Page 39 of Loving the CEO

“Very strong," Gabe informed her. “This is Diane.”

"Nice to meet you, Tory," Diane greeted with a smile.

“Leo told me you have a tour guide agency,” Tory said.

“Yes.” She completely lit up.

Tory had that effect on people. She always knew the right thing to say.

“I’ll book one any day now. It's been a while since I've been in Boston, and I'd love to do some touristy things that I didn't have money for when I was in college."

"I’ll give you my number so you can call me directly,” Diane told her. “You don't have to book online or anything."

“Thank you. That's so kind of you.”

Jake introduced Natalie next, and then came Colton and Zoey.

“This is Meredith,” I said once the others stepped to the side.

Tory narrowed her eyes. “Spencer’s girl?”

Cade bristled, coming closer to Meredith. “No, she's mine.”

Tory smiled.

"I'm with Penny and Ben," Spencer said.

Tory's eyes bulged as she zeroed in on my nephew. Then she turned to me. “You didn't tell me Spencer has a baby.”

“I was getting to that part.”

“Really, dude? You went through everyone and left me last?” Spencer teased.

“I felt like your story deserved more of an explanation.”

He laughed. “I'll say that.”

Ben's mom literally dropped him off to live with Spencer out of the blue. He hadn't even known she was pregnant. She didn't tell him because she thought the baby was someone else's. But my brother stepped up to the plate. Then he had the insane luck of Penny moving next door to him, and the rest was history.

"What's that I'm hearing?" Colton said. "You mentioned me and Zoey ahead of Spencer? I thought I was the least-favorite brother."

Everyone started to laugh, me included. Fuck, it was good to be able to laugh about something like this. If anyone would have told me years ago that all eight of us would attend events and not be at one another’s throats, I wouldn't have believed it. But now we were regularly getting together, celebrating one another’s successes, and lifting one another up when we had failures.

"It's not a favorites game," I countered. "I was just saving the best for last."

"Right...," Spencer said. "Why don't we all actually go get our food and start to eat? That's what we’re here for."

"Yes, we are," Gran said.

I focused on Tory. She looked thoroughly relaxed. I was glad I brought her here even though I’d have to face a million questions from the family.

Speaking of, as everyone went along with Tory to the buffet, Gran made a beeline straight to me.

“Darling, Nick tried to fill us in, but you’ll forgive your old gran if she needs some more details.”

"Sure, Gran, fire away."

“It's not because I'm nosy, you see. I just want to know the full story. How exactly did this happen? And what was your involvement?”

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