Page 40 of Have To Be Mine

Krista nodded. “Good help is hard to find. But clearly you need the support.”

“I guess I just thought I could handle everything on my own,” I said. “Asking for help has never been my strong suit.”

“Typical man,” she said with a smile. “Everyone needs help sometimes. It doesn’t make you weak. And I know for a fact Adrian has an assistant. I’ve gotten to know Courtney well.”

“Yeah, I suppose so.” I nodded and looked down at my plate, unable to face her for what I was about to admit. “Maybe I just hate when people leave.”

She looked stunned for a beat. “I know you lost your father, too,” she said gently. “I’m sorry.”

“Thanks.” I was hoping we could skip over that particular subject. I shouldn’t have said anything. “Losing a parent isn’t easy.”

I hoped that would be enough. That she’d let it go. But Krista wasn’t someone who let things go easily. She wanted to commiserate. She had told me about her mother and now she wanted me to open up more. We didn’t have enough wine for that. I had been plenty vulnerable for one night.

“You said your mother was a singer?” I asked.

“She was. Not professionally, but she loved it.”

I was about to ask her what her mother’s favorite songs were when she cut me off.

“Tell me about your father,” she said.

I took a breath. It wasn’t an abnormal question given the conversation, but I wasn’t looking to delve too deeply into the gloomy topic. I would give her just enough. The same thing I did when we were at an event and someone wanted to share a story about our father. We had all learned to smile and nod.

“The old man was tough. Clever as hell. Our hero, most times. Our adversary on occasion.” I smiled despite myself. “He was hard on us, but he had his reasons. He built an empire, a legacy worth passing on to the next generation.”

I paused, knowing the answer felt too much like a PR statement for the company. Krista deserved a little more than that from me. I thought about Sunday dinners and the way he’d look at Mom across the table. “He loved our mother a lot. She misses him terribly.”

“It sounds like your grief is still right on the surface,” Krista said quietly.

I cleared my throat and finished my wine in one long swallow. I set the glass down. I wasn’t going to indulge this topic for too much longer. Not tonight. Maybe not ever with her.

“It’s grief. They say it comes in waves, right? It’s been a couple years. He wasn’t young, so it wasn’t quite the surprise like your mother’s death.” I didn’t want to sound cold, but I was hoping to back off the subject.

“Surprise or not, it’s always sad,” she said softly. “It doesn’t matter if they were twenty-five or seventy-five.”

I wasn’t going to do it anymore. I couldn’t. “So what do you have scheduled for tomorrow?” I asked, deliberately changing the subject. “Please tell me it’s a couples massage.”

She laughed. “We’re here to work. There’s a lot to get done.”

I was very serious. “There’s a place here in Corfu that will blow your mind. Amazing views and masseuses that have been blessed with magical hands.”

“We’re going to the content shoot location,” she said, standing and stretching. “To oversee the day and make sure it goes smoothly. I don’t want to risk anything falling through the cracks.”

“Of course we are.” I got up too and followed her inside. “What time?”

“The car picks us up at seven.”

I groaned. “Seven a.m.?”

“Yes, Dash. Seven is when the day starts for people who actually work.”

“I work.”

“When you feel like it.”

“How about we go to the beach?” I suggested. “You, me, bathing suits and the sun.”

“We’ll be at the beach and you’re free to wear whatever you want, but I will not be in a bathing suit. I have a professional reputation to maintain.”