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Jaime’s surprised voice caught our attention and we both turned. He looked stunned standing in the doorway of the sitting room. He also had a little girl on his back, a tiny little thing with curly red hair and a missing front tooth when she smiled at O’Connor senior.
“Grandad!”
She wiggled and slid off Jaime’s back, dodging around him to throw herself at her grandfather. He plucked her off the ground effortlessly, putting her on his hip.
“Hello, pumpkin. What have you been up to?”
Again, the affection struck me as surreal. My grandfather died before I was born but my grandmother wasn’t a kind woman. She was constantly hitting me with a ruler if I wasn’t sitting up straight or acted unladylike. Avoiding her was one of the only ways my siblings and I spent time together. Whenever we were forced to go to her house we all snuck off together and trash talked her until my mom came after us and made us go back inside.
Jaime stepped up to me, his brow furrowed. “What are you doing here? I thought you were working from home.”
Since it was his big mouth that landed me here, I didn’t hold back my glare. “Since you decided to share with the entire world what I was doing, Jo felt the need to come to my home and kidnap me. I hope you know I’m never giving you details about my plans again.”
His eyebrows shot up and a lopsided grin took over his face. “Really? She said something about asking you to come herself but I didn’t think she’d full blown kidnap you. I should’ve thought of that.”
Rolling my eyes, I scowled at him. “We aren’t friends, Jaime. And it would’ve been significantly easier to tell you no. She’s married to my boss so I'm obligated to be nice to her.”
He chuckled, shoving his hands into his pockets. “Still, can’t argue with her results. I’m glad you’re here.”
That warm feeling pulsed in my chest again but I ignored it, still glaring at him. I hadn’t realized that we had an audience but O’Connor senior and the little girl watched us avidly. You could almost imagine them both munching on popcorn, they were staring so hard. A blush stole up my neck and I frowned, turning away from them. This is awkward and I needed to figure out how long before I could leave without being impolite.
ChapterNineteen
When a staff membercame around with glasses of wine, I eagerly took one. I needed to take the edge off the awkwardness a little bit. Taking a large swallow, I let my gaze drift over the room. If my father threw any events at our home, it was mostly a cover for business. He’d invite business partners or the like to show off his wealth and liquor them up so he could manipulate them better. The same could probably be said here since Liam’s associates were also here but when I stepped up to them to say hello, they weren’t talking about business like I’d assumed. They were deep in conversation about upgrades Mateo was doing on his home.
“Sloan! I’m glad you could join us!” Mateo beamed, his arm around his wife’s waist. Luckily with her here he didn’t try to hug me. Maybe having the wives around wasn’t so bad.
“Mr. Ramirez. Mr. Volkov. Mr. O’Connor. Thank you for inviting me.” I did my best to hide the bite in my tone at the word ‘invite’. I was sure they all knew I was here under duress so Mateo’s greeting was more than a little annoying.
“I’m going to need you to join me on Tuesday for a meeting,” Liam said in lieu of a reply. Talking about work I could handle and I was grateful for it.
“What time?”
“The meeting is at nine but I’d like you to come to my office by eight thirty to prepare. The man we’re meeting with is a manipulative little shit and he’s trying to–”
Jo elbowed him, scowling. “No work talk. It’s a holiday.”
Irritation flashed through me. Okay, I take it back. Having the wives around is annoying. Deciding to ignore her little outburst, I kept my eyes locked on Liam. “I can make that work. I have another meeting with the construction lead about the material changes for the IT floor on Tuesday but I can move it to the afternoon.”
Jo glowered at me but that didn’t bother me. For one thing, I’m not her employee so I don’t have to follow her no work talk rules. For another, I didn’t want to be here in the first place. If she didn’t want me talking about it, she should’ve left me at home with my paperwork.
“Ladies and gentleman, dinner is served,” a gentle voice spoke near the room entrance. He looked like a butler and even did one of those courtly gestures as he guided people across the hall to the massive dining room. There were several tables like at a restaurant, all with expensive white table cloths and more silverware than was ever necessary. I knew all about mafia decorum, I went to finishing school just like my sister. I just can’t stand it. I prefer sitting on my couch and watching TV while I eat. My dining room was just for show.
A warm hand on my elbow surprised me. Jaime guided me to a seat at the table at the end, farthest from the big three as I’ve taken to calling them in my head. He pulled my chair out for me and sat down next to me with a grin. I didn’t know whether to be grateful because I didn’t want to have to deal with Jo’s no work talk rule or be really annoyed because he was being a little too familiar for my liking.
I didn’t know anyone else at the table with us but that wasn’t overly surprising. I tucked my ankles, my back rigid, doing all the stupid stuff I was taught as a kid about how to behave at a dinner party.
O’Connor senior stood to do a speech but I tuned him out, giving my focus to Jaime. He had his arm tossed over the back of his chair, his attention on his uncle as he spoke. I tipped my head and frowned.
“Where is it?” I spoke low to not draw attention but he heard me just fine. He glanced at me.
“Where’s what?”
“I’ve been working with you for weeks, you never wear a plain suit without some sort of embellishment. Where is it?”
Those dimples popped back up, dumping butterflies into my belly as he did his best to hold back his grin. Propping his ankle on his knee, he drew up his pant leg enough to show me his socks.
“Are those… chicken legs?” I couldn’t help the incredulousness out of my tone. He’s had a lot of weird embellishments to his outfit but never something like this.
