She laughed like he’d said the funniest thing in the world. “Well, I’m telling you we might have a job opening for someone with your skill set. You’d have to apply, just like everyone else, but I really liked talking to you the other night. I’d put in a good word for you with Heath.”
She totallywasheadhunting him. Wait till Uncle Theo heard about this!
He stopped, and his gaze toward the office turned guilty.
“I can’t,” he said, pulling open the diner door.
“Oh.” Wanda sounded disappointed.
“I think I told you I work for my uncle.” He rubbed a hand over the back of his neck.
“Yeah, but—”
“I just—now’s not a good time.” Give it a couple months, when the firm had been absorbed into some big accounting company slowly turning Avery into a soulless cubicle drone. But right now? He couldn’t leave while he still had a chance to save the firm.
“I’m sorry,” Wanda said. “I hope I didn’t make this awkward. I thought—”
“Yeah. Of course. No problem. Hopefully we can still hang out.” In the course of the last few weeks, his social circle had tripled, assuming not taking this job didn’t totally botch his relationship with Wanda and Vasquez. Oh, God. What if it got awkward with Linc? He and Vasquez worked together. Could the four of them still be friends? He couldn’t lose Linc over something like this.
Not that Linc was even his to lose. Not really.
He ordered coffees as Wanda said, “Listen. Don’t say no right now, okay? We want someone to start soon, but it doesn’t have to be tomorrow. Just think about it. I’ll text you a link to the job description.”
He should say no. Uncle Theo and Aunt Brenda had done everything for him.
“Yeah. Sure.”
“Great. It’s awesome. You’ll love it, I promise.”
They hung up as Avery headed back into the office.
“Where did you go?” Uncle Theo was standing at his desk. No sign of his suited visitors.
Avery lifted the two cups. “Coffee break.” He winced when he realized he hadn’t bought one for his uncle.
Theo pursed his lips together. “Anything new come in while I was in my meeting?” he asked Meredith. She glanced at her computer screen, which still showed her solitaire game, and glumly shook her head.
“Ah, well. Maybe tomorrow, huh?” He pulled his glasses off his face and wiped them on his tie.
Avery bristled. He didn’t want Meredith to get in trouble, but things had to be pretty bad for Uncle Theo to just turn away when she obviously wasn’t working.
“Can I talk to you?” Avery said.
His uncle smiled blandly. “Of course.”
Avery rarely got angry, but agitation sparked along his nerves as he followed Theo back to his office.
“Who were those people?” he asked as he closed the door.
“Who?” Uncle Theo said.
Avery’s eyes bugged. “Who do you think I mean? The two suits. They’ve been here twice now.”
His lips thinned. “I’m not ready to talk about that.”
“Not ready?” Avery’s voice rose. He didn’t mean to, but Uncle Theo was killing the business and he didn’t seem to care.
“You know things have been tough lately.”
