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So, Emma was big time into animals. Which meant she probably hated the fashion industry altogether. After all, it wasn’t exactly like designers and cosmetic companies were falling all over themselves to protect animals. And now Emma’s father owned Porteras. How much influence did she have over him?
I had no idea how a father/daughter relationship worked. My own dad had cut out when I was a year old. He’d picked me up for visits now and then until I was about six, but it wasn’t until I was a teenager that I’d realized the driving force behind those daddy-daughter days had been my mother’s desire for them to happen. He’d come to my high school graduation, given me a card with twenty bucks in it, and then gone back home to his wife and other children, whose names I couldn’t quite remember. That had been the last time I’d seen him. It seemed completely unlikely to me that if I woke up tomorrow caring deeply about animals, he might alter his personal— and professional— behavior in any way to honor my convictions. Clearly, that wasn’t the case with Emma and Neil.
The puppy under the Christmas tree was my first clue that she might be a little spoiled.
But Emma had seemed so antagonistic toward Neil. Because of the divorce? Was he trying to make up for her disappointment in losing a stepmother? Making unwise business decisions didn’t seem to be the best way to handle that.
By the time I got to the apartment, my brain was spinning. I was so caught up in my speculation that Neil was trying to buy his daughter’s love by running Porteras into the ground— and my guilt over the fact that I was speculating anything about Neil’s relationship with his daughter at all— that when I unlocked the door and stepped inside, I didn’t bat an eye to find Deja standing in the kitchen in nothing but a t-shirt.
“Oh. Hey.” She looked super embarrassed, and I waved her reaction off.
“Don’t worry, literally the same thing just happened to me.” I hung up my coat. “Well, not literally. Wait... You’re out of context.”
“Yeah.” She drew out the word with a comical grimace, her eyes sparkling.
Holli emerged from her room, wrapped in her sexy, short black satin robe. The back had an amazing art nouveau peacock embroidered on it, and I had massive wardrobe envy on the rare occasion that I saw it. Holli reserved it almost exclusively for wowing overnight guests.
“Hey there. I thought you weren’t supposed to be back until tonight,” she said, heading to the kitchen sink. She filled the coffee pot with water while she waited for my answer.
“I wasn’t.” It was totally inappropriate for me to be angry with Emma for spoiling my Sunday. But I couldn’t keep the bitterness out of my tone. Hey, I’m only human. “His daughter dropped by. It did not go well.”
“Oh god. How ‘not well’?” Holli’s nervous gaze darted to Deja. “I mean, if you can tell us.”
There were millions of men in New York, so I figured I was safe so long as I didn’t name names. “Um, she heard me and her father having loud, aggressive sex. That ‘not well.’”
“That’ll screw a kid up,” Deja noted with a lift of her eyebrows.
“No, she’s an adult,” I answered before I thought to stop myself. Okay, there was more than one rich middle-aged man in New York City I could be involved with.
Deja nodded. “Ah. And would she happen to be a condescending blonde who can’t keep her travel itinerary current with her father’s personal secretary? Because I got a very terse email from one of those about fifteen minutes ago.”
I opened my mouth to say something, but all I could really do was gape at her.
“Hey, your secret is safe with me.” She looked from me to Holli and back again with a kind of deer-in-the-headlights expression. “I figured it out on my first day at the office. I don’t care who you have sex with. And I definitely prefer it if my boss is getting laid. I find it makes my job a lot easier.”
“You can’t tell anyone,” I warned.
“Never.” Deja crossed her heart, then did a full-body shiver. “I’m sorry you have to deal with the ice maiden, though.”
I didn’t feel comfortable responding to a slam against Neil’s daughter. Even if I kind of agreed with the description. I changed the subject. “You know, Deja, this whole pantsless thing kind of ruins your super cool rock-chick image from the office.”
“Yeah, um. I wasn’t really planning on staying over but...” Deja looked like she physically couldn’t help smiling at Holli. The long, sweet moment that they held each other’s gazes made me feel like a definite interloper, so I headed toward my room to give them privacy.
