Chapter 20 #2
“So there I was, and who do I see come out of the dressing room? Shaquille O’Neal!
” Jeffrey says with a delighted laugh, smacking his hand on the table.
“And he’s got on this god-awful knee-length double-breasted purple suit, but he looks at himself in the mirror and then over his shoulder at me and says in that deep voice of his, ‘What do you think, man?’”
“What did you say?” Violet asks, taking a bite of her sweet potatoes.
“What could I say? The man could swat me like a fly if he wanted,” Jeffrey says, “so I just tactfully reminded him that he’d left the Lakers years before.”
We laugh, but Missy pouts and rolls her eyes with a sigh as if she’s heard that story dozens of times. I get it. My Dad has favorites too, but you always act as though it’s the first time you’ve heard it. Missy apparently didn’t get that memo. “Dad—”
“I always thought Shaq was at his best with the Heat, but you can’t argue with the dominance he showed during his Laker years,” I add, cutting Missy off.
Jeffrey holds his glass up, toasting his agreement to that.
Missy looks ready to stab me again, and I actually move my feet beneath my chair in case she decides to ‘accidentally’ stomp on my foot under the table, but both Ross and Kaede look like they want to kiss me.
As our dishes are cleared away and dessert’s brought out, Kaede leans over and whispers in my ear, “God, I love to watch you work.” I smile at him, my eyes ticking down to his lips and wishing I could kiss him right here, but it’s not proper, not at someone else’s dinner table during a business dinner.
I wish I didn’t know that or didn’t care, but I do.
Kaede licks his lips, and I know he’s thinking the same thing I am. The build-up we left simmering earlier comes back, flushing my body.
Later.
“I’ve been busy talking to my people,” Jeffrey says, moving back to business as he cracks the top on his caramel crème br?lée, “and I had a trusted friend check out Charlotte for the next location. There are some good sites available for groundbreaking.”
“You did?” Ross asks warily.
“Of course. And my intel agreed with yours, for the most part,” Jeffrey says easily, waving off the fact that he just stomped all over the guys’ control of the company like it’s nothing.
“The report showed that the area is solidly in the socioeconomic bracket we’re targeting, lacking in options of this caliber, and a veritable smorgasbord of well-priced contractors to complete the build.
Plus, I own a TV station there, so our marketing strategy would be relatively plug and play simple. ”
Kaede cuts his eyes to Ross, then Jeffrey, and speaks up. “Our current construction company has a branch there. We plan to use them for the next build since they have the specs already.”
Jeffrey hums dismissively. “We’ll see. We’ll need contract bids, of course. I’m sure one of the other ones will come in lower.”
Underneath the table, I reach over and take Kaede’s hand, letting him know I’m on his side, and he gives me a reassuring squeeze back, but I can tell this isn’t the time for me to speak up.
I can play Business Barbie all night and have trained for it my entire life as an Andrews, as Dad’s assistant, as a VP, but this one isn’t my battle.
For better or worse, I’m not part of the One Life team and this is Kaede and Ross’s fight.
“Bids would be fine, but it’s not all about the cost. It’s quality as well, and the ability to stick to timelines, both things the current company has a proven track record with,” Ross says, piggybacking with Kaede.
“Of course, we’ll compare everything.” The words are right, but the air isn’t. He’s placating them, sort of pooh-poohing their concerns, not quite condescendingly but bordering on it. “I have done this a time or two, you know?” He laughs, but the intent is clear. We’ll do this my way.
I can see exactly what Kaede was talking about now, how Jeffrey says things without saying them.
Date my daughter. Use my chosen company.
He’s good, but my opinion of Jeffrey Sanders is dropping by the syllable.
Sure, his bank account is ginormous, but he’s starting to come off as a little too slick for my taste.
He seems like the kind who enjoys chucking a wrench in the plans just to see what happens but will smooth it over with compliments and flatteries.
And if that doesn’t work, he doesn’t care.
His checkbook can pimp slap the Pope and get away with it.
I know Kaede sees it too, but he’s powerless to do anything but hope those wrenches can be deflected.
Knowing he needs it, I squeeze his hand again, and he smiles at me, though it’s his professional version, not my personal cocky, sexy smirk.
