Lance closed the Revanna folder and slid it to one side of the hotel conference table, leaving the Amsterdam notes spread between them. They had spent most of the afternoon bouncing between the two, working through the questions that still surrounded Revanna and then turning to the meetings and decisions that had brought them to Amsterdam in the first place. Somewhere along the way, the discussions had begun bleeding together until even Lance had to admit they were no longer accomplishing much.

“That’s as far as we’re getting tonight,” he said.

Jake glanced at his watch. “We’ve been at this three hours.”

“Three hours and twelve minutes,” Jessica said from the other end of the room. “And somewhere around hour two, you stopped having two separate discussions and started having the same two discussions over and over again.”

“They overlap,” Lance said.

“Apparently everything overlaps when the two of you get in a room together.”

Jake smiled and looked back at the papers. Revanna remained the bigger question. The numbers were close enough to keep the deal alive but not close enough for Lance to stop digging. The Amsterdam discussions were different. Those were about what came next, who they needed to meet while they were here and which decisions could wait until they had more information.

Jake tapped the Revanna folder. “I still think you’re being too conservative.”

“And I still think they’re pricing the upside as if it’s already happened.”

“The upside is why we’re interested.”

“That doesn’t mean we pay them today for what we might accomplish three years from now.”

“And if we push too hard and somebody else gets it?”

“Then somebody else gets to overpay.”

Jessica sighed. “And we’re back to Revanna.”

Lance glanced at her. “We left it for almost twenty minutes.”

“Seventeen.”

Jake laughed. “You are timing us.”

“At this point, yes.”

Lance pulled the Amsterdam notes toward him and looked over the remaining items. There were things they could settle tonight if they wanted to spend another two hours doing it, but nothing that couldn’t wait until morning. He closed the folder and placed it on top of the Revanna material.

“The rest can wait until tomorrow.”

Jake nodded. “We’ve got enough for the morning.”

“Assuming you don’t change your mind overnight.”

“I could say the same thing about you.”

“You could. You’d be wrong.”

Jessica stood and picked up her purse. “Wonderful. You can both continue being right tomorrow. I’m going to dinner.”

Lance smiled as he stood. “I could eat.”

“There’s supposed to be a good place a few blocks from here,” Jessica said. “And I’m establishing one rule before we leave this room. No Revanna and no Amsterdam business at dinner.”

Jake gathered the papers into a neat stack. “Agreed.”

Lance looked at him. “You’ll bring one of them up before the appetizers.”

“I won’t.”

“You will.”

Jessica started toward the door. “If either of you says valuation, projections, acquisition, integration or due diligence, I’m leaving.”

Jake followed her. “You’ve put some thought into this.”

“I’ve had three hours and twelve minutes.”

They made it through the hotel lobby before Jessica glanced at Lance. “Do you need to drop anything in your room?”

“No.”

“Where are you staying?”

“A houseboat.”

Jessica took another two steps before stopping so abruptly that Jake nearly walked into her. She turned slowly toward Lance.

“A what?”

“A houseboat.”

“I heard the word. I’m waiting for the rest of the sentence.”

“That was pretty much the sentence.”

Jessica looked around the polished hotel lobby, then back at him. “You’re staying on a houseboat?”

“Yes.”

“In Amsterdam?”

“That part seemed important.”

Jake smiled, but Jessica ignored him. “Where?”

“Centrum.”

Her eyebrows rose. “You’re staying on a houseboat in the Centrum?”

“Yeah.”

“How far from here?”

“Ten minutes. Maybe fifteen if we walk slowly.”

Jake looked at him. “You’ve been here almost two days and never mentioned this?”

“It didn’t come up.”

Jessica stared at him. “We just spent more than three hours talking about Revanna and everything we’re doing in Amsterdam. At no point did you think to mention that you’re living on a boat?”

“It didn’t seem relevant.”

She turned toward Jake. “Do you know this man?”

“I thought I did.”

Lance started toward the doors. “Are we eating?”

Jessica didn’t move. “I want to see it.”

