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His lips finally turned up and he shook his head. “Completely unfazed. I’m not sure if I’m impressed or frightened.”
“Drama queen.” Chuckling softly, I grabbed a breadstick. “Ask away. Now you have me curious.”
His grin widened and he grabbed a breadstick, mirroring me this time. “What do you do for a living? You talked about meetings and seem busy, but I don’t think you actually said what you do.”
Hadn’t I?
Maybe not.
“I guess it's because I get weird reactions.” People were so judgmental. “I’m primarily an angel investor. I have a small company that’s partnered with several others to provide financing for small start-ups and new companies.”
He blinked a few times before nodding. “So, what, Eli and Preston were one of your first?”
“Yes.” Relief flooded through me when he just took in how wealthy I must be and immediately moved past it. “You know how in some families Grandpa invented something like Velcro and then the money just gets passed down?”
Bishop nodded and I could see his mind whirling as I finished the story. “Well, my grandma invented a few tweaks for kitchen appliances and my parents managed not to fuck it all up.”
Laughing, he broke off a piece of the breadstick. “Yeah, that generally happens. So you guys have money and common sense and you help grow it through investments and silent partnerships? Sounds smart and helpful.”
That was it?
Glad he wasn’t weirded out, I nodded. “Yes, so if I’m not careful, it sucks up more time than is probably healthy.”
“Ah.” He popped the piece in his mouth and studied me as he chewed. “You spent the last couple of days in meetings that you were supposed to have over the weekend, didn’t you?”
And I was caught red-handed.
“Yes.” I wasn’t sure if I looked guilty or just silly, but I shrugged as he shook his head.
“You were so vague I couldn’t decide if you were working for the mob or had to go hide your wife and kids.” His smile was wide and his tone was light, but I realized how badly it must’ve come across.
I was an idiot.
“How about we chalk it up to me needing to brush up on my social skills?” It’d been a while since I’d told a date more than that I was in finance.
Bishop managed not to laugh, but he nodded and didn’t bother hiding how ridiculous he found me. “Deal. But just so we’re clear, there’s no wife and kids somewhere and you don’t have to go to jail on the weekends for anything?”
“Your dating life has clearly been worse than mine.” It was impressive actually. “Jail?”
He sighed. “It was a few years ago now, but we met when I had to go run some errands at the mall. He seemed like a nice guy and I didn’t care if he worked fast food. But it turns out he was working in the food court because of some kind of work release program.”
“Oh.” From the look on his face, I didn’t want to know why the guy had been in prison, so I tried to shift gears. “You win the bad date award, but how about we aim to improve things going forward.”
Bishop seemed to mentally shake off whatever had clouded his thoughts because his smile brightened as he nodded. “Deal. And I think the first step is going to be dessert.”
Laughing, I stretched my foot out under the table and nudged against his leg. “So is that a good bribe?”
Blushing, he shrugged and gave me a sexy smile. “There are a few things I can be bribed with.”
Like spankings and orgasms.
And pancakes with blueberries.
And edging too based on the list we’d discussed on Saturday morning…and Saturday at lunch and then again at dinner. I’d needed to be thorough, so we’d decided that he shouldn’t rush back to Wesley’s house.
Of course, that got me a thousand nosy text messages from Eli and Roman. Gossip traveled fast and it was clear my date with Bishop was the fun new toy everyone was talking about. Roman had gotten so bad, I’d threatened to sic Eli on him.
Nosy monster.
He looked so innocent when compared to Eli that no one realized he was just as dramatic and just as meddlesome.
“I’m remembering that list.” My teasing reference to our conversations Saturday had him laughing.
“I thought you were exaggerating when you said how many questions you had.” He sat forward, bracing his elbows on the table as he studied me. “It’s the work side of you. That makes sense.”
I hadn’t really thought about it that way and I found myself with my head cocked, trying to look at it from that perspective. “Okay, you’re right, but in my defense, I never saw it like that. Should I apologize?”
Treating him like a work project wasn’t exactly the politest way to find out information about him.