I raise one brow, quick and pointed. Later, you can fight on every front, stand up for the best builder, the best products, the best of everything, the way you did for the first build. But it doesn’t have to be tonight.
And then I get my real smile and he squeezes my hand back.
Next to me, Missy stirs her crème br?lée, watching the back and forth between her father and the guys.
Finally, she sees her chance to butt in again.
“Ugh, too much business. I liked it more when you were talking about sports people. This is supposed to be about getting to know one another, Daddy, since we’re all one big business family now, right? ”
She smiles around the table at everyone but focuses longer on Kaede. “I’m still just so entranced with the Cinderfella story of Kaede and Courtney,” Missy says, getting her dig in on Kaede’s upbringing. That’s fuckin’ low. “I would love to know when you two, you know . . . knew?”
Lightning round! It’s time for all those quizzes, workouts, and nights together to pay off. Missy thinks she’s got me by the short hairs, but newsflash, honey . . . I wax.
It’s on like Donkey Kong and I’m a pro player. Let’s go, bitch!
“It was actually the day Ross left the company,” I reply, looking over at Kaede with hearts popping out from my eyes.
“Oh, Kaede and I had been eye flirting for a while. I mean, you see how he looks in a suit.” I run a hand over his lapel, casually intimate.
“And when he was in the office, jacket off, sleeves rolled up? I thought I’d have to call maintenance because the A/C definitely needed a tune-up when he looked like that.
” I fan myself with one hand, the other on my thrown-back head as though I could faint.
Ross’s eyes tighten, but Violet happily shoves another bite of crème br?lée into her mouth. She barely touched her dinner, but dessert is going down hard and fast.
Kaede takes over, shrugging. “Well, after Ross made his whole big Oscar-worthy speech, I knew the writing was on the wall. It’s always been the two of us, One-Two.
And if he was out, I was out. That last day, I was finalizing everything for a smooth transition, which meant staying late, as per usual.
” He jokingly glares over at Ross as though he was a taskmaster, and then back to me.
“And I saw Courtney still in her office—”
“Also working late,” I add with a smile, our storytelling weaving in and over itself.
Kaede smiles, soft and sweet, the no-defenses one he gives me in private, right here at the table in front of everyone.
“I’d been watching Courtney, wanting her, but that moment, it hit me.
This was it, no more seeing her every day.
We had one of those moments, just looking at each other, and then I went to hug her goodbye—”
“I hugged you,” I correct teasingly. “Well, I got up and opened my arms.”
“Yeah, you did. But we hugged bye and then . . . kissed. I was done for. That very moment.”
“Wow,” Violet breathes.
“That is quite the story,” Missy snaps, somewhat contrite. “I suppose I owe you an apology then for interfering. I simply didn’t know you existed.”
A last, desperate attempt to wound me? Child, please.
And also, I noticed you said you ‘owe an apology’, not that you actually apologized.
“Kaede and I knew what the optics could be. We worked together for years but kept it professional because our work is very important to us both. And now, we understand that means late hours, early mornings, and fitting in time whenever we can.” I look at him lovingly, meaning it more than I should.
“And making the most of the time we do have together. That doesn’t require parading around and announcing it from rooftops.
We’re happy curled up at home together, watching old football games and reading.
” I laugh lightly, jokingly correcting myself.
“The football games are me. The books are him, obviously.”
Violet looks like she’s about to melt into a puddle of hormonal pregnant woman romantic goo, and Ross is looking from me to Kaede in confusion, likely trying to decide how much of this is fake and how much is real.
I wish I knew too, Brother.
Most of all, Missy looks like she could stomp her foot and throw a hissy fit at any second.
None of it matters, though, because Kaede is looking at me like he hears my real meaning and feels it too.
Those snuggly nights on his couch, the sleepovers wound in each other, the morning workouts, the dinner smoothies, the dates, the talks .
. . everything. It started as a mission, but it’s turned into something so much more than that.
After a drawn-out moment, Missy clears her throat. “So sweet.”
One thing I know for certain? Missy should not take up poker. She has zero bluff. Except with her dad, it seems, because he smiles as though she actually means that when she might as well have screamed Fuck you, bitch! through a bullhorn.
I’m fluent in double-speak too, and a hell of a lot better at it than she is. “Aw, thanks, Missy.” I smile, knowing that she heard me loud and clear. Fuck you, too.