He stopped and looked back. “The restaurant is the other direction.”

“I don’t care.”

“Jess.”

“No. You don’t get to casually announce that you’re living on a houseboat and then expect me to go eat dinner like you didn’t just say it.”

“Apparently not.”

Jake slipped his hands into his pockets. “I kind of want to see it too.”

Lance looked from one to the other. “You understand it’s just a place to stay.”

Jessica gestured around the lobby. “This is just a place to stay. What you’ve described sounds like the beginning of a story.”

“You haven’t even seen it.”

“Exactly.”

Lance shook his head. “Fine. We’ll take the long way to dinner.”

Jessica smiled. “Lead the way.”

They stepped outside and headed into the Centrum. Within a few blocks, the polished conference room, folders and numbers seemed farther away than they actually were. Bicycles moved around them with the casual efficiency of people who had spent their entire lives navigating Amsterdam on two wheels. Boats moved through the canals while pedestrians filled the narrow sidewalks. The late afternoon light reflected from windows in buildings that seemed to lean toward one another across the streets.

Jessica kept glancing at Lance until he finally noticed.

“What?”

“I’m still trying to picture it.”

“Picture what?”

“You on a houseboat.”

“It’s not complicated.”

“For most people, no.”

“What does that mean?”

“You’re an executive and consultant who spends half his life in meetings.”

“Not half.”

Jake glanced at him. “Close.”

Jessica nodded. “You could stay anywhere in this city.”

“I know.”

“And you chose a boat.”

“I liked it.”

She studied him for a moment. “That’s all you’re giving me?”

“That’s all there is.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“You don’t have to.”

They turned onto the street beside the canal, and Lance slowed.

“We’re here.”

Jessica looked around. “Where?”

Lance pointed.

Her eyes followed his hand to the long white houseboat sitting low against the canal beneath the trees. It looked as though it belonged exactly where it was, tucked against the edge of the walkway with the water only a few feet away. Plants and flowers lined the outside, softening the old boat and giving it more the appearance of a home than a rental. A bicycle rested nearby, and farther down the canal a bridge framed the view.

Jessica stopped.

“No.”

Lance stepped aboard. “Yes.”

“That?”

“That.”

Jake looked from the boat to Lance. “You actually live here?”

“For the next few days.”

Jessica stepped closer, still studying it. “How old is this thing?”

“About a hundred years.”

She laughed once, then realized he wasn’t joking. “You’re serious.”

“Very.”

“You could be staying at our hotel.”

“I know.”

“In a suite.”

“I know.”

“With an elevator.”

“I’m familiar with elevators.”

“Room service.”

“I’ve heard of that too.”

Jake laughed, earning a look from Jessica.

“Stop encouraging him.”

“I haven’t said anything.”

“Your face has.”

She finally stepped aboard, and Lance watched her expression begin to change as she took in the place. Flowers and plants lined the walkway along the boat. On the deck, a small table sat beneath the trees with a pale cloth and flowers on top. Across the water, Amsterdam carried on around them. A cyclist crossed the bridge while people walked beneath the trees. A small boat passed along the canal, leaving behind a wake that gently moved the houseboat beneath their feet.

Jessica looked down the canal. “This is…”

Lance waited.

She caught him watching her. “Don’t.”

“I didn’t say anything.”

“You were waiting for me to say I like it.”

“Do you?”

She looked around again. “Maybe.”

Jake smiled. “She likes it.”

“I said maybe.”

Lance walked toward the entrance and opened the weathered wooden hatch. Jessica stepped closer, looked down through it, then looked at him.

“Oh, come on.”

“What?”

“That’s the entrance?”

“That’s the entrance.”

“You climb through that every time you go inside?”

“Pretty much.”

Jake leaned over and looked down into the boat. “I’ve seen worse.”

Jessica turned toward him. “Where?”

Jake considered the question. “Actually, I withdraw that.”

Lance went first, making his way down into the living area. Jake followed. Jessica remained above them for several seconds before Lance looked up.

“Dinner’s getting later.”

“You’re both insane.”

