Page 81 of The Secret

“Are you okay, Papa?” Samson looked at him with wide eyes.

“I’m good,” he croaked, his eyes watering. “Uncle Jasper just told a funny joke.”

“Oh,” he replied, then looked at us all and started laughing himself. “Funny.”

“Jesus,” I hissed, glancing down to the other end of the table, hoping they hadn’t noticed the commotion. “It’s actual separate bedrooms. We’re taking things slow, not to mention she works for me, and Rafe keeps banging on about her contract. He wants me to have her sign a new one before anything happens.”

“Just fire her,” Jamie suggested with a grin, which I ignored.

“What made you decide to go for it?”

I groaned. “She bumped into Jackson Foggerty in the elevator and he called me to say she looked smoking hot, and he’d suggested a threesome to her and the friend she was with, and they were up for it. I saw red, or rather green.”

Jamie’s beer slammed so hard on the table it frothed. “That guy is such a dick. You should definitely firehim. We don’t need him or his money.”

“I know. I’m getting the paperwork started this week. But last night he pushed my fucking buttons because I’d already warned him off, then she came home and I lost my shit.”

“What did you do?”

That first taste of her was still on the tip of my tongue. I groaned before cracking a wide grin. “Shouted at her, then pinned her against the fridge and kissed her until I forgot my own name.”

Jamie didn’t even bother to contain his laughter. “Sounds like you need to send Foggerty a case of whiskey for lighting a fire up your ass.”

“I’m sending him nothing except termination papers. I’ve made him enough money.”

The volume levels had dwindled considerably. I leaned back in my chair surveying the mess, and the survivors. Kit and Bell were missing, along with Wolf and Mac. Samson was on the brink of falling asleep on Cooper, his eyelids heavy. I could hear someone else crying in the distance, and the older kids were back in the pool.

Lunch was over.

I stood up, picking up some of the empty dishes. “I’m going to clear up and find my daughter.”

I took as much as I could carry and deposited it in the kitchen, thanking the permanent housekeeping staff as they took over, and then went in search of my room. Up two flights of stairs, I found it with a little label on the door handle with my name on it, our cases lined up neatly by the wall. I picked up Kit’s and Bell’s, heading along the rest of the corridor until I found a tag with her name. I knocked but she wasn’t there, only to discover her a little further down with Alex, Wolfie, and Fred, in what I assumed was a nursery, given the walls were painted in farmyard animals.

They looked up as I entered and all immediately stopped talking, in the way that people did when the subject of said conversation is standing in front of you. Given that Freddie made it clear she’d be saying something, I didn’t think I was being paranoid.

“Hi ladies, all okay in here?” I tried to meet Kit’s eye just to double check she was really alright and not being forced into a confession at the hands of my sisters.

“Yes, thank you, Murray. We’re good,” replied Wolf, who was feeding Macauley.

“Okay, do you need anything?” I tried again, holding up Bell’s bags, “I’ll leave her stuff here.”

I received a small, unreadable smile, and a mouthed thank you from Kit.

“Murray, could you check Coop is good with Sammy?” asked Freddie innocently, but I knew better. If that wasn’t a clear cut sign I wasn’t welcome in this room, I don’t know what was. Maybe sneaking around this weekend wouldn’t be hard as I thought, given it seemed highly unlikely I was going to get any time with Kit at all.

“Sure.”

I huffed off down the corridor in search of boys and beers, the peals of laughter coming from the room immediately as I exited only upped my paranoia. Kit would just have to hold her own, something I didn’t have any doubt she was capable of.

15

Murray

An ice bucket, four heavy glasses, and a bottle of Gran Patron was placed in the middle of our table, overlooking the crowded dance floor of Tiger in a private area of the club.

“Let me know if you need anything else, gentlemen.”

“Thank you.” I smiled at the waitress before she walked off.

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