“Tea party manners, Chipmunk.” Levi’s eyes sparkled with mischief as he reached out for my hand. “That means no hollering about brothels.”
But was that what his room looked like?
Oh.
Glancing down at our hands, something clicked and I glared at him. “I’m your gossip.”
Yep.
He laughed, not even the least bit sorry. “Yep, and it’s good.”
He was ridiculous.
But I was good gossip.
“Macy might’ve already beaten you on that one.” She’d left the house before us because it was one of her half days. “Where does everyone park?”
The large circular driveway was empty except for Levi’s sedan.
Gesturing toward the side of the house, he shrugged. “There’s a secondary entrance that everyone else parks at. It’s really only used for big parties but it makes a good hiding spot.”
To keep tea party private.
Got it.
“You ready?” Squeezing my hand, he looked lighter as he glanced back at the house again. “I can’t wait for you to meet Gregory.”
“Me too.” Because as well as managing the house, Gregory seemed to be the person who’d actually raised Levi.
So in a sense, I was meeting his real family for the first time.
Yep, nothing to stress about here.
Chapter 23
Levi
“Oh, if anyone has the Crawfords on their invitation lists for the holidays, you need to watch out for seafood.” Heads tilted like no one had any idea what was coming but I knew at least a few of them must’ve heard about it. “It seems like Mr. Crawford keeps forgetting about how severe his wife’s allergy is and something he’s been eating is setting it off.”
On a regular basis.
Late afternoon meetings required lots of shrimp, evidently.
It didn’t seem like he was trying to kill her, but his newest flirtation loved one of the fancy seafood restaurants down by the port. It was far enough away that it should’ve been a safe spot, if not for Mrs. Crawford’s allergy.
And at the very least, his inability to brush his teeth after kissing his young friend.
Eyes rolled around the room except for one pair that went wide.
Oh.
I knew that look.
“Um, yes.” Annette was new enough to the industry to understand there were pieces she was missing, but she was smart and quickly put a few things together.
One plus one was coming up to three for some reason, though.
“Um, I was told Mrs. Crawford was going to be out of town for the holidays.” Something about the expression on her face said the good stuff was incoming. “I was planning on shrimp and salmon for the menu because I heard his niece was coming and she loves it.”
