Daddy insisted I was a very good driver, but it still made me nervous to have something so much bigger than I was used to. It was nice how everything worked on it, though.
I hopped out, looking down at my phone because a text had just come in from my boss. She’d been nice enough to give me the whole afternoon off when my mom had called to tell me that she and Sam urgently needed me over here at the Plum. I mean, at The Plazerra. So when I saw her name pop up in my notifications I worried that maybe something had come up, and I might have to turn around and go right back.
The text just saidCongratulations!though, so I figured she must have sent it to the wrong number.
“Ooph, careful, Rene,” a deep voice said… right after I slammed into someone because of not paying attention to where I was going.
My head snapped up, my cheeks flushing with embarrassment.
“Oh, I’m so sorry, Jason,” I said, fumbling to put my phone away and brushing at the little drops of soda that had splashed onto his blazer from the take-out cup he was holding when I’d crashed into him.
“Don’t worry about it,” he said with an easy smile, shaking out his wet hand. “Busy with an important message?”
I shook my head. “Just my boss.”
Jason instantly frowned. “Everything okay with your clients?”
For someone who’d once intended to rip the whole hotel down and put up what Sam called “soulless house boxes” in its place, Daddy’s friend—well, his business partner now—was actually a really nice guy.
“Yes. She just sent it to the wrong number,” I said, blushing because I couldn’t help it and ducking my head because it always felt weird to think I had… hadclients. It made me sound like I was some kind of professional, like Daddy and Jason, even though their property development work was totally different.
That’s what my boss called them, too, though, which had taken some getting used to since I’d only ever worked retail before this. Well, once I’d done a whole summer with a second job in fast food, but I hadn’t had “clients” there either, of course.
“I’m glad to hear it,” Jason said, giving me an easy smile. “And I hear they’ve already promoted you. Edward is so proud.”
I blushed even harder, and nodded. They had. I still couldn’t believe the low-income medical care advocate’s office here in Asheville had hired me with zero experience in the first place, even though Daddy always insisted I had atonof experience after helping Mom navigate the system all these years. It was true in real-life terms, of course, but that sort of thing didn’t usually matter for places that required things like degrees and stuff. Somehow, though, I’d gotten the job anyway.
It felt so good to do it that I was glad Daddy didn’t want me to stay home and do nothing all day… even if thathadbeen his first suggestion when it had come to “spoiling” me after we’d all—him, and me, and Mom—moved here to Asheville when he and Jason had started their neighborhood renovation project around the Plum.
I mean, aroundThe Plazerra.
Jeez, Mom and Sam calling it the Purple Plum all the time—or usually, just the Plum—was really hard not to copy. Since the owner was my Daddy, though, I felt like I should treat it with… well, with some dignity.
I usually failed.
“You’re not here to try and build any condos, are you?” I teased him… sort of. Sam was actually still worried about it.
Jason laughed, deep dimples appearing in his cheeks. “Not today,” he said, clapping me on the shoulder.
I wouldnottell Sam he’d said that. Jason was just joking… I thought. But still. Sam was even more territorial about the Plum now that Daddy had put him in charge of event planning. Speaking of…
“Do you know why there are so many cars here?” I asked, looking around the full lot in bewilderment. “I didn’t think there was anything special going on this week.”
Jason’s dimples came out again. “Nope,” he said, taking a sip of his soda and eyeing me over the top with his eyes all twinkly.
I frowned. “Wait,” I said, “I thought you were having lunch with Daddy? I mean… I mean with Edward.”
That’s what Daddy had said when I’d told him I had the whole afternoon off unexpectedly. It was why he hadn’t been able to get together for a lunchtime, um…date.
Jason laughed. “You know you don’t have to censor what you call him around me.”
I shook my head. “If I don’t, I might slip in front of someone important.”
“Youknowwhat your Daddy would say to that,” he said, walking with me up to the Plu—toThe Plazerra’sfront entrance.
I did. Daddy would sayIwas the most important person, and sometimes—okay, pretty much all the time—I still could barely believe that it was true. Not that Daddy felt that way about me, that was amazing and the most wonderful thing ever, but I did sort of understand it since I felt the same way about him. But… all of it. The way he and my Mom got along so well, and how he’d assumed ofcoursewe’d move her with us and take care of her when we’d come to Asheville. The way he’d even given her a job here at the Pl—Plazerra, the first one she’d been able to have since I’d been a kid. She was feeling better now that she had such good health insurance, but it was also that he’d given her a dedicated room all of her own at the hotel, so anytime she felt poorly she could just… go there. Sleep if she needed to, or just get off her feet. With as flexible of a schedule as she wanted and never feeling... feelingundignified, or like she was a burden or anything.
Of course, it helped that she fit right in with the staff and was so kink-positive and such a great ally all around. Bradley and Dennis and Sam and all of them were constantly gushing about her and saying how they were lucky to haveher.