That didn’t stop her. She carefully made her way down and straightened once she reached the floor. Her expression changed almost immediately.

The interior wasn’t what she had expected. The kitchen was compact but warm, with turquoise cabinetry, wood-toned counters, a deep old sink and a copper-colored faucet. Round portholes looked directly onto the canal, putting the water almost at eye level. The light wood floor and white walls brightened the space, while framed pictures and the accumulated details of a century-old home made it clear this wasn’t some hotel designer’s attempt to create a nautical theme. People had actually lived here.

Jessica turned slowly. “This is not what I expected.”

“That seems to be happening a lot today.”

“No, I mean…” She looked through one of the portholes toward the canal. “This is actually kind of nice.”

Lance smiled. “Careful.”

“I said kind of.”

Jake moved farther inside and looked around. “I get it.”

Jessica glanced at him. “Don’t start.”

“I didn’t say anything.”

“You said you get it.”

“I do.”

She continued farther into the boat before stopping near the steep wooden ladder. For a moment, Lance thought she was trying to figure out where it went. Then she looked beyond it and saw the bed tucked into the narrowing bow.

“Wait.”

Lance knew exactly what was coming.

Jessica leaned slightly to one side for a better look at the sleeping area. The bed followed the shape of the hull, wider toward the opening and narrowing into the bow behind the ladder. She looked at it for several seconds before turning toward Lance.

“That’s your bed?”

“That’s my bed.”

“In there?”

“That’s generally where I sleep.”

“Lance, it gets smaller as you go in.”

“It’s the bow.”

“I know it’s the bow.”

Jake looked past her. “Cozy.”

Jessica turned on him. “Do not help him.”

“I’m not.”

“You called it cozy.”

“It is.”

She looked back at Lance. “You’re sleeping in the pointy end of a hundred-year-old boat.”

“The bow.”

“I know what a bow is.”

Lance smiled while Jessica continued staring at him as though the houseboat had fundamentally changed something she believed about him.

“You could have a king-size bed at our hotel.”

“Probably.”

“A suite.”

“Yes.”

“Room service.”

“Definitely.”

“An actual hotel room.”

“Yes.”

“And you chose this.”

Lance looked past her toward the bed. “Yeah.”

“Why?”

He shrugged. “I liked it.”

Jessica waited, clearly expecting more. When nothing came, she frowned. “That’s it?”

“That’s it.”

She studied him. “You’re an executive and consultant working on Revanna and everything else we’re doing in Amsterdam, and you’re climbing through a hatch every night to sleep in a triangular bed in the bow of a hundred-year-old houseboat.”

“Nobody we’re meeting with knows where I’m staying.”

Jake nodded slowly. “There it is.”

Jessica looked at him. “What?”

“I think I understand.”

“Would one of you like to explain it to me?”

Jake glanced around the boat. “He disappears here.”

Lance said nothing.

Jessica looked through one of the portholes. People were moving along the canal only a short distance away, but from inside the boat they seemed strangely removed. There was no hotel lobby downstairs, no conference room around the corner and no chance of running into someone they had spent the afternoon negotiating with.

Her expression softened. “Okay.”

Lance leaned against the counter. “Okay what?”

“I’m beginning to understand.”

A movement behind her caught her attention.

Jessica turned just as a black cat wandered into the kitchen from the owner’s portion of the houseboat. He moved with the confidence of something that had never once questioned whether he belonged wherever he happened to be. A moment later he jumped onto the kitchen counter beside the porthole and looked at the three visitors.

Jessica stared at him.

The cat stared back.

Bright against his black fur was a yellow vest marked POLICE.

Jessica slowly pointed. “Lance.”

“I see him.”

“There’s a cat on your counter.”

“He does that.”

Her head snapped toward him. “He does that?”

The cat circled once and settled comfortably beside the porthole.

Jessica stepped closer. “Why is he wearing a police vest?”

“That’s Nimis.”

“That answered absolutely nothing.”

“The owner lives in the front half of the boat. Nimis belongs to him.”

