“Not to see each other until the concert.”
Leave to a lawyer to nail down the intent of an agreement to the letter. I had been sloppy with my words. My bad. And how am I rewarded for my carelessness?
Getting to hang on the arm of the gorgeous silver-fox.
“Tobias, is that you?” called my father.
“Yes, Franklin. Just picking up Jacine like you asked.”
“Thanks.”
My eyes narrowed. “My father put you up to this? Because Anson can—”
“I gave Anson the night off,” my father called.
Tobias might be a silver-fox, but my father had ears like one.
I stepped from the hall to the living room with my heels clicking on the marble floor.
“Why would you do that?”
“Because I know you want to avoid those disasters in rocker clothing, and Tobias will protect you from them.”
“What?” I could not believe this. “Who said I needed protection?”
“I do. Daughter, I hate to tell you this, but someone sold me a particularly salacious recording of you and a certain musician in a hospital conference room.”
My face must have turned several shades of red.
“What!”
“Calm down. I contained the situation.”
Contained. Like I was a client.
“Contained!”
My father snapped open the day’s copy of Variety that had laid unopened all day on the glass coffee table. “It’s nothing to get excited about,” he said calmly. “You are an adult. And I asked Dys to keep you busy. I just didn’t expect that he’d get that busy, that soon.”
“What!” I sputtered.
“In any case, I couldn’t let something like that hit the media, so I took care of it. But I understood then why you didn’t want to have contact with any of them.”
I spun, inchoate as words caught in my throat and I spotted the amusement in Tobias’s eyes.
“You knew about this!” I choked out.
“Yes.”
“That’s why you suggested I stay away from them.”
He shrugged.
“Oooh!” I wailed. I don’t know what was worse, that he played on my relationship fears or that he looked out for my welfare without my knowledge. But I was furious that he interfered.
“Get her a drink, Tobias. She seems a little upset.”
Oh, that bastard knew where the liquor was, alright. He smartly walked to the liquor cabinet, which was a retro-vintage fifties style cabinet that sported a bowl of fake fruit on its top. He poured me a shot of whiskey and handed it to me.
