DONOVAN (Gray Wolf Security, #1)(117)

“Is that right?” Her eyes came back to mine, and there seemed to be an interested glow in them. “Why would you want to impress me? You know nothing about me.”

“Perhaps because I’d like to get to know you better.”

That smile was back, and it made my heart do a funny little flip. I sat back a little, thinking that maybe I should slow down just a bit. I like women. I flirt quite often. But it’d been a while since I’d met a woman who truly interested me. This one… There was definitely something about her that intrigued me.

“So, you said your relationship was an interesting story.”

Jacob glared at me even as he shook his head. “Are you using that again?”

“If it works…”

Jacob lifted his glass to his lips, draining the last few tablespoons of his seltzer water.

“It isn’t as interesting as he makes it out to be,” he said, setting it back down.

“Speak for yourself,” I said, glancing at him over my shoulder even as I moved closer to Adrienne and took her hands in mine. “I think it’s very fascinating.”

“Why don’t you tell me, and I’ll let you know what I think?”

Jacob groaned.

“You want to tell it?” I asked.

“Go for it,” he said, waving his hand at me.

I focused on Adrienne, running my thumbs over the tops of her soft hands. “So, my father was a salesman. He moved from job to job, dragging my mom and me all over the country. When I was four, he got a job with an oil company down in Houston. My mom… Oh, she hated the idea of moving down to the Gulf of Mexico. She was about two seconds away from calling it quits and taking me back to New Jersey. If she hadn’t hated New Jersey as much as she hated Houston, she probably would have done it sooner.”

“And where would we all be then?” Jacob asked.

I ignored him and continued. “So, my dad starts this job. He’s working in the human resources department, having lied on his application about his experience. He’s doing background checks on people, calling up references and schools, using his salesman experience to sweet talk people into giving up the dirt on the applicants. For the first time, he’s found a job he’s actually pretty good at.”

I could feel Jacob rolling his eyes behind me. He hates the way I tell this story because I go out of my way to make it sound more romantic than it really was. And, I suppose, it rubs the raw edges of a painful time for him.

“Every summer, the company has this big picnic. All employees are invited, even their families. The company goes all out, sometimes renting an amusement park, sometimes bringing in big musical acts. At the same time my dad takes this new job, the CEO of the company is going through his second divorce. And his son,” I gesture back at Jacob, “is acting up. He’s thirteen and thinks he can do whatever he wants because his mom is off in the Bahamas with her latest love interest and his dad is too busy with work to pay much attention.”

“You make it sound like I was a juvenile delinquent. I was just failing a math class.”

“There’s no telling what might have happened if you’d failed,” I said, glancing at him. “You might not be the man you are now.”

Adrienne laughed as Jacob rolled his eyes. Again.

“We’re all at this picnic,” I say, rubbing my thumbs over her hands still, looking her directly in the eye to make sure I have her full attention, “and Jacob purposely spills a glass of punch on my mom. His father comes rushing over, apologizing all over the place. My father is horrified to have drawn attention on themselves. But my mom… Jacob’s dad is so charming and so kind that she’s just swept away.”

Adrienne’s eyes widen. “They had an affair.”

“No.” Jacob was very quick in his denial. “My father is a lot of things, but a cheater isn’t one of them.”

I glanced at him and mouthed that he should chill. He shook his head and turned away, gesturing to a passing waitress to bring the bill.

“Ignore the sourpuss,” I said, focusing on Adrienne again.

“What happened next?”

“Jacob’s dad gave my mother his card. Told her to call him when she knew how much the dry cleaning would be on her white blouse. Instead, she called and just talked to him, and they became friends. He mentioned to my mother once about Jacob failing math, and she volunteered to tutor him. So then she started taking me over to their house, where she and Jacob would sit at the table for hours discussing multiplication tables and I would play quietly on the floor.”

“That sounds…interesting.”

I could see I was losing her. I glanced back at Jacob and caught him tapping his credit card impatiently on the table. Hell, I was going to lose them both.

“About three months into this little arrangement, my father had a heart attack.”

A surprisingly powerful sadness came into Adrienne’s eyes. I immediately wanted to ask her where it came from, but it disappeared almost as quickly as it came. I tugged at her hands, pulling them onto my knee, running my fingers over her palm and the tender skin of her wrist. A gentle smile touched her lips.

“He survived the initial attack, but my mom had to stop tutoring Jacob in order to take care of him. Jacob’s father, Karl, stopped by a couple of times to check in on them. The way my mom tells it, he even offered to hire a private nurse so that she could keep working with Jacob.”