Jessica glanced toward the front of the houseboat, then back at the cat. “Your landlord has a police cat?”

“Something like that.”

Jake moved closer and studied the bright yellow vest. “Seriously?”

“Apparently he patrols the neighborhood.”

Jessica laughed. “You expect me to believe that?”

“He’s kind of a local celebrity.”

“Of course he is.”

“He’s been in the papers.”

Jessica stared at Lance for a second before reaching into her purse for her phone.

“What are you doing?”

“Checking.”

“Checking what?”

“Whether you’ve completely lost your mind.”

Jake laughed while Jessica opened a search and began typing. “What’s his name again?”

“Nimis.”

“How do you spell it?”

“N-I-M-I-S.”

She entered the name and began scrolling. It took only a few seconds before her eyebrows rose.

“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me.”

Jake moved beside her. “What?”

Jessica turned the phone toward him. On the screen was the same black cat wearing the same bright yellow vest, posing with uniformed Amsterdam police officers.

Jake looked at the photograph, then at Nimis, then back at the phone. “That’s definitely him.”

“Of course that’s him.” Jessica enlarged the photograph. “He’s actually posing with police officers.”

Lance leaned against the counter. “I told you.”

“No. You told me he patrols the neighborhood. You didn’t tell me your cat has law-enforcement connections.”

“He’s not my cat.”

Nimis rolled onto his side.

Jessica looked at him. “He seems pretty comfortable in your kitchen.”

“He visits.”

“Through your house.”

“Boat.”

“That distinction does not help you.”

Jake reached over and scratched beneath Nimis’s chin. The cat immediately leaned into his hand while Jessica continued scrolling.

“There are articles about him.”

“The owner told me.”

“You’ve been here two days and you already know the cat’s life story?”

“Some people talk to their neighbors.”

Jessica ignored him and continued scrolling until she suddenly stopped. “Wait.”

Jake leaned closer. “What now?”

“This is from the United States.”

Lance looked over. “About Nimis?”

“Yes.” She read for another moment and laughed. “An American police department posted about him. They’re joking about getting their own police cat.”

Jake looked toward Nimis. “International celebrity.”

“Apparently.”

Jessica continued scrolling. “There are stories about him in different languages.”

Lance shrugged. “I said he was famous.”

“You said he was a local celebrity.”

“Maybe the neighborhood expanded.”

Jake laughed.

Jessica lowered the phone and looked from Nimis to Lance. “Let me make sure I have this straight. You leave the Mediterranean, come directly to Amsterdam, pass every luxury hotel in the city, move onto a hundred-year-old houseboat, climb through a hatch to get inside, sleep in a triangular bed in the bow and share your kitchen with an internationally famous police cat.”

“I don’t share the kitchen.”

Nimis stretched farther across the counter.

Jessica pointed toward him. “I’m going to let the evidence speak for itself.”

Jake laughed while Jessica returned to her phone. “This cat has better international press coverage than most executives.”

“Which is exactly how I prefer it,” Lance said.

Something about the answer caught Jessica’s attention, but before she could pursue it Jake checked the time.

“We were going to dinner.”

Jessica looked at her phone. “We’ve been here almost forty-five minutes.”

“You’re the one researching the cat.”

“I needed answers.”

“Did you get them?”

She looked toward Nimis. “I have more questions.”

Jake headed toward the hatch. “Ask them after dinner.”

Jessica slipped her phone into her purse, but before following him she took another look around the houseboat. Her gaze moved from the portholes to the old wood, the turquoise kitchen, the flowers visible outside, the strange triangular sleeping space tucked into the bow and finally Nimis stretched comfortably across the counter.

Then she looked at Lance. “Olivia would love this place.”

Lance stopped.

It was barely a reaction, but Jessica saw it.

Her expression changed.

Lance reached for his jacket. “Dinner.”

“Interesting.”

“Jessica.”

“I didn’t say anything.”

“You were about to.”

“Maybe.”

She started toward the hatch, then looked back at him. “She would, though.”

