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‘Right.’ Jules tucks a strand of hair behind her ear. ‘That makes sense.’
‘Tell us more about that,’ Chloe chimes in. ‘What does an IT person do at your company? Aside from help my Luddite brother over here.’
‘I’m not a Luddite. I have bad luck with technology.’
‘He put together a photo slide-show for my engagement party,’ Carrie tells Jules. ‘It got stuck on a picture of me and Jesse glaring at each other for half the night.’
Cameron leans across the table. ‘Hey. I warned you to give that task to someone else.’
‘Enough.’ Chloe interrupts, waving her bangle-clad arm. ‘I wanna hear about Jules.’
Jules’s gaze flicks between him and his siblings, eyes wide. ‘Uh, about my job?’
Chloe nods.
‘Well, I’m the senior IT officer at Infinity, which means lots of trouble-shooting when our systems don’t work as they should, basically.’
Cameron frowns. ‘Why’re you always answering my phone calls then?’
‘Our department got shrunk when the new CEO came in, so everyone’s had to pick up some odds and ends.’
‘But aren’t you also covering for Samantha right now?’
‘Yeah.’ Jules smiles in that exhausted way Cameron’s seen on Carrie’s face when she’s in the middle of a weeks-long program with the orchestra.
Cameron, driven by an unexplainable instinct, bumps his knee against hers beneath the table.
Jules startles and turns a wide-eyed gaze to him.
Shit. That was forward of him.
Then Jules bumps her knee back softly against his thigh, sending him a quick smile. Cameron smiles back, feeling a heat in his chest he hasn’t experienced in years, his sisters momentarily forgotten until one of them taps their foot to his beneath the table.
He tears his gaze from Jules. Fuck. What is he doing? This is exactly why he avoided meeting her in person at the office. He’s … leaning in. Conversationally and physically.
Saved by the approach of a waiter to take their orders, he clears his throat and straightens up in his chair, pointing randomly at the menu since he was too enthralled by Jules to have looked over it.
‘Excuse me,’ Jules says after ordering, ‘I’m just going to the bathroom.’
Cameron watches her walk away, skirt swishing around her knees. His sisters are staring at him when he turns back.
‘What? What?’
They don’t say a word, merely stare at him. If he were to label their expressions, they’d be something like ‘told you so’, and ‘you’re in trouble, mister’. Cameron starts overheating and they haven’t even said anything yet.
‘So.’ Carrie folds her arms atop the table. ‘Jules.’
Chloe sighs. ‘Cameron, she’s wonderful.’
‘You’ve only spoken to her for a minute.’ He fiddles with the top button of his shirt, working it loose.
Chloe shrugs. ‘I got a good vibe from her. And from you, when you’re with her.’
‘Agreed,’ Carrie says.
‘I don’t—Can we—’ He stands abruptly from his chair. ‘I’m going to the bathroom too.’
‘You can’t run from this conversation!’
