she replied on autopilot, looking on as Leonardo walked out of the door. Her mouth was open, but she did not manage to say anything.
Once he was out of sight, she pulled her overcoat closer to herself and returned to the room to get changed.
…
Leonardo had been busy—so busy that he could not even spare some time to dine with her. Most of the time, he was gone or about to leave home when she woke up.
When she came home from work, Leonardo would still be in his office. By the time he got home, Summer would already be asleep or be awakened.
A week had passed since. Summer thought that Leonardo was going to have his rest day on the weekend.
Yet, when she woke up, he was dressed in his corporate warrior suit with vim and vigor. He seemed to have inexhaustible energy.
After working his fingers to the bone for a week, he still looked full of beans.
Summer took out her mobile phone and looked at herself on the screen, discovering that she looked like death warmed up.
She went to work later and came home earlier than him, but she just looked more tired than he was.
If she had not been living together with him, she would have thought that Leonardo was anything but human.
“I need to hurry back to the office. You can sleep a little longer.” When he heard movements, Leonardo turned around to look at her while he sorted out his cufflinks, which seemed to disagree with him. He just could not get them right.
Summer whisked away the comforter and spoke with her groggy voice. “Come over here.”
He walked over and sat down on the edge of the bed.
Holding out his hands, he let her sort them out for him.
He looked on as she used her fair and slender fingers to snap the cufflinks on his shirt cuffs and sorted his jacket.
He swallowed and came down with a kiss on her forehead.
“New Year is just around the corner. Things will be more relaxed after a while.”
Summer was silent. After a while, she asked, “Are there so many things to do in Emerson Group?”
“Yeah, tons.” Leonardo’s voice finally sounded a little tired.
Then, there was a moment of silence.
As if Summer had thought of something, she asked, “Do you know that your elder brother’s back?”
His face froze slightly before he squinted. “When?”
“A few days ago. He said he wanted to have dinner with us.” That was what she had wanted to tell him.
He was silent again. He then said, “Tomorrow after work. We’ll meet him at the Golden Cauldron.”
Summer nodded with a hint of joy in her eyes. At last, she and Leonardo could have dinner together.