Lance glanced around the boat. He could picture it too easily. Olivia laughing when she saw the hatch. Olivia staring at the bed and asking him what had possessed him. Olivia discovering Nimis and immediately forgetting whatever else they had been talking about.

“Yeah,” he said. “She would.”

Jessica didn’t tease him this time.

They left Nimis behind and continued to the restaurant a few blocks away. Jake managed to keep his promise through the appetizers, but halfway through dinner he set down his fork and said, “I’ve been thinking about tomorrow.”

Jessica slowly lowered hers. “No.”

“I didn’t say Revanna.”

“You didn’t have to.”

Lance smiled. “I told you.”

Jake looked at Jessica. “We have two meetings tomorrow. That’s not discussing business. That’s discussing the schedule.”

“You’re using the schedule as a gateway.”

“To what?”

“Business.”

Lance took a drink. “She’s probably right.”

Jake looked at him. “You’re the one who wanted to go over the Amsterdam notes again tonight.”

“And then I closed the folder.”

Jessica pointed toward Lance. “See? Growth.”

For the next few minutes, the conversation hovered dangerously close to work before Jessica managed to steer it back toward Amsterdam itself. They talked about what Jake and Jessica had already seen, what they still wanted to do and how little Lance had managed to see between meetings. Eventually the conversation drifted toward the Mediterranean trip Lance had just left behind, which meant it was only a matter of time before Jessica arrived at the subject she had clearly been thinking about since the houseboat.

“So, Olivia.”

Lance looked at her over his glass. “What about her?”

“How is she?”

“Fine.”

Jessica waited.

Lance waited longer.

“That’s all I get?”

“You asked how she is.”

“You spent two weeks traveling through the Mediterranean together.”

“We did.”

“And?”

“And we had a good time.”

Jessica looked at Jake. “Do you see what I’m dealing with?”

Jake lifted his glass. “I’ve been dealing with him longer than you have.”

“There’s nothing to deal with,” Lance said.

Jessica turned back to him. “You miss her.”

Lance reached for his glass. “She left yesterday.”

“That wasn’t an answer.”

Jake suddenly became very interested in something across the restaurant.

Lance noticed. “You can stop pretending you’re not listening.”

Jake looked back. “I wasn’t pretending very hard.”

Jessica waited.

Lance could have avoided the question. Normally he would have. Instead he looked down at his glass for a moment before answering.

“Yeah.”

Jessica didn’t tease him.

That somehow made the admission feel larger than Lance had intended.

Jake smiled. “Yeah what?”

Lance looked at him. “You heard me.”

“I did.”

“Then don’t make me say it again.”

Jessica took a sip of wine. “You know what I think?”

“That has never stopped you before.”

“I think you chose that houseboat because you wanted to disappear for a while.”

Lance looked at her.

Jessica continued. “No hotel lobby. Nobody from the meetings running into you downstairs. Nobody knowing exactly where you are unless you want them to.”

Jake nodded. “That’s what I said.”

Jessica ignored him. “And I think you expected to like being alone a lot more than you actually do.”

Lance didn’t answer.

She didn’t need one.

The conversation moved on after that. Jake steered it toward something safer, and Lance was happy to let him. They stayed at the restaurant longer than any of them had planned. By the time they stepped outside, the light had faded and Amsterdam had changed again. Windows glowed above the canals, restaurant tables filled the sidewalks and reflections stretched across the dark water.

Jake and Jessica headed toward their hotel while Lance turned toward the canal. They had made it several steps before Jessica stopped and called after him.

“Lance.”

He turned. “What?”

“You’re really going back there?”

“To the houseboat?”

“Yes.”

“That is where I’m staying.”

“Instead of accepting our generous offer of a room containing normal doors and a rectangular bed.”

Lance smiled. “I’ll take my chances.”

Jessica shook her head. “Tell Nimis I said good night.”

“I’ll let him know.”

Jake put a hand against her back and began steering her toward the hotel. Jessica allowed herself to be guided away, but she looked over her shoulder once more.

“Olivia would love it.”

