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“That sounded pleasant,” Trissays.
“He’s pissy helost.”
“He didn’t lose. Not yet anyway.” Tris shakes his head. “You want to know what I think about the investment you’re proposing? Holt’s proposal has a betterdownside.”
I cross my arms. “How do youfigure?”
“Your founder boy left an engineering job at one of the world’s biggest companies right before starting his owncompany.”
“Half the start-ups in the Valley have the samestory.”
He shrugs. “This is a pretty close move from his last stop, and they’re getting a lot of public visibility. Makes you wonder what else might be goingon.”
I cock my head. As much as I want to discount my brother’s analysis, he sees things I don’t. But unless he can give me a firm reason, I’m not changing myrecommendation.
He smirks before changing the subject. “Oh, one more thing. Mom called about the gala. Your assistant put her through to me. Don’t know why. She’s still figuring out that I’m not a substitute for you where Mom’sconcerned.”
The edge in his voice has me crossing my arms. "Don’t pretend you wanted to be a substitute for me. Every time Dad fucked up, I was the one who picked up the pieces. If I wasn’t there to fixthings—”
“Maybe she’d fix them forherself.”
“It’s not that simple and you know it.” I reach into my jacket pocket and produce the small box, shoving it at his chest so he’s forced to catch it. “Happy birthday,asshole.”
He opens it and his smile dies as he takes in the watch our father owned, one of the few nice things he left behind. “Where didyou…?”
Without answering, I turn on my heel toward myoffice.
* * *
My dinner runslong because I’m getting intel for Daisy and I don’t have time to go home after. So I ditch my jacket and tie at the office, deciding to swap my shirt for a fresh one from a cupboard of them, before taking a town car to the club. When I get there and go in the front doors, I’m reminded why I don’t goclubbing.
One, I’m too old. At thirty-one, I’m too old for a lot of things, because “too old” simply means you’ve stopped telling yourself the lie that you like something, or should. Two, even at this exclusive, high-end place, it’s mostly model-like women looking to get messy and men with deep pockets looking to helpthem.
But my friends are different. We go back, and loyalty trumps money, old or new. Hunter and Jake are old friends. Wes is the new guy, but he’s growing on me. What he lacks in money, he’s made up for in brains, and I respectthat.
But it’s Tris’s birthday. Not only is he younger—he craves the sensory stimulation. Because he spends his days deep in documents rather than meetings, this is how he comes up forair.
“You decided to show,” my brother calls from thebooth.
I nod to Jake, Hunter, and Wes. “Where are your more attractivehalves?”
Hunter grins. “Got a headstart.”
I look in the direction he’s pointing to see the women’s heads through thecrowd.
I wind my way toward the bar where the women are. Most people step aside as I pass, a few men and women checking me out and one trailing a hand down my arm. I shrug off her attention. I have a goal for this evening and it’s not satisfying myself but looking as though Iam.
By the time I get to the bar, I think I’ve lost sight of Daisy. But when my gaze locks on a fire-engine-red dress, I realize it’s the other women who’vevanished.
Her smooth back has heat curling low in my gut as I remember yesterday in the changeroom.
It’s not as if I’ve never seen her in a bathing suit or a dress. I know the outline of her body, the profile of her face, can pick her out from a crowd by the way her hair swings in a shinycurtain.
But I’ve never given myself permission to just look at her. Yesterday, Idid.
And what I saw stole mybreath.
I stop behind her, leaning close to her ear. “Your friends abandon you,darling?”
