Page 36 of Indecent Secrets

Jack met me in the lobby and we headed down the street to the restaurant, which was only a block away.

“When do you think you’ll tell Rebecca?” I asked him.

“Tomorrow at some point. I think it’ll be a good idea to give her the short list of ideas from the employees and let her narrow it down further from there.”

Crap, that wouldn’t serve my purposes at all. “Don’t you think that’ll be delegating a little too much? And to someone you just promoted who was once your secretary? I think you should pick one and tell her to be the head of development.”

Jack nodded, like he was seriously considering it. Or was he? I could no longer tell what he was really thinking. Maybe I never had been able to at all.

That didn’t scare me the way it probably should. In fact it actually upset me. Because I wanted to be able to read him. I wanted to be able to know what he was thinking.

It was just that I was used to being able to convince people and read them, I told myself. It’s not that he’s anything to you, it’s just your pride.

Jack glanced at me. “You okay?”

How could he see through me so easily? “I’m fine. Just the usual jitters, wanting this all to succeed. It’s normal. It’s when you’re not nervous that you should really start getting worried.”

He arched a brow. “Oh? That so?”

“Well, yes, because if you’re not nervous then you’re overconfident and you’re going to miss something important. You’re not really in the moment and paying attention.”

Jack nodded. He was looking at me with this assessing gaze that made me feel like he was seeing right through me down to my bones. I hadn’t ever been looked at like that before. People either wanted to fuck me and were only concerned about the surface, or they respected me as a fellow protestor and activist but didn’t really want to see what was past that. We were colleagues, not someone to pick apart.

Jack was the exception in a lot of ways, it seemed.

We arrived at the restaurant, some fancy sushi place, where I normally wouldn’t even be able to afford to breathe inside of it. I smiled as Jack took my jacket for the coat room, and then we were led by the hostess to a fancy table in the back, away from everyone else. Judging by the fact that the hostess mentioned the Westons were “at their usual table,” I assumed they were regulars here and given the best of the best as a result.

Both David and his father were seated at the small round table. David’s smile brightened when he saw me, while his father’s seemed about the same—stiff and false. He was more focused on Jack than he was on me.

So his father fell into the ‘underestimating me’ category while David fell into the ‘wants to fuck me’ category. Good to know.

“David, so good to see you again.” I shook his hand as Jack pulled my chair out for me to sit down in. I noticed he put me in between himself and Weston Sr. so that I was now a buffer for the two of them, and all the way across the table from David.

Not that it meant much with such a small table, but it was the thought that counted. Jack wasn’t just doing this to keep me away from David, I was sure. Weston looked at Jack like he was ready to deliver a lecture and Jack probably wanted some distance.

“When Jack said you were joining us I was delighted,” David told me.

“That’s so sweet of you to say, thank you,” I said.

Jack, the only one who could hear the sarcastic undertone in my voice, pressed his foot firmly on top of mine under the table as a warning. What? I was valid. David just wanted a pretty girl to flirt with.

“Jack,” Weston said, his voice indicating he didn’t plan on letting this just be a dinner of pleasantries and discussing the weather. “I hope that you’ve given some of my suggestions serious thought.”

“I have,” Jack promised, sounding completely sincere. “However, I have some great ideas from some others in the company that I’m considering. I want to possibly pursue other avenues.”

I had no idea what Weston had suggested, but I had no doubt that it would be the opposite of what I wanted to happen.

“I understand that you’re new,” Weston replied, his voice growing clipped as he tried to hold in his frustration. “But I’ve known your uncle since we started the company…”

“I know, I know,” Jack said quickly. “And I really respect that. You weren’t just coworkers, you were friends. You were over at his house all the time…”

“That was more me recently,” David said quickly, as his father’s eyebrow twitched. “I took over the legal department and consulted with your uncle frequently. He often wanted to make changes in his personal life, in the last couple of years, and he respected my judgment. Dad was more concerned with leading the company and keeping an eye on our stock concerns.”

“I’m glad that he felt he could trust you,” Jack said, sounding sincere. “I wasn’t aware that he was making changes in his personal life. Is that why—sorry, this is turning more onto the personal but—why he decided to put me in his will?”

David’s jaw ticked. Odd. Why would that question upset him?

I was sure that Jack had noticed it. While nothing changed in his face, his foot was still pressing against mine, and I felt his leg tense. Hmm.

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