I Want You Back (Want You #1)(80)

I’d managed not to think about my atypical Friday night . . . for all of two hours, and then I was back to dissecting it.

But my next stop would put a lid on the hot and steamy thoughts of Jaxson’s mouth driving me over the edge twice and his sneaky-ass way of getting me to do a favor for him.

After the elevator doors opened on the LCCO floor, I almost said forget it, poked the door close button and returned to my own space.

But the receptionist saw me before I could escape. “Hello, Lucy.” She cocked her head, looking behind me after I emerged. “Mimi’s not with you?”

“Not today. Would it be possible for me to have a quick word with Edie?”

Her gaze flicked to the phone. “She’s on a call, but she should be done soon. Would you care to wait?”

“Yes, thank you.”

Too nervous to sit in the waiting area, I walked over to the artwork directly across from the elevator. This was new and super funky cool. Immediately I’d known that Walker’s wife, Trinity, had created it. I’d always admired her quirky creativity—she and I were friends before she married a Lund—on the arts and crafts circuits at local fairs, where we’d both been selling our handmade goods. She’d turned her artistic talents into a legit career in the art world, whereas now, I made jewelry and other crafts with Mimi, strictly for fun.

At first glance the large piece appeared to be a photo of the Twin Cities, but upon closer inspection, I saw it had been painted, with 3D images that looked like dialogue bubbles dotting the canvas. I peered at them and realized the buildings in the bubbles were pictures of properties that LCCO—Lund Cares Community Outreach—owned. The community center where Jax and I had our second date was the first one I focused on.

Information about each place had been typed out and shellacked above the photo. As you stood back and looked at the piece as a whole, you could see the vast outreach that LCCO had. That floored me.

“It’s a beautiful piece, isn’t it?” Edie said behind me, startling me.

“Yes, and it’s a powerful statement piece too. I had no idea that LCCO owned so many properties.”

“We had rapid growth for a few years when the real estate market suited our needs. We’ve reached the stage where we either need to hire more staff or slow the growth. And since our husbands are nearing retirement age, it’s been slow and steady.” She smiled. “Enough about that. Come on back to my office.”

As I followed Edie, I admired her outfit, a long-sleeved dark gray velvet burnout shirt, topped with a flowing scarlet-colored chiffon duster, and wide-legged trousers, cuffed at the bottom, allowing peeks of her scarlet, black and gray heeled loafers. I reminded myself that was why I’d come here: The woman had unparalleled taste.

Her secretary’s desk was unoccupied in the outer office in her two-room suite as we passed through to Edie’s office. There was no ostentatious show of wealth anywhere in the LCCO headquarters. I imagined it would be hard to solicit donations if it looked as if you didn’t need them.

“Everything is all right with Mimi?”

“Yes, except for the tooth that got knocked out Friday night.”

“Oh dear.” Her resigned look said it might be the first tooth, but it won’t be the last. “I’m hoping it was just a baby tooth.”

“It was.”

“Good. So what brings you here?”

“It’s about your son. The man needs a personal assistant,” I blurted out. “And somehow I’ve ended up in that role, which is a situation of my own making.”

“Lucy, hon, you’re not making sense,” she said gently.

Okay. Breathe. “It started when we took the tour of his apartment and he mentioned being so overwhelmed that he hadn’t chosen wall colors for the main rooms. I don’t understand how he picked floor coverings without knowing the color of the walls. I offered to help him pick paint colors, which ended up being me choosing the colors. I chose a soft brown for the main room and the hallway, and he . . .”

“Please don’t tell me he didn’t like it.”

“No, he loved it. The problem is now he trusts my judgment implicitly and he’s asked me to choose furnishings for the rest of the apartment! How am I supposed to know what he likes, Edie?”

She tapped her fingers on the desk. “You did live together for a while.”

“He stayed in my apartment with my cheap furniture from IKEA the first summer we met and was a part-time roomie during my pregnancy up until he returned to the hotel he lived in in Chicago during the season.”

“That should’ve been my first clue that he was so . . . unsettled.”

I knew that look. She’d taken on guilt for not recognizing her son’s issues.

“Anyway, go on.”

“The place he’s renting in Snow Village came furnished. This apartment is the first place he’s owned, that he wants to be a home. How can he not know what kind of style he likes? He wants me to create a more a personal space, which means way more than just furniture.”

“Have you asked him why he didn’t hire an interior designer and decorator?”

“Yes. He grumbled that they’d fill every nook and cranny with stupid-looking shit and ugly, trendy furniture that no one wants to sit on.”

Edie smiled. “Stupid-looking shit sounds exactly like something his father would say.”