“Give us another minute,” said Doc, not looking at the man. As soon as the waiter walked away, he leaned forward. “Get your ass back to work. And by work, I mean with K19.”
I leaned forward like he had. “I gotta admit I don’t understand why you’re pushing so hard, but okay, I give. Under one condition.”
“And that is?”
“My sister has some…stuff going on that I’m…helping her with. That has to come first.”
He nodded like he knew what I was talking about. Shit, this was Doc. Maybe he did know. “Done,” he said.
“Then, I’ll sign.”
Doc smiled. “Yeah?”
“Yes, sir.”
He reached over to the chair beside him. “Let’s finalize this.” He handed me a copy of the offer they’d presented to me before. “Red line anything you want to negotiate.”
“Is this the same as it was before?”
“For now.”
I took the black pen from Doc’s hand, flipped to the back page, and signed my name. When I hand
ed it back to him, he smiled and reached over to shake my hand.
“Know what you want?” he asked, signaling the waiter.
I didn’t bother opening the menu. “It’s always better if you just let them bring whatever.”
His eyebrows shot up. “Really?”
“Oh, yeah.”
We were between the second and third courses when Doc leaned back in his chair. “There’s something else we need to talk about, Halo.”
I refilled my wineglass from the second bottle the waiter brought to the table. “How is she?” I asked.
“On the surface, Tara is doing really well. She’s still living in New York with Penelope. And she opened her own gallery.”
“Seriously?”
Doc nodded. “She named it the Catarina Benedetto Collection, or something like that. Anyway, I understand from Quinn that she’s been doing a lot of painting.”
“I’m really happy to hear that.” Both that she was painting and the name she’d chosen. It meant her memories of the time she spent in Italy weren’t all bad. “Where is it?”
“In Manhattan. One of those places where you need an engraved invitation to even get in the door.”
Good to know, not that I would’ve considered just showing up.
Doc rested his arms on the table and leaned forward. “It’s only because I love my daughter that I’m doing this. Got it?”
“Understood.”
Doc reached over to the chair beside him like he had when he pulled out my K19 offer, and handed me an envelope.
“What’s this?”
“Your engraved invitation.”