Page 33 of Beneath The Truth
After two days of intense private lessons, I’d convinced myself I was good enough to play a casualmatch.
I waswrong.
My first serve landed right in his ball sac, and the match was over before it could even start.In a high-pitched voice, the other CEO had said maybe we should have our project managers get together to discuss itinstead.
I swore up and down that my serve was no indication of my interest in partnering on the project, but he was too busy icing his balls tolisten.
I’d sent a bottle of Macallan and a slow-thawing ice pack I’d invented years ago after a bike accident as an apology, and I hadn’t heard anything from himsince.
“You can take the phone offMutenow if you’ve gotten your laughs in ...”My tone was devoid ofhumor.
Esme and Erik’s chuckles immediately becameaudible.
“I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to think about that without laughing, Ari,” Esme said.“I’m just putting that out there in case you need to firemenow.”
“I have a buddy who works there who said he still shields his balls whenever someone makes a sudden move in his direction.”Erik’s words were barely understandable through thegiggles.
“Are youcry-laughing?I swear toGod,Erik.”
“I’ll stop.Ipromise.”
“Moving on.I’ll dig into the security issue as soon as we’re off the phone.It’s not like I was getting much sleep tonightanyway.”
“Oh, really?Why is that?”Esme didn’t bother to hide the interest inhertone.
“I’ll give you oneguess.”
My assistants were no strangers to the history surrounding my ridiculous crush on Rhett.Heath had taken care of that a few visits ago when we went out for dinner and drinks, and all the storiescameout.
“No way!”Esme yelled.I could picture her doing afistpump.
“What happened?”Erikasked.
“He kissed me.Or maybe I kissed him.I don’t know.There waskissing.”
“Eeep!”
I swore I heard them trade ahigh-five.
“This is huge,”Esmesaid.
“I want to know what else is huge,” Erik added.“Wait, I take that back.I don’t want to know.Forget I saidanything.”
Rather than reprimand him as would probably be more appropriate in this situation, I let it slide.I didn’t have a normal employee-employer relationship with these two, and that was the way weworkedbest.
“He won’t make a real move without my brother’s approval,though.”
“Really?I’m not sure how I feel about that.You’re a grown-ass woman who doesn’t need anyone to give her permission to doanything.”
“Exactly!”I yelled.Esme obviously understood where I wascomingfrom.
“Cut the guy some slack.”Erik took the devil’s advocate position, as always.“He was a cop and all about honor and serving others.Why would he want to do something that he sees as a betrayal of his friend?He probably shouldn’t have kissed you to begin with, and I bet he’s wrestling with that hard now.”A slap of skin on skin came through the line.“Dammit, Esme, don’thitme.”
“Then don’t say stupidthings.”
“Stop.It’s fine.”I’d played peacemaker between these two often enough to start feeling like their big sister, which was a signal it was time to wrap up this conversation.“I’m jumping off here, and I’m going to spend some quality time with our defenses.Have alpha team attempt entry in the morning.You two can call it anight.”
“You swear you’ll keep us up-to-date on the hot-detective saga?”This camefromErik.
