Page 9 of Taming the CEO

"You did look very full of yourself when you said that," Leo said.

I shrugged. "Well, it’s never failed me."

"Until now, obviously," Gabe said.

"Could it possibly be because your charm is usually used on hot young women and not old men?" Leo asked.

This was going to be even more humiliating than I'd anticipated, but there was no way to skirt past it.

I cleared my throat. "Actually, I didn't meet him at all. Cami came alone."

Gabe stared at me. "Wait, so your charm actually failed on, as Leo put it, a hot young woman?"

"Spectacularly," I said, deciding to own up to it and be completely honest. "I have no idea what happened."

The entire table burst out laughing. I did, too, even though deep down, I was frustrated.

"Walk us through it, and maybe we'll be able to help you sort it out," Gabe said.

The fucker. The last thing I wanted to do was rehash it with everybody.

"I'm going to be this evening's entertainment, huh?"

"Oh yes, you are," Nick said. I hadn't heard him come in over all the noise. "I just got the end of that conversation, but it sounds good. Hi, everyone. Damn, that's a lot of food!"

Cade groaned. "Please don't bring it up."

"Okay," he said, sitting down between Gran and Natalie. "Now, please walk us through your failure so we might be able to pinpoint where you went wrong."

I cocked a brow. Maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea.

"All right," I said as everyone put food on their plates. I went heavy on the chicken because Gran was right, it did look really good. "The first problem was that Samuel himself couldn't come to dinner. So it was just me and his daughter."

"How old is the daughter?" Gran asked.

That's a weird question.

"Honestly, I don't know. I think my age, maybe a bit younger. I didn't ask."

"Thank God you didn't," she said.

I stared at her. Does she really think I’d do that?

"Anyway, she’s dead set on not selling."

"I already told you that!" Gabe sounded exasperated.

"I know, man, but I hadn't expected her to be so vehemently against it. I pointed out that we’re paying far more than the market price and told her everything she could do with that money.”

"I'm starting to see why this was a disaster,” Nick said.

"You do know people don't like to be told what to do, right?" Leo asked.

Jake and Colton winced at that.

Cade nodded. "Leo’s got a point."

"It wasn't like that," I said. "I was just laying out her options." I thought on it for a moment. "Damn, you're right. It was exactly like that."

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