Page 10 of Forever with the CEO

“All right, so that won’t be an impediment. Do you know anything about the financial situation?”

“They’re well off, from what I know. They put Jim through college, so he didn’t need a loan. They even helped with the down payment on the house he and Nora owned,” I explained.

“Right. I’ll investigate this a bit more before making a recommendation.”

“When will that be?”

“Sometime next week. I promise that I’m on top of this case.”

“Look, no offense—” I began.

“Nick, what do you know about me? I don’t overpromise or underdeliver. I told you I can see Allison through this. At the very least, I’ll come up with some recommendations. Can you give me the in-laws’ full names and as much as you know about them? I’ll look them up. I have people who do that.”

“Excellent,” I said, rattling off their names. “Thank you, Hugo.”

“No problem.”

I didn’t have a good feeling about this. I’d assume this would be a slam dunk, and he would simply tell Allison that if she did A, B, and C, she was going to keep custody for sure.

I decided to push the issue to the back of my mind for now. I was fucking excited about going out with Allison.

My phone rang again. I figured maybe Hugo wanted to add something, but then I saw it was Maddox. I answered right away.

“You’ve been keeping secrets, brother. I’m with Cami and Leo,” he said without further ado. It was silent in the background, which meant he wasn’t at Gran’s house anymore.

“About what?”

“Allison.”

“Hey, you’re going on a date,” Cami, his fiancée, said. “That’s huge news.”

I groaned. “No, we’re not. Jesus, that’s what everyone thinks?”

“Uh, yeah,” Leo said.

“That’s not what this is at all. I’m just literally taking her out. I figured she could use it.”

“Really?” he asked. “She couldn’t just go out by herself?”

“If she’d wanted that, she would have done it already,” I pointed out.

“I see. So that’s the solution you came up with.” His tone was laced with amusement. “Could have offered to just watch the kids so she could go meet a friend or something.”

He had a point. It never even crossed my mind. “Please tell me that you didn’t give Gran any ammunition to harass me.”

Cami laughed. “Nick, you know your gran. She doesn’t need anyone to give her ammunition. She finds it by herself. She was over the moon after you left.”

“You’re all making too much of this.”

“No, we’re not,” Leo said. “Maybe you don’t see it, but we do. This is a huge deal for you. Actually, so are all the things you’ve done since Jim passed away, especially going to Allison’s house.”

“I care about those kids. Don’t be a jackass.”

“I wasn’t implying that you didn’t. But I think that’s not the only reason you keep dropping by.”

“Right. Well, I’m at Allison’s house now, so I need to hang up.”

Technically, I was still two streets away, but I needed to end the conversation. It was making me question myself, and I didn’t like that. I wasn’t prone to introspection or whatever it was called.

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