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“Lucas is turned on by business meetings and numbers,” Andrei mumbled. He dropped his eyes first, looking down at the desk while putting his hands on his hips.
“And hot Romanian bodyguards.”
Andrei didn’t smirk or grin like Snow had expected and Snow wanted to smack Lucas all over again. Lucas needed to talk Andrei, because it was painfully obvious this man had no clue that he had one of the richest men in Cincinnati wrapped around his little finger.
Pulling over the leather rolling chair, Andrei sat behind the desk and typed something on the keyboard in front of him. “Have a seat. Gidget will be here in just a minute,” Andrei said. He seemed about to say something else when he paused and took a deep breath.
Snow shrugged out of his coat and draped it over one of the chairs in front of the desk before dropping into the other. The tension was thickening in the room with every passing second. He needed to say something, anything. He could easily shoot the shit with Rowe and Ian, but when he looked at Andrei, he saw only the man who was cradling his best friend’s heart in his hands.
“How’s business?” he asked, just trying to get the conversation moving again.
Andrei’s dark eyes snapped back up to him, narrowing. “This is temporary,” he practically growled. “I’m just trying to keep the place from melting down until Rowe gets back. That’s all. Lucas is too busy with his own companies to take on all the stuff that needs doing here, and he’s not familiar with the day-to-day insanity. I’m not trying to take Rowe’s place.”
Snow frowned back at Andrei, stunned by the hostility. It was like he’d come upon a wolf in the woods, snarling over his kill. “I’ve got no problem with you taking things over while Rowe’s gone.” Okay maybe he had at first, but that was more of an emotional response. Logic had luckily kicked in before he opened his mouth. “How many people work here now?”
“Fifty-three full-time, six part-time, and three contract.” Andrei rattled off the answer without needing to pause to think about it. That was why the young man had stepped up. Snow didn’t need any proof beyond that answer.
“They need to eat too.”
Andrei nodded, his eyes on the pen he was rolling between his thumb and index finger with both hands. “This is temporary.” Andrei licked his lips and lifted his gaze to Snow. “But Lucas is not.”
Snow felt a smirk lift one corner of his mouth. “Yeah, I was getting that impression.”
Andrei snorted and shook his head. “Or maybe I should say that I don’t intend it to be temporary. Lucas…Lucas does what he feels is best for his family and for him.”
Snow’s heart lurched at Andrei’s softly spoken words. Fuck, he really needed to smack Lucas if this man was convinced his relationship with Lucas was hanging by a thread. “Andrei—”
“No, I gotta say this and then I swear we’ll never have to talk about this again,” Andrei interrupted, holding up his right hand to halt Snow’s words. When the younger man finally met Snow’s eyes, there was an openness there he only saw when Andrei was looking at Lucas and it was a little humbling. “I get it. Or rather I get it as much as I can. I’ve never been lucky enough to have a close friend and I know what you’ve got with Lucas goes way beyond that. But I get how important Lucas is to you and how important you are to Lucas. I’m not going to mess with that. I have no intention of ever trying to come between you. He needs you. He loves you. I don’t ever want to stop you from hanging out with him or changing your time together.”
Snow swallowed past the painful lump that had grown in his throat at Andrei’s words. “Things change,” he said, trying to ignore the roughness of his own voice.
His words seemed to panic Andrei because he shoved a hand through his hair as if to push it away from his face, but it was already pulled back. “They don’t have to. Your relationship with Lucas doesn’t have to change. If you need more time without me around, I can back off, come around less.”
“No!” Andrei jumped at Snow’s harsh tone and Snow cursed himself. “Don’t. I—I—” Snow rubbed his hand over his face. He’d really created part of this mess by avoiding Andrei so completely over the past few months. He’d become a third wheel in Lucas’s damn relationship and it was a freaking wake-up call a long time coming. This shouldn’t have happened. He needed to get his shit together.
“I have never had to share Lucas before. Rowe and Ian happened into our lives in such a way that it wasn’t like I was sharing him. But you…I never expected you to stick because no one ever has before.” One corner of his mouth lifted in a hesitant smile. “You fit. You fit with him and with our family.”
