He laughed when the doors closed and pulled her tight. They were alone and it wouldn’t stop on any other floor until they were dropped off.
“The security here is tighter than you’ve ever seen. This is a straight shot up. No stops for anyone right now without this access. Just owners have it besides Griffin, and one cleaner.”
The doors opened, and there was Adrienne standing with her arms out.
“Donuts. Daddy said you’ve got donuts.”
“Wow,” Ethan said. “That’s what the greeting is for?”
Bella laughed and came around the corner. “I told her to wait, but she said no. She wanted the strawberry cream one and you better have gotten it.”
He opened the top of the box he’d been carrying around. “I got everything requested. Two strawberry creams. I thought you liked the peanut butter and jelly one.”
“I like them both.” Adrienne looked in the box, then turned to her mother.
“You can grab it, then we’ll sit at the table. That’s massive and messy,” Bella said.
“She’ll be all sugared up for her grandparents,” Nora said.
“So will I,” Eli said, coming in and snagging the one with candied bacon on top. “I haven’t eaten yet knowing these were coming. Did you check out the space?”
“I did. Looks good. Hope the closing will be in a month, but you won’t be ready here, will you?”
“Should be close. Need to get staffing, then train them. That’s on you, bro. You’re running this show, but I’d like a timeframe. I know you’ll do promotions, but we have our own in house too.”
“No work talk today,” Bella said. “Save that for another day.”
He heard some cries, then walked into the living room to see Ollie sitting in a playpen rubbing his eyes.
“It’s like he knew I was here,” Ethan said, reaching for his nephew still in his footed jammies. “Look at that smile.”
“You look good with a kid in your hands,” Eli said, taking a bite of his donut while Bella got Adrienne seated for hers.
“Don’t look at me,” Nora said.
“We’ve got to get her to where she’s not embarrassed to be seen out with me first,” he said, smirking.
And there went the smile from her face.
“Dude, you’re in trouble,” Eli said, his voice almost singing.
“So it seems.” He handed his nephew to Bella. “We’ll see you later at Mom’s. Going to drop off the other box to Egan.”
The ride down to the parking lot was quiet. Thick with tension and the faint sting of annoyance.
What had started as a joke was about to come back and bite him in the ass.
He gripped the steering wheel tighter in the car, his jaw ticking. She hadn’t said a word, as if she was waiting for him to.
He couldn’t shake the irritation simmering beneath the surface. Not at her, exactly, but at the fact that she was the one driving this whole secrecy thing.
She was calling the shots, setting the rules, while he, the man who was going to take over running an empire and made decisions that shaped futures, was left following along.
Not a role he wore easily.
Nor one he ever wanted.
What had his mother always told him?Learn to be humble.
