Page 35 of Don't Game Me
She covered her face with a hand. “Oh God. This is not happening. We are not talking about me and my brother’s best friend dating. This is the end of this conversation.”
“Hey, Becca. Is Dad being…Dad?” asked Michael while pulling her into a one-arm hug.
She gazed up into Michael’s face. The few lines around his face looked deeper than last year. “He’s doing the unwanted advice thing again.”
Her father grinned and walked off.
“So, how was the day with Jake?” Michael asked, concern in his tone.
What is this? A family conspiracy to set me up with Jake?“We only fought a little bit. He made the printer fix some mistakes. All in all, we survived.” She couldn’t meet Michael’s gaze. He’d know they didn’t just fight.
“That’s it. Nothing else happened?” His brows rose with the fake innocence he only cast when he knew something. Had Jake and he spoken about her?
“Like what?” She pinned him with her gaze.
Michael gave a half shrug. “Hey, you okay? I mean, this morning when you tripped over Mom’s vase thing, you seemed off.”
“Jet lag. Where’s Darcy?” She glanced around.
Michael grimaced. “We broke up last night. You were right. I caught her texting some other guy. This time it’s really done. Our thing has gone on as long as it could.”
She covered her mouth with her hand and jumped forward to hug him. “Are you okay? You guys were together, well on and off, for a while.”
“I’m glad I found out before… I can’t believe I was thinking marriage might be in the future. What’s worse is that I work for her father. I’ll be putting in my notice next week.”
“That’s awful.”
“Don’t stress it. I always land on my feet. It’s actually a relief. Managing IT for his hedge fund company bored me.” He grinned his go-to lazy smile despite the pain in his gaze.
“I’m sorry and wish we could talk more, but I’m being summoned by Mom.” She waved back at her mom. “Let me know if there’s anything you need. Shoot. I’ve got to see what she needs right now.”
The phone in her purse buzzed. Her real phone. Incoming call.
Pascal.
She would not be answering.
Text from Pascal:Haven’t received the info yet.
Jake chugged a bottled water like a dehydrated man after three days on a boat at sea. He snagged another bottle from the refreshment station. His body remained on fire from the auto-replay in his mind of Becca in the thong.
Even so, something had been off with her when the phone rang. He hadn’t missed the slight tremble of her hands and the way she nibbled on her lip. Maybe it had to do with the job she alluded to that sucked.
No intern should be under that kind of stress. Maybe her boss was pressuring her into… his mind spun with disgusting possibilities. He speared at a grape with anger riding high and broke the toothpick.
He cast aside the defiled grape with a curse and froze when he found himself under scrutiny from Noah who stood on the other side of the table of copious food items.
“Thought you were going to be Becca’s date today?” Noah asked.
“Maybe tomorrow. I don’t know.” Jake grabbed a sandwich with some unidentifiable pink meat and white cheese. Guilt dug a hole in his stomach about the episode less than a half hour ago with Becca as he bit into the caloric concoction. If Becca’s mom hadn’t called, they’d have been very late to this rehearsal. He met Noah’s gaze despite his best effort at avoidance.
A struggle played itself over Noah’s face. “What’s going on with you and my sister?”
Shit. His use of “sister” seemed intentional. “I had to drag her out of the bar last night. Then we were stuck together for half a day. That’s probably what’s going on.”
Noah’s gaze slid to the broken toothpick and grape. “Uh-huh. Well, she’s giving you some funny looks. Are you leading her on? Did you two…?”
“No.” He pretended interest in the fruit assortment, picking up a few grapes without use of a toothpick. “We had a long morning. A few arguments. I guess I better warn you we got caught at an Electronics World playingZoneworld Warrior. Pictures were taken. There were probably social media posts. We were wasting time for the printer to fix a fuckup, but a manager at the Electronics World recognized me.”
