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Luca rolled his eyes. “Come on, man. We saw you three times this week. What is happening right now?”
Miles pointed his finger back and forth between Catherine and me. “I might be slow on the uptake sometimes, but I think it’s pretty clear there are only two options. One, Elliot made his assistant give up her weekend to follow him around and take notes during all his meetings, including brunch. Or two, Elliot and Catherine are together, and he didn’t bother telling anyone.” He scratched his chin. “Since this is Elliot, it could go either way, but I’m going to go with option one. Just seems the most plausible.”
Catherine’s laugh was rich and genuine as she slipped into the chair beside me with Joey in her lap. “Or the third option. We ran into each other in the parking lot and Elliot insisted I join him for brunch. Since I skipped breakfast, I accepted.”
Miles nodded. “Yeah, that makes more sense.” Then he stuck his hand out to her across the table. She slid hers into his and they shook. “Miles Aldrich. The food here is incredible, so the spontaneous kidnapping worked in your favor. Cute baby, by the way.”
Her blush deepened, and it was all I could do not to knock his hand off hers. Flirty bastard.
“Catherine Warner, but everyone besides Elliot calls me Kit.” She patted Jo’s stomach. “This little girl is Josephine. Everyone calls her Joey.”
Saoirse chimed in. “Even Elliot?”
Catherine slid me a sidelong glance. “Usually, it’s Josephine, sometimes Jo. Occasionally Joey.”
Elise eyed us both then turned her attention to Catherine. I braced myself for what she might ask. Coming here, I’d prepared myself for an inquisition, but I hadn’t considered Catherine might be uncomfortable being the center of attention. That was the last thing I wanted.
“So, what’s it like being a mom?” Elise asked.
Catherine sighed with what seemed like relief. She’d been bracing too. “It’s strange, but I barely remember what life was like before she got here. Don’t get me wrong, it wasroughbeing completely on my own, but now that I have help and I’m back at work, it’s just…lovely.”
Miles cut right to the chase. “Where’d the dad go?”
Weston groaned at his brother. “Jesus. Have some couth.”
Catherine scrunched her nose. “Australia.”
Miles jerked his chin. “Loser.”
She nodded. “My sentiments exactly. I got the cute baby. He got the continent with the most poisonous snakes and spiders in the world.”
Miles raised his glass of what looked like lemonade but undoubtedly contained hard liquor…at eleven o’clock in the morning.
“Cheers to that. I’ve always said kangaroos aren’t even that cute. Have you seen their pouches?” He shuddered. “Nightmares.”
Saoirse propped her elbows on the table, chin on top of her fists. “Levy, you never did confirm which of Miles’s options was true. One, two, or three?”
“While I can’t claim I haven’t asked Catherine to work on weekends, she’s not here as my employee.” I reached for her hand and wove our fingers together. “Option two.”
Weston slapped me on the shoulder. “You’re kidding.”
Elise shook her head. “He isn’t kidding.”
Luca’s cheeks puffed up, and he blew out a heavy breath. “I’m going to guess this didn’t happen in the time since we saw you on Thursday.”
“No.” I turned my head to look at Catherine, who already had her eyes on me. She nodded, giving me the go-ahead to tell them. “We’ve been together around a month.”
More if I counted the time since she moved in with me. I did, but she wouldn’t.
Elise held out a hand, her expression falling. “You didn’t tell me.”
Weston curled his arm around her. “He didn’t tell anyone. I had no idea.”
“But he’s mybrother,” Elise murmured.
“I could have called you,” I started. “I could have told Weston and Luca at the gym or over drinks. But it was far more efficient to tell all of you together, and now you all know. Can we move on?”
Catherine squeezed my hand, laughing under her breath. “I think we were pretty surprised ourselves that this happened.”
