Chapter 36
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
Jameson
“Look at you being all corporate and shit.” Kalon musses my hair with his hand. “My little James has grown up and learned the meaning of being a responsible and productive adult.”
“You’re an asshole,” I point out with a straight face.
I want to take him into a headlock, but we’re standing on the sidewalk outside the building I just spent the last two hours of my life in.
I handled the issue that had sprung up with a few phone calls and a hell of a lot of patience. In addition to the Carden location set to open in Boston, another is about to launch in Los Angeles.
The manager there had the unfortunate experience of walking into a flooded store this morning.
The construction crew hit a pipe and didn’t notice when they left last night.
The one saving grace in that mess was that the first shipment of Carden products wasn’t set to arrive there until tomorrow afternoon.
I got the foreman of the construction crew on the phone and ordered him back to the store to clean up the mess. Then I shifted my focus to postponing the shipment until mid-week, so there’s ample time to get the building back in working order.
Kalon glances over my shoulder. “I thought I’d pop by and see you in action, but it looks like you handled the crisis without issue if you’re done already.”
He knows what brought me back to the office today because he texted me while I was on my way here. I explained the situation and that I’d be stuck in the office for at least a few hours. I didn’t expect him to make the trek down here.
Since he’s dressed in a three-piece suit and tie, I suspect he also devoted at least part of his Sunday to the job.
“It’s all taken care of.” I pocket my phone. “I’m calling it a day.”
“Good.” He pats my shoulder. “I’ll buy you a drink before you buy me dinner.”
I laugh. “As tempting as that sounds, it’s a hard pass for me. I have plans.”
“Plans?” He laughs with a perked perk. “What the fuck is it with you and plans? Let me guess. Your plans tonight are to thumb through our old yearbooks to stare at pictures of Sinclair.”
I chuckle. “Try dinner with Sinclair.”
“And her brother and niece?”
I shake my head. “Just the two of us.”
He tilts his chin up. “Like a date?”
Since I used the term when I asked Sinclair to meet me in the dining room for dinner, I own it. “It’s a date. I’m cooking for her.”
“You’re cooking dinner for Sinclair? Tonight?”
Glancing over his shoulder, I nod. “I need to grab a few groceries before I go home, so I’ll catch up with you later.”
“Wait.” His hand reaches out to press the center of my chest. “When the hell did you go from Sinclair wanting to strangle you to having a date with her?”
“She never wanted to strangle me,” I say, even though she probably has wanted just that every single day for the past two years.
Kalon chuckles. “It sure as hell seemed as though she wanted to when we saw her at Axel Tribeca.”
I sigh. “Things have changed since then.”
Even though a loud truck horn blares from the street, he keeps his gaze on me. “What things have changed?”
“Things,” I stress the one word.
“What things?” he repeats.
I won’t be able to ditch him until I confess, so I do. “We kissed last night.”
He shakes his head. “You kissed Sinclair Morgan last night?”
I laugh at the fact that he uses her full name to clarify the name of the woman I kissed. “I did.”
“Did she kiss you back?”
A full laugh escapes me. “Damn right she did.”
He steps back to button his suit jacket. “Jesus, James, this is a big step for you two. I’m talking huge.”
I nod. “It is. Dinner is another big step, so get the hell out of my face so I can take care of that.”
He brushes a hand over my lapel. “Don’t make those shitty tacos you think you’re famous for. Cook something she likes.”
I swat his hand away. “Sinclair loves those tacos.”
“No one does.” He smiles. “Cook her a dinner she’ll remember forever, Jameson, because tonight might just be a night she’ll never forget.”