Seamus kept his eyes on me, watching, waiting. I tried to keep my face impassive; I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction, as it slowly dawned on me what he was saying.
“So what did you do?” I asked. “Tell him you were going to kill him if he didn’t leave me alone?”
“Oh, we weren’t going to kill him,” Seamus said. “But we were at least going to match him up with someone so it would’ve been a more fair fight. And he backed down immediately. It probably didn’t seem that way to you at the time, but Pete wasn’t a hard guy, and he didn’t want to be on the receiving end of anything violent. One of those guys that could dish it out but couldn’t take it. And do you know how I knew this was going on? Billy.”
“I see.” I shifted in my seat and leaned forward, resting my elbows on the table. “So now you think I owe you some debt because you did something for me—when I didn’t even realize it—and now you’re calling it in. Is that what this is?”
“If that’s how you want to look at it. Come on, Ian. You know as well as I do that you could get any woman you wanted. Walk out of here and you probably wouldn’t even make it around the block without catching at least three ladies’ eyes. It’s a gift that you were born with. Unfortunately, good looks is one of those impermanent gifts, but no one would argue with the fact that you’ve been taking advantage of this gift while you still have it. So keep on doing what you’ve always done, give my son a chance at this girl he’s so interested in, and everyone will be happy.”
“I won’t be,” I said. “Because she’s not just some girl that I want to use and get rid of. And you do realize she works for me. You know, so I see her pretty much every day.”
“I trust that you’ll be able to find something else to occupy your attention. Or—fire her. It wouldn’t be the first time.”
How did he know all this shit? It was a little disconcerting. Then again, I knew that Seamus had people all over the city—all over the world, probably. He had connections. He had ways of finding things out.
“What if I refuse?” I asked.
“You won’t,” he said, giving me a level look.
And he was right—I wouldn’t refuse him. I couldn’t. It would be one thing to lose Martin Harris as a client, but it would be another thing altogether to lose Seamus. To lose both would basically be the end of the company, and I had a sneaking feeling that Seamus would have the ability to get Martin to walk if he did. And if I refused, it wouldn’t surprise me if bad things started happening to people that I cared about.
“Billy isn’t going to find this at all shameful?” I said. “That his father has to go around setting things up for him?”
Seamus ignored the question. “Life has a funny way of working out,” he said. “Things that seem like a big deal at the time will often be looked back upon in the future, and you’ll realize that it wasn’t nearly as problematic as you felt like it was.”
I tried not to roll my eyes. “That’s very philosophical of you. Maybe that’s what I’ll tell Daisy when I have to break up with her.”
“Break-ups are never fun. But I have no doubt that you’ll be able to think of something to tell her that will be satisfactory. Now really, why don’t you help yourself to a few of these egg rolls? They’re delicious.”
“I’m all set,” I said. “If that’s
all you wanted to talk about, then I better get going.”
“That’s it. Thank you for meeting with me. It’s been a while since I’ve seen you. Though I do plan to make an appearance when our friend from Dubai is back in town, so maybe I’ll see you again. Take care, Ian.”
“Yeah, you too.”
I left him there to eat those fucking egg rolls and feel self-satisfied that he could now add professional matchmaker to his resume. Fuck him! I was seething as I walked back toward my car, but there was nothing I could do about it. And fuck him for only now telling me about that shit with Pete. I wanted to think that he was lying, but I knew he wasn’t.
Now all I had to do was figure out what the hell I was going to tell Daisy.
When I got back to the office, she was all smiles.
“Hey!” she said. She came over and wrapped her arms around me, and automatically, my own arms went around her waist, my head leaning down to kiss her. I closed my eyes and really felt that kiss, really allowed myself to just get lost in it because this was the last time that was going to happen. And it’s funny how much more attention you pay to something when you know it’s the last time you’re ever going to get to experience it.
When we pulled apart, my vision blurred a little; what the fuck was this? Was I about to start crying? I blinked and pretended like I’d gotten something in my eye.
“Hey yourself,” I said. “Sorry—I don’t know what the hell this is in my eye. Hold on.”
“Do you want to go out to dinner tonight?” she asked. “Caroline was telling me about this new restaurant that just opened near her office, and it’s supposed to be really good.”
“Uh . . .” This was going to suck. She looked so happy right now, and I was about to completely ruin that. But I couldn’t put it off. Prolonging it would only make it worse, even though Seamus probably wouldn’t begrudge me one last dinner date. “I can’t,” I said.
“Oh, okay. Maybe another time, then. I would like to check it out, though. Did you have something else that you wanted to do? And how’d it go with Seamus? What was so important that he had to see you in person to tell you?”
“Actually . . . Daisy . . . there’s something that I need to talk to you about.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight