I just don’t know. And I don’t want to hear him tell me how dangerous or stupid or irresponsible it is to have any sort of an affair with someone who works for our company.

I know. I just can’t help it.

“Who is going to the Landry thing tomorrow?” Coy asks. “I got an invite but didn’t RSVP.”

“Jaxi has a staff meeting at the apartments,” Boone says. “I’m staying home with Rosie.”

We all look at Wade.

“What? I’m not going,” he says. “I had my assistant send a check.”

I grin. “What’s your excuse?”

“That I don’t want to go.” He shrugs. “I don’t feel the need to make up an excuse as to why I don’t want to surround myself with a bunch of people and pretend to give a fuck about what they’re saying. They really just want my money. We can do that without all the pretenses.”

I chuckle. “Heartless.”

“I’m sending a fucking check,” he says, shaking his head and ignoring Boone, who is pointing at me as though I’m right.

Holt laughs. “Blaire and I are going. Her brother was supposed to be in town, but he’s not coming now for some reason. I can’t remember why.”

“Her brother … Walker? Is that right?” Boone asks.

Holt nods.

“Walker is married to a Landry. Sienna Landry. Camilla’s twin.” Boone nods. “I always forget that.”

The room quiets, everyone lost in their own heads. My stomach tightens as I mull over whether to tell them I’m going—and taking Shaye with me.

There are pros and cons to each choice. I could tell them all now and get it out of the way. But if I do that, they’ll be suspicious.

Hell, they’ll be suspicious anyway as soon as they find out.

But if I make them wait, I’ll just have Holt to deal with. At a public event. It could buy me some time and give me a night with Shaye to figure out what things might look like between us.

“I—”

“Are you going?” he asks.

All eyes fall on me. I shift in my seat. Now I feel like Boone, except without the youngest-child indulge-me face.

“Yeah. I’m going,” I say, picking up my phone and setting it on top of the folder in front of me.

Boone reclines back in his seat. A smug grin falls on his lips. “Alone?”

Mom’s words from lunch zip through my memory. We can chalk it up to Boone being your brother and tipping me off that something was brewing.

I level my gaze on him. “No. I’m taking Shaye with me.”

His grin pulls even wider.

Holt’s gaze is heavy on the side of my face, but I don’t look over at him. I don’t look at Wade either. Both of them have things to say. It’s my brotherly instinct.

Instead, I focus on Boone.

“Did Rosie like her car?” I ask, figuring that bringing up his daughter is the easiest way to distract him.

Unfortunately for me, it’s not that easy.

“Oh, no,” Holt says. “We’re not going to act like you didn’t just say that.”

Shit. Was hoping for a miracle that he’d let it go.

“Say what?” I ask. “That I got Rosie a car? What did you get her?”

Coy snickers from across the table. “I need to come to the office more often.”

Holt is undeterred. He leans forward and looks me square in the eye. “You’re taking Shaye to the gala?”

“That’s what I said.”

My words ooze a confidence I don’t feel. Holt is astute enough to read through the façade.

“You just put that out there like she’s your girlfriend or something—like we should expect it,” he says.

“Here we go,” Wade mumbles.

“I put it out there like she’s my date, which is what she is,” I tell him. “What’s wrong with that?”

The question is rhetorical. Every person sitting at this table knows what’s wrong with that.

Mixing business and pleasure is a no-go … unless you’re Boone. And even he did it with a careful magic that only he possesses.

“Is she hot?” Coy asks. “I haven’t seen her yet.”

I fire him a look.

He holds his hands up at his chest. “All right. All right. I’ll take that as a yes.”

“She’s really hot,” Boone says, leaning toward Coy and whispering. “Hot enough that if I wasn’t madly in love with Jaxi …”

Coy snorts, his eyes trained on me. “Pretend you didn’t hear that, Ollie.”

I close my eyes and will myself to stay calm and not overreact.

My first instinct is to mark my territory and stake my claim to Shaye. But my second reaction—the one that’s based on logic and not lust—is to let it go. Laugh it off. Pretend it’s not a big deal because it’s not a big deal.

Is it?

The truth is, it feels like a bigger deal than when I call a random woman who I’ve slept with a time or three and ask her to accompany me to an event. It’s Shaye. Unlike a random woman, I’ll see Shaye again. Daily. We’ll work together day in and day out to accomplish tasks that benefit the rest of the people sitting around me.

Tags: Adriana Locke Mason Family Romance
Source: readsnovelonline.net