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“We should never have worked that deal. It was worth a lot of money, but it’s only money,” he said.
“Spoken like someone who has enough of it.”
He paused. “I do have enough of it. That’s why I’m beating myself up about this one. The guy, I always had a bad feeling about him. I went against my gut, and I didn’t even need to. Now, my entire life is on hold from that mistake in judgment.”
“Lord knows I’ve made mistakes,” I said.
He sighed, then smiled at me. “But I’m learning to cook, and eating some of my favorite foods again. And, I don’t have to tolerate any bro-y douchebags.”
“Isn’t bigger, faster, more with the bros what you want to get back to?”
“Uh, no. I want to get back to the tech. I try to avoid the wholebrothing. I refuse to work another deal that requires me to be in Silicon Valley, even for a day.”
“Huh.” She frowned. “A smart, sexy tech guy like you would be beating them off with a stick in the Valley.”
“What?” He laughed.
“Running the women off as they clamor to get to you.”
“You think I’m smart and sexy?” He swiveled his body toward me, his eyes warm and teasing. Crap.
“You’re all right.” I started back in on my burger, closing that line of questioning while he chuckled.
“So, you don’t like the bros. I guess that means you’re not one,” I said.
“Hell no, Ilikewomen. Some of those guys took treating women like shit to a whole new level. Entitled dickheads who didn’t get noticed by girls when they were younger with something to prove now that they had power andfuck youamounts of money. Bros think they’re the brightest in the room, and the injustice of the world not seeing their genius entitles them to their shitty behavior.”
“Yeah, I’m familiar. I worked for a caterer in San Jose before Hill & Ocean.”
His eyebrows rose. “Wow. What was that like?”
“Not awesome.” I quirked a grin.
He lowered his voice and leaned in, giving me a whiff of his woodsy scent. “Did you ever cater any of the parties?”
“The launch parties?” My heartbeat sped up. Did I want to talk to Lucas about this?
“No, the other parties.” His voice was almost a whisper.
I nodded and took a big sip of water. I needed to admit I’d recognized him from that partyandmy last night at Hill & Ocean. We were friends. Something. He said he wasn’t a bro, and aside from the car thing, he hadn’t actually acted like one.
“I went to one.” He held up a finger to me as he continued. “It’s the worst kept secret in tech, those parties. I thought I knew what I was getting into. I was wrong. My buddies asked me to meet with prospective buyers there for a platform we built. Afterward, I couldn’t leave fast enough.” He paused. “And good thing. I gave a ride to a girl who was anxious to leave too.”
He looked off into the distance and shook his head with a sigh.
“She was too young to be there,” I said. Lucas’s gaze snapped back to me with a furrowed brow. “I catered that party. I was with her when she asked you to take her home. I tried to tell her not to go with you because you were a man. Sorry to judge you for the sins of others, but she was not okay.”
His eyes were wide, and his mouth slightly agape. “No, she wasn’t. The caterer, that was you?” he asked.
“Yep.”
“When did you realize I was the guy who gave her a ride?”
“The next time I saw you, my last night at Hill & Ocean.”
“What?” His brow furrowed in disbelief.
“You were with some bros. One of them, Dickwad, I call him, wanted the skinny chef to serve him dessert. It had already been a bad day, a bad month, and Reef, the-son-of-a-bitch who I, incidentally, had a brief history with, didn’t back me up. I walked out.”
