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“There is,” I admit.
When I spoke to my dad about this again, I told him that I refused to lie if I was asked outright, and he agreed that lying to our clients, who are also our family, wasn’t the way to go. He did, however, warn me to be careful with the information I shared. This is my first real test of maintaining the balance between friendship and professionalism, and I’m hoping to remain true to both.
“You know how my work and my dad’s sometimes means we need to be discreet about what we’re doing?”
She nods, then shrugs. “Of course. Your dad probably knows more about all of us than the rest of us combined, but he’s always been careful not to gossip about the things he finds out and not to divulge sensitive information about any of us to the others.”
“Exactly.” Relief fills me when I realize this might not be as hard as I thought. “I’m working on some stuff for my dad that I can’t really talk about, but I promise if anything crops up that you need to know about, I’ll tell you.”
She squeezes my arm and smiles. “I know you will. So that’s why you’ve been hanging out with him so much, huh? Work. That makes a lot more sense. For a minute there, I thought you’d gone loco and developed a crush on him or something.”
“No,” I say quickly. Too quickly, but she doesn’t seem to pick up on it. “Vincent and I have been getting along a little bit better, but not that much. Frankly, the improvement in our relationship also only seems to manifest itself after eight p.m. Sometimes even later than that.”
She laughs. “Any improvement between you two is a miracle. See? I told you he wasn’t so bad.”
“I never said he wasn’t so bad. All I said was that we’ve been getting along a little bit better at times. There’s a big difference. Anyway, have we got our first clue yet?”
Izzy raises her phone again, and we crowd around it, reading the first clue and setting off on our scavenger hunt. For the next couple hours, we don’t talk about Vincent or what I’m doing with him. I’m honestly surprised by how she just took the information in stride. It makes me think that maybe what I’m doing isn’t so much like spying after all.
As Dad said, it’s a part of my job, and if Isabella accepted it so easily, maybe the others won’t hate me if they find out. Vincent, however, will not take it nearly as lightly, I’m sure.
So I’ll just have to make sure he never finds out.
It turns out the game is a really fun way to see some of the most historic sites in the city while having fun solving riddles. As part of it, we visit St. Patrick’s Cathedral, the Irish Museum of Modern Art, the Guinness Storehouse, and Kilmainham Gaol, a disused prison. I’d never admit it out loud, but I’m a little bit impressed that this was Vincent’s idea.
Not only did he get us all together and involved, but we’re doing sightseeing and visiting historical monuments that I never thought he’d be interested in. I’m starting to realize that I might’ve judged him too harshly before, though. The more I learn about the person he’s grown into, the more I realize there’s a lot more to him than just being a borderline alcoholic manwhore with a talent for putting together social media posts.
His comment the other night about being a fuck-up also made me realize he’s a lot more self-aware than I thought, and it obviously means something to him that we’re all spending the day together, which also makes him much more caring and sentimental about the group than I thought.
Not only that, but he’s funny, protective, a hell of a dancer, and apparently is actually interested in seeing more of a city than just the inside of its pubs and clubs. This fact is made even more apparent when Izzy and I reach the last stop second—behind Vincent and James.
They don’t see us approaching, and as we draw closer, I hear him telling James, “Kilmainham Gaol closed for good in 1924. It’s arguably Ireland’s most famous disused prison because of all the people who were incarcerated here. The leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising were even executed here.”
“How do you know this shit?”
He shrugs. “I read up about it on the plane. You know I’ve always liked history, though. It was one of the only classes I ever enjoyed.”
“Fair enough.” James glances up and sees us, smiles, and waves us over. “Looks like we’ve got our second-place winners. Congrats, guys. I wonder who else will come in at top three.”
Izzy bounds over to him, taking his arm and dragging him away. I frown after them, wondering what those two are up to now. She didn’t mention anything, but Isabella and James can both be pranksters at times. If she made a beeline like that for him, I’ve got no doubt they’ve got something in store for us.
Vincent shakes his head, hands on his hips as he stares after them. “When do you think they planned whatever it is they have planned?”
“No idea. Did he say anything about it during the game?”
“Nope,” he says. “Did she?”
“Nope.” I move to his side, not so close that we’re touching but not so far that we have to keep speaking to one other in raised voices and bothering everyone else around us. “I wonder what it is.”
“So do I.” When he turns, there’s none of the usual irritated fire in his eyes. “Did you enjoy the game? When I saw it, I thought you’d like it.”
Taken aback, my head jerks slightly at his words. “I loved it. Thank you for organizing it for us. It was definitely sightseeing with a twist.”
“Yeah.” He smiles, and for once, there’s no edge to it even though he’s looking at me. “I’m glad you liked it. Let’s hope the others feel the same.”
“I’m pretty sure everyone will have loved it.” Acting on instinct and following through before I can stop myself, I reach out to touch his forearm. “Thanks for today. Getting up this morning and knowing we all had a meeting in that sitting room in our pajamas made me feel like a kid again. It was great, and the day has been so far too.”
Surprise flashes in his eyes, but then he dips his head in a small nod. “You’re welcome, and if you felt like a kid again, then that means I got what I was after. I was just trying to remind everyone of how things used to be, you know?”
