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I emerged from my room, and my heart skipped at the sight of Olive and Claire sitting at the breakfast nook.
Claire spun around in her chair and darted for me, throwing her arms around my waist. "Morning, Lucas."
I patted the top of her head. "Morning, Claire."
When would we tell her the truth? The timing of that decision would ultimately be up to Olive, but I didn't mind waiting. Would Claire ever feel comfortable calling me dad? I hoped so.
"Can we go to the park today?"
From the counter, Olive smiled at me. "Let's let Lucas have coffee first and then we'll figure out what we're doing today, okay?"
Claire shrugged. "Okay!"
A louder bang on the door distracted me. Who the hell was here?
"Are you expecting company?" Olive asked.
I shook my head. "No, and no one from the front desk called me."
Olive's face paled. "Claire, let's go to your room."
My heart sank. The discomfort in her expression and in her body language was explicitly obvious. Of course, she didn't want to date me. Just by being here, she was submitting herself to unfair questioning, investigations into the trauma of her past that I didn't blame her for not wanting to revisit.
If this was a reporter who'd somehow managed to sneak to my unit, I was going to fucking lose it.
Whoever was outside was banging even harder as I approached the door. I peered into the peep hole. Seriously?
Unlocking the door, I sighed. "Jessie, what the hell?"
Jessie cocked his head and slid past me without waiting for an invitation. "This is what happens when you ignore my calls, Lucas. You make my driver take me half way across town."
Stifling my groan, I closed the door behind him. "How the hell did you even get up here?"
Jessie rolled his eyes. "I'm the fucking mayor, Lucas. I can get into any Penthouse in town."
Massaging my temples, I sighed at an oncoming headache. It was too early for this. I glanced down the hall and was relieved Olive had enough foresight to take Claire to her room. Hopefully, Olive stayed in there too. I wanted to talk to her before Jessie attempted to interrogate her.
"All right," Jessie said, clapping his hands. "Should we start professional or personal?"
I rubbed the stubble on my chin. "Jessie, just say whatever you want to say."
"Right, professional first." He pulled a USB drive out of his suit pocket. "As requested, the blueprints of my house and the surveillance videos from my house for the last month. I've already looked through it all and didn't see anything out of the ordinary, but maybe you'll catch something I missed."
Pocketing the USB, I thanked him, pretending to look like I'd been expecting it. I'd been so consumed with having Olive and Claire here that the issue of the hacker who'd stolen the video from Jessie's had completely slipped my mind. Work had taken a back burner, and while I had enough employees to take care of things in my absence, I felt a fraction of guilt.
My software was supposed to be impossible to hack, and while Jessie's security, Fish, had fucked up by not locking the password on the computer, I was still liable when it came to finding out was responsible for this.
Jessie slipped his hands in his pockets and shrugged. "So, where do we go next?"
I furrowed my brow. "With what?"
"The VP position, obviously."
Shifting from one leg to the other, I searched for the right words. "Wait...you're still considering me for that?"
Jessie blinked. "Lucas, you're one of the most honorable men I know. And trust me when I say, I need that for my future campaign. There's only one question I need to know. Do you still want the job?"
That was not the question I'd been expecting. "Y-yeah," I stuttered. "I just...honestly, I just need to figure some things out first." Running my hands through my hair, I sighed. "I'm not the only person's whose opinion matters now. Not anymore."
