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“Oh okay. Um, I don’t want to horn in on your time…”
“I’m not taking no for an answer, Tae, so put your stuff in your room. We’ll be in the lobby.”
She suppressed a sigh.
“I’ll help you,” Jax told her.
“I don’t need—”
He shuffled her down the hall, and the impatient Alise dragged Daniel toward the elevator. Tae recognized a losing battle and gave in. Twenty minutes later, she, Daniel, Jax, and Alise and her mother sat around a table with a hibachi grill in the middle of it, waiting for their personal chef to begin his show while preparing their food.
The chef began his routine tapping his fork and metal spatula on the grill in a smooth rhythm to capture all of their attention. He swung the utensils around, flipped them in the air, and ducked his head beneath them a few times. Tae and Jax clapped and cheered. Daniel smiled, and Alise appeared less than impressed while she clung to Daniel’s arm as if someone might steal him away. Tae wasn’t sure if Mrs. Harper was awake.
Piles of veggies were added to the grill, atop a generous amount of oil, then shrimp. Tae always enjoyed watching how the chef’s hands blurred as he prepared the shrimp. He sent the meat to one pile and flicked the tails in another direction. When he was done, he flipped the tails so they disappeared. She had no idea where they landed. Next, he carefully compiled a volcano made of onion. He poured vodka and olive oil into the center. Tae glanced at Alise, but the woman paid the chef no mind. The little volcano went up on fire, and Tae whooped.
“You’re like a little kid, easily entertained,” Jax whispered in her ear.
She punched his arm. “You liked it, too. Don’t lie.”
He shrugged. “I never pretended to be mature.”
“Idiot.” She laughed at him, and he grinned back. Tae noted how Alise placed a manicured nail beneath Daniel’s chin and directed his attention toward her. She said something too low to hear, and Daniel’s blue gaze flashed with interest. Tae looked down at her hands, barren of any rings. She’d taken them off that morning to wash a few dishes and forgot to put them back on. Three years ago when she told Daniel she couldn’t marry him, she had asked herself a million times if she made the right choice. Every so often, she reaffirmed, if only to herself, that the decision had been right for her.
“You’re missing the show,” Jax said.
She looked up, but the chef could no longer keep her focus. Determined to keep a positive outlook, she turned to Jax. His green eyes, which always held a sense of mystery, were trained on her. Right now, the knowing they reflected pissed her off, but she swallowed the emotion. “Is work ever dangerous?”
He hesitated, and at first she thought he’d call her on the attempt to distract herself and him, but he gave in. “Sometimes. Not long ago, I followed a guy whose wife believed he was having an affair.”
“Was he?”
“No, that’s the thing.” Jax frowned, remembering. “He had an addiction to gambling—illegal gambling—and I stumbled onto the people he owed money. A case of mistaken identity.”
The wince as if he recalled pain made her put her hand on his arm. “Oh wow, you didn’t get hurt too badly, did you? I guess you didn’t considering you look okay to me.”
Jax leaned in closer. “You like the way I look, Tae?”
“Does your mind ever leave the gutter?”
“Where’s the fun in that?”
She smirked and shook her head. “So what did they do?”
He shrugged. “Cracked a rib, a few bruises. Nothing I couldn’t handle.”
“Of course.”
They chatted some more, and then Daniel drew them into conversation, entertaining and charming all rolled into one. When she got her food, Tae shifted it around her plate, half listening to the conversation around her. Only when she couldn’t avoid it did she join in. Old emotions, insecurity, questions, all bubbled up inside her regarding Daniel, and what made it worse was he seemed so oblivious of how confused he made her. One minute he looked at Alise as if she were his world, and that was the way it should be. The next he said something Tae and no one else would know the meaning of, directing a devastating smile at her that she had to fight a reaction to with all her might.
After one such instance, Jax bumped her arm with his. “You okay?”
She made a small sound of dismissal and waved her fork. “Please, I’m having a great time.” Internally, she groaned. Why would I say that? It sounds stupid.
For once, Jax didn’t tease her, and she was grateful to him.
Halfway through the meal, several ladies called out to Alise from across the restaurant, and for the first time that evening, Alise perked up, a smile spreading over her face as she waved the three women—two white and one black—over to their table. “At last my friends are here,” Alise gushed. “This boring dinner will have some life.”
Tae’s mouth fell open, and her eyes widened. “She did not just—”
