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“Oh, I didn’t know you had company,” he said, darting his gaze between us. “I’ll come back.”
“No, it’s fine. I’m going,” I uttered quickly, edging past him with my eyes lowered.
Grayson blocked my path and placed his finger under my chin, lifting my face, before turning to his brother with fire in his eyes. “What did you say to her?”
My heart raced. “I’m fine,” I bit, reluctantly pulling away from his touch.
“Let her go, Grayson. We need to talk.”
***
25
Pete: See you at Bellini’s @ 7pm.
“Fuck!” I launched off the couch, skidded into my bedroom and began rummaging through my closet. Crap, crap, crap! I had had such an emotionally charged week, I totally spaced on my dinner plans with Pete.
I settled on the short black dress I wore to Hank and Sabrina’s wedding and quickly straightened my hair to disguise the colourful underlights. Bellini’s was super conservative, and well…I wasn’t.
Scrambling out of the cab, I adjusted my dress as I walked into the restaurant only five minutes late. I deserve fucking round of applause!
The waiter guided me through to our table and Pete stood as I approached. Feeling a strong pull in the opposite direction, my gaze travelled across the room to discover Grayson eating dinner with a couple I didn’t recognise.
I hadn’t seen or heard from him since I left Adam’s office a few days prior, and I preferred it that way. His mere presence brought up too many emotions, and I was done with all of it. Whether Adam told him about the baby or not, it had nothing to do with me.
I narrowed my eyes and the corner of Grayson’s mouth twitched.
Pete sighed. “Yeah, I know. Of all the restaurants in New York City, William Harlow has to be having dinner here. We can go somewhere else if it makes you uncomfortable.”
I swallowed. “No, no, this is fine.”
He held out my chair, and I sat down, immediately picking up the menu to hide behind it. The quicker we ordered, the quicker we could get out of there.
Pete returned to his chair, and I cringed. Grayson was in my line of sight, already making it difficult to focus on whatever Pete was saying.
“Pardon?” I mumbled, shaking my head. “Sorry, I’m a bit out of it today.”
“Totally understand. I know how busy you are. I just asked how the rest of your exhibition went.”
My face brightened. “Great. I still can’t believe I sold everything.”
“Wow! That’s amazing, Josie.”
I blushed. “Thanks, Pete.”
“It’s a shame you can’t make a decent living out of that sort of thing.”
Irritation rippled through me, but I kept smiling. “What makes you think I couldn’t?”
Pete chuckled. “The term ‘starving artist’ comes to mind. I highly doubt you could make as much money as you do at Maude.”
“Why is everyone around here so focused on money?”
Pete grinned. “It’s my job to be.”
I changed the subject before I got too worked up. “Speaking of which, tell me more about this job of yours.”
Pete delved into a load of financial talk and as much as I tried, I had no interest in what he was saying. Instead, my focus kept drifting to Grayson. Every time he glanced in my direction, I looked away, getting more and more worked up. Relief washed over me when our main course was served, because it meant I could focus on my food, instead of constantly battling the attention of two men.
