Page 199 of A Lick and A Promise
I figured the Nightingale team looked into Knox before they hired him, and because they were who they were, and Knox’s family was what it was, that vetting would be thorough.
But that was then.
Her surprise showing up in Phoenix, knowing to stay out of camera range at the Oasis and driving a Beemer, this was now.
Sure, Gypsy could have given her the heads-up about the cameras.
Or, perhaps, not.
“Leave it with me,” Byron replied.
I blinked. “Seriously?”
“Sure.”
“That easy?”
“I have a project deadline today, but even so, I’ll have a full briefing on her by tomorrow morning.”
That seemed fast.
Like, faster than Arthur fast.
“I don’t want to get you in trouble with your, erm…employers.”
“Luna, I have programs that run in the background that do all the work for me. I’ll just put her name in, go back and refine the search so I know it’s digging into who we want it to dig into, and done. And it will barely interfere with what I have to do today.”
“Well…cool.”
He smiled.
My phone buzzed in my apron.
I got up and grabbed the spent mug on the table.
But before leaving, I said, “Thank you.”
“No probs,” he replied.
“No. I mean, yeah. About the search. But also about making my sister feel like a woman, a desired one, not just a mom with three kids hanging on her. Being interested in her, what she does, who she is. And for buying a two-hundred-dollar bottle of champagne on your date and making her feel special.”
Byron stared up at me.
“You guys don’t get how little it takes. Be decent. Be interested. Listen. Care. Boom. You win,” I concluded.
“Uh…” Byron said.
My phone buzzed in my apron again.
“You don’t have to reply. And no pressure. I’m rooting for you guys, but shit happens. Unless you stop doing any of those things I mentioned, you’ll still be my friend Byron.”
“Thanks, Luna,” he said quietly.
I smiled at him and walked the mug to the busser tub while pulling out my phone.
It was a group text from Zach.
And when I pulled it up, I saw the group was humungous.
