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He punched something into the GPS and pulled away from the curb before he spoke. “I’ve been thinking about talking to Neil. About leaving the job.”
“Oh?” That would make it easier on Neil, who’d been stressing out about how to fire his future father-in-law.
“Yeah. You know, I’ve been his driver for a long time. Way back. His ex-wife hired me. That’s how long I’ve been working for him.” Tony cleared his throat, as though it had occurred to him that I wouldn’t want to hear about the previous Mrs. Elwood. “You guys are good employers. The pay is good, the benefits are fine, I’m not mad at you or anything—”
“It’s just weird to be a part of the family, working for family,” I finished for him. “We get it. We’ve actually talked about how to approach you over this.”
“Not thrilled with the idea of having your stepdad drive you and your honey around on dates?” he joked.
“Something like that,” I said uncomfortably. Because that was one of my big concerns: places he’d taken us in the past, things we’d done just a partition away from him…
Like the time before Neil and I were even officially dating, when he’d made Tony circle the block so Neil could finish making me come.
Ugh, what I wouldn’t give for a time machine.
“Anything that happened while I worked for you guys is confidential, you know?” he asked, his eyes briefly meeting mine in the rearview mirror.
Not for the first time, I wished they made these cars with ejector seats.
“No, I get it. I don’t think you’d… I mean, I’m sure Mom doesn’t want to know—”
“Not at all,” he agreed. “Not that I would say anything. I mean, who wants to hear that kind of stuff about their kid? And why would I even want to talk about it?”
“Exactly.” I felt like we were in a scene in a mob movie where we were both trying to stress that nobody saw nothin’ and we were all going to keep our snitch mouths shut. “I appreciate your discretion.”
“Good. And I appreciate yours, too,” he said, and this time, I didn’t quite pick up on the knowing tone.
“Excuse me?”
“Come on. I know why you sent us to Vegas while your friend was here,” Tony said, almost reluctant to say it. “You don’t want your mom to know about him or the little place out in the woods.”
My face blazed. Tony had driven Neil and me to the Pavillon Français on our wedding night, so he knew it was there. I guess it was naive of me to not realize that he’d know what it was all about. But I’d never have suspected that he would know about El-Mudad, or what we got up to with him.
“I don’t—” I began, even though I didn’t have to defend myself.
He cut me off. “Look, like I said, I’ve been driving Mr. Elwood for a long enough time that I know the kind of stuff he gets up to. In the abstract. And I got nothing against people being adventurous. But your mom is kind of innocent, you know? She’s not like us.”
Us? Oh, god, no. I did not want to think about my mother being “adventurous” with Tony. “I’m not sure what you mean by ‘like us’, but—”
“Hey, you come from the same background as her. Small-town girl, not a lot of wild things to get up to. But you, me, Mr. El— Neil, we’re worldly people. You live in this city, you see some things. You get a real education. But a lot of stuff still shocks Rebecca.”
I didn’t need particulars about what, exactly, he’d shocked her with.
Thankfully, he didn’t provide them. “I know you didn’t want her there while your friend visited. And she doesn’t know that I know what goes on. But if I keep working for you, what happens if she asks me about it? If she says, ‘Hey, is Sophie cheating on Neil with that guy?’, what, am I supposed to lie to her?”
“No, you can’t do that. It’s not a fair position to put you in.” I would have much rather this conversation had gone down between him and Neil, but I fully understood him. “Is this your two weeks, then?”
“It’s my ‘hire another driver soon’ warning.” He guided the car into a different lane. “I don’t want to leave you high and dry, but I gotta look for another job.”
“Another job?” I blurted in surprise, before my logical mind could catch up.
“Well, yeah. I need a job. Gotta keep up with Becky’s QVC bill. She can’t live off of you forever.”
“Right, but…” I hadn’t thought about any of this, and it was going down a road I didn’t like very much. “Won’t you have to move?”
“She didn’t tell you we’ve been looking at places?” he asked, his eyebrows shooting up.
