“However did I raise such a prude!”
“We’re not having this conversation. Ever again. Remember?”
“Fine. So Jody gets to choose.”
“Yes.”
“And choose she did.”
“Jody wouldn’t have given the job to a kid out of college.” Not without outside interference.
“You’re being ridiculous.” She turns in her seat, attracting the attention of the server. Two blinks later, he’s hovering at her elbow. “Could you bring us some water? Sparkling, not still.”
He nods and scurries off as she turns her attention to me again.
“You made your feelings clear. You saidno,and I heard you perfectly.” I open my mouth to dispute this when she raises a finger. I close it with a snap. And a scowl. “I also heard Jody complaining about the caliber of candidates. I simply passed over Mimi’s résumé without offering an opinion.”
“Jody has fifteen years of experience. Nearly ten as an executive PA. She wouldn’t give the job to just anyone.”
“Darling, you keep making my point for me.”
“But she’s just a kid!”
“She’s a young woman of twenty-four”—the exact number gives me a start while also somehow making me feel ancient—“who is more than capable of fulfilling the role. Quite honestly, I don’t understand where this reluctance is coming from. I’d think it would be the least you’d want to do.”
The least I want to do with Amelia Valente is put her on her knees and her head in my lap. The worst I could do would be to dwell on what happened in my apartment. The best I could do for her would be to send her far away and not just because of what happened, or how seeing her makes me feel like I haven’t done right by Connor. It makes me feel like I’ve failed. Knowing she’s sitting on the opposite side of my office door day in and day out, dressed in that skintight pencil skirt might just make me really fail.
Fail to keep my hands off her.
Fail to do what’s right by her.
After all, I promised Connor.
“Oh my goodness!” My internal flagellation is cut short as the chair to my right is subjected to a brief battle of ownership as whirlwind Mimi arrives at the same time as the water-bearing server. “Oh okay.” Her lips tip with amusement as she allows him to do his job, lowering demurely onto the seat. “Oh my goodness,” she repeats, this time at a volume that makes me think of secrets. “The ladies’ room is out of this world! It’s pink,” she adds, her nose scrunching adorably. “The basins are pink marble and scalloped like flowers—they look like something you might wear, not wash your hands in!”
“They were carved from onyx,” my mother says.
At the same time, I repeat, “Wear a basin?”
“They’re just pretty,” she replies without an ounce of embarrassment.
Her smile is infectious, and that gap between her front teeth feels like it could be the beginning of a fetish. I find myself biting back a grin. Then I clock Mum’s twinkling eyes as they dart between us.Don’t even think about it, Polly. I send her a narrow-eyed glance. She better not think of making a pet project out of this.
Especially if it’sProject Grandkids.
“I didn’t realize you would be joining us,” I could bite my tongue the minute the words are out, but I needn’t have been worried about upsetting her as she throws back her head and laughs.
“I was just thinking in your office, how you haven’t changed. I guess I was wrong because that smooth tongue seems to have become a little worn.” Her expression twinkles mischievously, and I don’t miss how her gaze dips to my lips. I almost want to tell her my tongue is just as smooth as my fingertips, but that would be wrong. It doesn’t matter if she’s thinking about my tongue because I can’t think aboutherthinking aboutmytongue under any circumstances.
“I misspoke.” I move the linen napkin a little to the left. “I meant to say I was surprised to find you in the country.” Then because it’s going to be one of those days, I order a stiff drink. My companions decide to stick to water.
“Weird.” Mimi glances at my mother as though in confirmation. “Polly said she’d told you I was here.”
“Yes, I did,” she agrees happily. “I said Mimi was looking for a position, remember?”
The positions I’d like to give Mimi are wide and varied.
Fuck, I don’t appreciate being tag teamed. Not in this manner, anyway. It’s so heartening to hear they’ve been bonding.