Lance’s smile faded just enough for Jessica to notice.

Then she and Jake disappeared around the corner.

By the time Lance reached the houseboat, Amsterdam had settled fully into evening. Lights reflected from the buildings and broke apart across the canal. Bicycles still passed along the street, although the constant rush of the afternoon had eased. The flowers along the boat moved slightly in the night air as he stepped aboard.

He opened the hatch and made his way inside.

Nimis was waiting on the kitchen counter, still wearing the yellow police vest.

Lance stopped. “Shouldn’t you be off duty?”

Nimis stared at him.

“Long shift?”

Nothing.

Lance shook his head. “Good talk.”

He left his jacket inside and returned to the deck. He wasn’t ready for the triangular bed yet, so he sat at the little table beside the canal and stretched his legs out.

This was why he had chosen the place. Not because it was convenient. It wasn’t. Not because it was luxurious. It definitely wasn’t. He had chosen it because nobody knew where he was. For a few days he could disappear. There was no hotel lobby downstairs, no chance encounter with someone connected to Revanna or the Amsterdam meetings, and no conversation he hadn’t agreed to have. Just an old boat, a canal and, apparently, a cat with international law-enforcement connections.

A few minutes later, Nimis emerged through the hatch and stepped onto the deck. The cat walked past him without acknowledgment, yellow vest bright beneath the lights, and continued toward the other end of the houseboat.

“Jessica says good night.”

Nimis didn’t bother looking back.

“I told her I’d tell you.”

Nothing.

“Glad we cleared that up.”

Lance smiled and settled deeper into the chair. Across the canal, lights glowed in the windows. A bicycle crossed the bridge, its tires humming faintly against the pavement. Somewhere farther away, laughter drifted through the evening and disappeared again.

This was what he had wanted when he booked the houseboat. Quiet. Privacy. A few days where he could step outside everything else. Tomorrow the Revanna folder would open again. So would the Amsterdam notes. There would be more meetings, more questions and more decisions waiting for him at the hotel.

Tonight there was nothing he needed to solve.

Jessica’s words returned anyway.

Olivia would love this place.

He looked toward the open hatch, then toward the flowers along the edge of the boat. He could picture Olivia seeing it. He could picture her stopping exactly where Jessica had stopped and staring at the houseboat as though Lance had temporarily lost his mind. He knew she would laugh at the hatch. He knew the bed in the bow would earn him a look. And Nimis would probably end whatever argument she intended to make the second he wandered into the kitchen wearing that ridiculous yellow vest.

The thought brought a smile before Lance could stop it.

He missed her.

There was no point pretending otherwise, especially when there was no one there to hear him admit it.

Only a day had passed since the Mediterranean, yet the quiet he had deliberately sought in Amsterdam already felt different than he had expected. On the ship, there had always been somewhere to go, something happening, someone nearby. More importantly, Olivia had been there. He had grown accustomed to turning and finding her beside him, to hearing her laugh before he even knew what had caught her attention, to sharing places with her instead of simply seeing them.

Now he had Amsterdam spread around him and no one sitting in the chair across the table.

Lance looked down the canal.

Jessica had been right about why he chose the houseboat. Here, he could disappear. Nobody from Revanna knew where he was. Nobody connected to the Amsterdam meetings would find him in a hotel lobby. Once he stepped aboard, the rest of his world stayed on the other side of the canal.

It was exactly what he had wanted.

He just hadn’t expected solitude to feel quite so empty.

Nimis returned a few minutes later and jumped onto the chair opposite him. The cat turned twice before settling down, the yellow police vest still wrapped around his black body.

Lance looked at him.

“You’re not exactly who I had in mind.”

Nimis closed his eyes.

Lance laughed quietly and leaned back.

The canal moved beneath them. Amsterdam glowed around him. Somewhere beyond the narrow streets and bridges waited another full day of meetings, negotiations and decisions.

For tonight, though, Lance stayed where he was, hidden away on a century-old houseboat with a famous police cat keeping him company.

It wasn't the company he wanted.

But for now, it would have to do.