Saving the CEO (49th Floor #1)(16)

Great, but my best friend is going to be here too.

She paused, trying to think what to say about Danny. It was almost as bad as trying to explain Laura. Well, he’d find out soon enough anyway.

But only early on—he’ll want to go out later.

He?

Gay.

Gah! She’d pressed send before she could think better of it. How stupid was she? It’s not like Jack was jealous, so why was she rushing to assure him that Danny was gay?

Limes! Zesting! And if there was time before the bar got busy, she’d brought along some of her old accounting textbooks—before she’d settled on the actuary thing, she’d thought maybe accounting was the way to go, so she’d taken a few classes. To Jack it might be all numbers, but just because she was good at trigonometry didn’t mean she knew the first thing about his world of corporate balance sheets and high finance.

…

It was funny to think of Cassie as a person with friends. A stupid sentiment, Jack realized, but in his encounters with her she’d seemed so…self-contained. Whether she was standing in the center of the large bar at Edward’s or in the middle of her tiny apartment—or against a brick wall while he put his hands all over her—she seemed like a universe unto herself.

But of course she had friends. Normal people did. And Cassie was a nice, normal person. She had a family, too. A dead father and a mother who was expensive—whatever that meant. Okay, so maybe what Cassie really had in the family category was more of a mystery.

But her friend—the one she’d dubbed her best friend—had to be the tall skinny guy openly staring at him. Dark hair, earrings in both ears, he had a vaguely Goth look. And definitely gay, he thought with a small ping of satisfaction—just like when he’d gotten her one word text.

As Jack approached, the guy nodded at the empty stool next to him. “You must be Jack.” He wasn’t smiling, wasn’t holding out a hand to shake—nothing. Right. Normal people told stuff to their best friends. An open-hearted girl like Cassie probably told her best friend everything.

Cassie caught sight of him and came over. “Jack! This is Danny, my—”

“Ex-boyfriend,” Danny supplied, ignoring Jack’s outstretched hand.

“Pardon?” Jack shot Cassie a questioning look.

“Gotta go.” Danny hopped off his stool. He pursed his lips and looked Jack up and down before grudgingly adding, “Nice to meet you.”

“You’re leaving already?” Cassie asked. Jack didn’t quite like the way her face fell.

“It’s almost ten. I’m meeting some people.” He leaned over the bar and planted a kiss directly on Cassie’s lips before taking off.

“I thought you said he was gay.” Jack cleared his throat, trying to rid his voice of the growl that had crept in.

“He is.”

“But he said he was your ex-boyfriend.”

“He’s that, too.” She quirked a little smile. “Things didn’t really work out between us.”

“Why not?” He tried to keep his tone casual.

“Um, the part where he’s gay?”

He barked a relieved laugh.

“Quiet! It’s embarrassing.”

“Why? This must have been a long time ago.”

“High school. But no girl wants to be the one who turns a man against heterosexuality.”

“Sweetheart, you are capable of getting a man to do many things, but I assure you, turning him gay is not one of them.”

Well, that was inappropriate. But Cassie just stared at him, mouth ajar. So he whipped out a small silver case and opened it. She picked up one of the cards inside.

“Oh, so now I’m senior executive director of finance?”

He shrugged. “It sounded better. Consider it a promotion.”

She leaned forward, absently running the pad of her thumb back and forth over the edge of the card. “You know, I’ve been thinking.”

Uh oh.

“I’m sure you could get someone legitimate to do this for you. Someone qualified.”

“I want you,” he said, mustering a decisive tone he hoped would shut down this line of conversation.

“There must be, like, consultants who do this sort of thing.”

He pressed his lips together. “Oh, and I would hire one to do what? Place the fate of my company in his hands and say, ‘I can’t do math? Please don’t take advantage of me?’”

“Not everybody’s a crook.” Then she held up a finger as if a rogue thought had just entered her mind. “But on the other hand, I might be a crook. How do you know I’m not?”

“I trust you.”

“Why?”

He didn’t know how to articulate the answer. He was good at reading people. It’s how he’d built the company. This thing with Carl had shaken him to his core, but one mistake out of thousands wasn’t bad. He’d brokered hundreds of deals that had made him millions because he trusted his gut. And his gut told him that Cassidy James, who helped teenagers with their math homework, was a good person.

“It doesn’t make any sense,” she persisted, drawing him out of his thoughts. “Why me?”

Because I’ve seen what you look like when you come. Of course, he couldn’t say that, so he settled for, “Let’s just say I feel pretty confident that I know you.” He couldn’t resist a little wink. “If you know what I mean.”