Page 10 of The Boss

He stares at it for a moment and looks up at me. “Juliet, this isn’t good. You really should tell Gino. This could be someone who knows something. They could be helpful.”

“I know, but I don’t know if it makes sense to bother him if we don’t know who it is. Could you try to look into it and see if you can find anything?” I reply.

“Yeah, but if I find anything, we go right to Gino,” he says sternly.

“I’ll agree to it, but you have to promise you won’t say anything until we know something,” I say.

“Deal,” he replies. Then he smiles, “The only way this is binding is our secret handshake.”

“You’re kidding,” I say.

“No, I’m not.” He puts his hand out.

“Fine,” I grumble.

And we do our secret handshake.

I don’t remember how it started or how we came up with it, but it stuck. Every time we agreed to something, or we did well at something, we did our secret handshake. Our palms connected for two claps, then we did the same with the back of our hands. Then our palms brushed twice.

Then he leaves.

I place my phone back on the table and turn the music back on, continuing the routine.

Once I’m done, I turn off the music and open one of the windows to let the cooler early summer air into the room.

After a few minutes, someone winds around the corner into the room. I turn, and Gino looks directly at me and freezes, staring at me.

He’s still frozen in his place. To break him out of his trance, I call his name, “Gino?”

It takes three tries, practically yelling his name, before he shakes his head. “Gino, are you okay?”

“Yeah, are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” I reply.

Shit, did he hear that conversation between Drew and I?

“Are you hungry? I was about to start making lunch.”

“No, but I know I should eat.”

“I’ll make something simple.”

“Juliet, you never make anything simple,” he grumbles.

I love to cook, so sometimes my simple cooking is plates of food.

I grin at him. “How about my version of simple?”

“Deal. I am going to head upstairs. Let me know when lunch is ready, and I’ll come back down.”

“I’m going to take a quick shower, then I’ll make something," I reply, and he walks out of the sunroom to head to his office.

Then my phone pings.

Unknown

The Russos’ associates may know something; check them out.