Mom groaned. “Way too much.”
“Too much information would be telling you that I once made it through the entire Karma Smutra one time with a man named Eddie in Oregon.” She held her hands out in front of her, about a foot apart. “He put your little toy vibrator to shame.”
“When were you in Oregon?”
I snorted. “That’s what you’re focusing on? And that’s not what it’s called, Granny.”
“Oregon? What do you call it?”
“No, the Karma Smutra. That’s not the name.”
“I think I’d know what it’s called. After all, I did it.”
“Mom. When the hell were you in Oregon?”
Granny Lane giggled. “The time your father and I split up. He went to Atlantic City, thinking he was going to get with a dancer and show me. Joke was on him when I came back from my trip, walking bowlegged like some cowgirl.”
“You know what? I think this apartment has been ruined for me. Thank you, Granny.”
Mom gagged. “Don’t say things like that, Mom!”
“I don’t shame you when you wear those mom jeans of yours! Don’t sex shame me. Don’t yuck my yum.”
I stood up and walked out of the room. “You two are ruining my brain.”
Mom followed me. “Don’t leave me in there with her.”
Granny Lane was right behind us. “You think you can just leave me talking to myself in a room?”
I stood in the middle of my almost completely empty living room and looked around at where all my pictures had hung on the wall. Pictures of the insane women arguing behind me, pictures of Dad. There’d been too much loss in my life that year. Dad had been a complete shock. He’d been so healthy. My apartment hurt less, but it was still brutal. I just wanted things to stop hurting.
Unfortunately, working and living in the same house as Con Phoenix wasn’t going to let that be easy. The man dealt out pain like it was his profession, even when he didn’t know it. And I was the idiot who hadn’t even known his last name. Never would I have accepted an interview with a Phoenix if I’d known Con was one. For any amount of money.
“Stop harassing me and hug your daughter. She’s crying again.” Granny Lane pulled me into her thin arms even as she told Mom to hold me. “Come here, baby-cakes. It’s all going to be okay.”
I really wanted to believe her. I wasn’t the positive person my dad was, though. A realist, yes, but hardly ever positive.
Chapter 3
***Autumn***
The live-in chef showed me around the house. I counted ten bedrooms and more bathrooms. There were more rooms than I could count for extra space, including a strange space made up of what could maybe be considered toys for kids, if those kids were as modern as the designers of them. They looked complicated. The woman was nice but reserved. She didn’t say anything more than she had to, and I had the feeling she didn’t care to leave the kitchen.
Greta vanished back to her space as soon as we finished the tour. She left me standing outside the library doors, a pitying smile and a wave her final goodbye.
I knocked before pushing open the door and walking into the same space I’d been in the day before. Griffin was there, the scowl on his face directed at his brother sitting across from him.
I paused, unable to make myself walk farther into the room if Con was the one sitting in the chair, but when the man turned to face me, I saw it wasn’t Con, but his twin. While both Con and Zeke looked identical, there were more than enough clues to set them apart. Like the scar that cut through Zeke’s eyebrow and the way his lips dipped into a charming smile when he saw me.
“Come in.” Griffin stood up from his desk and walked around to greet me. “Greta showed you around?”
I inched closer. “She did. She also helped me put my things in my room.”
Zeke rolled his eyes. “Someone could’ve done that for her, Griff.”
“The kids are in the playroom upstairs. I had Greta hold off on showing you that room. Come.” And just like that, Griffinstrolled past me and all but snapped his fingers for me to trail behind him like a dog.
I bit my tongue and silently followed him, reminding myself that I’d signed the contract and that it was a lot of money. I had a feeling that was going to become my mantra.
