Chapter 20
CHAPTER TWENTY
Sinclair
My niece is to blame for this, but I can’t be mad at her.
Stevie Morgan is sunshine personified. She’s young enough to believe there is good in everyone and far too innocent to understand that sometimes friendships fracture.
As soon as I heard Jameson enter the penthouse, I feared Stevie would invite him to have dinner with us. It’s not like her to leave anyone out of anything.
I am surprised that Jameson agreed to come with us.
“I like cheese pizza,” Stevie declares as she spreads a paper napkin on her lap.
Since she’s wearing a pink dress I bought her months ago, I understand why she’s taking extra precautions to keep any dripping sauce off the fabric.
She’ll never admit it, but my niece loves fashion almost as much as she loves animals and art.
“Me too,” Jameson half-lies.
Jameson is all about the fully loaded pizza. In high school, we sometimes shared a pie for dinner. Jameson always handled placing the order, and it never failed to be the same, regardless of which Manhattan pizza restaurant we were at.
He’d ask for one pie with everything on it.
Usually, that worked out just fine until we landed at a hole-in-the-wall place that considered hotdogs a pizza topping.
I decided not to indulge in that even though I had paid for half of it. Jameson finished the entire thing on the spot, including every last bite of hotdog.
“Really?” Stevie eyes him suspiciously. “When I was little, you came over to watch a movie with Auntie Sinclair and me one night, and you brought a small cheese pizza for me and a big one for the two of you that had shrimp and pineapple on it.”
She follows that recollection up with a scrunch of her nose.
“Shrimp and pineapple?” Berk repeats. “That’s a hard pass for me.”
“Me too,” I say, luring Jameson’s gaze to my face.
“Sinclair’s favorite is pepperoni and mushroom with a few green peppers.” He grins. “Unless your tastes have changed recently.”
“That’s her favorite,” Berk backs up Jameson’s statement with a nod. “She ordered that just last week when I had lunch delivered to my office for the two of us.”
“You did?” Stevie shoots her dad a look. “Where was I?”
“School,” I cut into the conversation. “Your dad took the leftovers home for you and your mom.”
“Oh, right.” She smiles. “That was a delicious after school snack.”
I jolt when something brushes against my leg.
It takes me all of one second to realize it’s Jameson’s thigh.
The only empty table in the restaurant when we arrived was small and circular. Berk assured the owner that we could all fit around it. My attempt to sit Stevie between Jameson and me failed, so I had no choice but to plop down on the chair next to him.
His eyes meet mine when I shift my leg away from him.
“I’m going to have lemonade,” Stevie announces, breaking the moment.
I turn to look at her. “Me too.”
“Me three,” Jameson chimes in. “Thanks again for inviting me, Stevie.”
“You’re welcome.” She glances at his face before she settles on mine. “I think Auntie Sinclair missed you when you were gone, so this is a coming home celebration.”
“It’s good to be home,” Jameson whispers. “It’s getting better by the day.”
“Stevie grew up,” Jameson says as soon as he shuts the door to the penthouse behind us.
I kick off my boots. “She has.”
I start to walk away from the foyer, determined to get to my bedroom because I need to think.
Spending the past ninety minutes sitting next to Jameson while he chatted with my brother and my niece felt like too much. It was familiar in a calming way that I wasn’t expecting.
It transported me back to when Jameson and I babysat Stevie when Berk worked late. We’d tuck her in bed, then sit and talk for hours. I missed those moments horribly when he left New York.
Whenever those nights ended, Jameson would always walk me the three blocks to Keats’s townhouse, where I lived at the time.
We never held hands on those walks or kissed goodnight, but I always felt there was a simmering attraction between us. I have no idea if Jameson felt that too. I couldn’t tell since he rarely glanced in my direction as we slowly walked down the sidewalk side-by-side.
“You’re trying to kill me, aren’t you?” Jameson chuckles. “Death by tripping.”
I turn back around to see him setting my boots to the side. “What if I am?”
That question catches him by surprise. He tosses me a sly smile. “I knew it.”
“That wasn’t a confession.” I glance to the left when I hear Dudley approaching. “Dammit, I should have kept my boots on. I need to take him out.”
“I’ll do it,” Jameson offers. “Duds loves me, and I can use the fresh air.”
“We were just outside.” I look toward where Dudley’s leash is on the table. “We just walked seven blocks to get here.”
Jameson chuckles. “A man can never have too much fresh air.”
I study his face. “You don’t mind taking him out?”
“Not at all.” He grabs the leash. “Tonight was fun. It was good to see Berk and Stevie.”
He’s right. It was fun, but I won’t admit it. “Stevie was happy to see you.”
He nods slowly, his gaze catching on Dudley. “I’ll take him for that walk now. I won’t be long.”
It’s barely past eight o’clock, but I’ve had my fill of him for the day. “I’m going to take a hot bath and then turn in.”
“I’ll lock up when I get back,” he offers. “Goodnight.”
“Night,” I whisper as he clips the end of the leash onto Dudley’s collar. “Be careful that he doesn’t run away. It always breaks my heart when he does.”
Jameson’s gaze locks on mine. “No one is running away tonight, Sin. We’ll both be back here within the hour. I promise.”