“Yes, Mr. Anderson. Right away.” She scampered away like a mouse surprised by the light.
“I suppose that’s a common hazard of being rich and famous,” Laurie said.
“Don’t forget incredibly good-looking.” Finn laughed as if his description wasn’t accurate. “I’m actually only famous in certain circles. Cole and Jarrett are the faces of Phantom Enterprises, so they attract most of the attention. I’m more in the background, mostly developing video games, so I’m more likely to have young guys fawning all over me.”
“You’re saying I could take you to a nightclub with me and use you for bait?”
“Ha! Only if you like nerdy guys who spend all day sitting in front of their computers.”
“I’ll take a nerdy guy over a jock, any day.”
From his narrowed eyes, the note of bitterness that crept into her voice hadn’t escaped his attention.
“Did you have a bad experience with an athlete? Ex-boyfriend perhaps?”
The man hadn’t become a billionaire by accident—he was as sharp as he was irritating. He’d come amazingly close to the truth with a minimum of clues.
“Nope,” she answered honestly, nothing to clue him to the fact that her father was the athlete in question. Before he could follow up with another question, she asked, “Who’s the fifth chair for?”
“Lucy Felder… the most beautiful girl you’ve ever laid eyes on.”
Admiration swam in his deep blue orbs, and Laurie felt a pang of jealousy. How would it feel to have Finn Anderson think something like that about me? Not that I believe looks are that important, but still…
“I can’t wait to meet her.” She did her best to smooth the strangled sound out of her voice.
“Here she is!” Finn beamed as he bounced to his feet, his hands outstretched. “Come here, beautiful!”
“Hiya, Finnster.” A tall woman with shoulder-length strawberry-blond hair held a carrier as Finn extracted the baby from it. “Don’t wake her up. I just fed her, so I’m hoping she’ll sleep through dinner.” She kissed Finn on the cheek and turned to Laurie. “Forgive my brother’s rudeness. I’m Katie Felder.”
“Nice to meet you, Katie.”
“She’s already used to my rudeness,” Finn added.
“Mum’s coming. She stopped at the ladies’ room.”
Expecting a handshake, Laurie rose as Katie approached, but got wrapped in a smothering hug, instead.
“Sorry about that.” Katie chuckled, when Laurie awkwardly patted her back. “I’m afraid our family hugs everybody all the time.”
“Not so.” Finn bent to place a gentle kiss on his niece’s forehead, a move that made Laurie’s heart swell inside her chest. “I tried to hug you after I ran that marathon a month ago, and you ran away, squealing.”
“Okay, so I draw the line at being drenched in my brother’s disgusting sweat.” Katie slid into the chair beside Laurie’s.
“Admit it… you’re just a wimpy girl, afraid of a little extra-salty perspiration.” Finn sat down, cradling Lucy in his arms, like a pro.
“Don’t even start with me, Finn. You can’t call me wimpy after that backpacking trip I went on with you, where I didn’t get to shower for a week.”
Laurie loved the way the two bickered, like any other siblings. Katie obviously didn’t cut him any slack because of his CF, as demonstrated by her non-reaction when he referred to cystic fibrosis increasing the salt content in his sweat.
Finn wrinkled his nose at Katie. “Yeah, you were a little ripe.”
“And you smelled like an entire men’s locker room, but I was still willing to hike with you.” Katie took a drink from her water glass.
“As I recall, you made me stay behind you the second half of the week. Plus, you were twenty at the time. You’ve gotten a lot wimpier since then.”
“How did you do your treatments in the wilderness?” Laurie wondered aloud. “You must’ve had a ton of stuff to carry. Surely you couldn’t run all that equipment on batteries.”
Katie’s gaze riveted on Laurie. “How do you know about all that? Finn told me you guys haven’t even been on a date.” She moved her glare to her brother. “What are you trying to pull?”