I waved him in. “Sure. Come on in.”
He stepped in and closed the door behind him. “So, there’s a guy playing the piano in the dining room.”
I nodded. “Yes, I know. He has permission to do that.”
“Yeah, Will told me,” Joey replied. “But some of the customers were asking if I could open the doors to the restaurant so they could hear him better. Will said I should ask you.”
My first impulse was to say no because I knew Jeremy wasn’t comfortable playing in front of people yet. But then I remembered him saying he needed to get used to doing that. “Yes, you can open them, but make it clear that no one is allowed to go into the dining room unless Mr. Fitzgerald invites them.”
“Yes, Mr. O’Neil. Thank you.”
After Joey left, I turned back to find Michael staring at me. “You really like him.”
“Who? Joey?”
Michael shook his head. “Jeremy. You like him a lot.”
I couldn’t help the smile that came to my lips. “I do. He’s a great guy.”
“Yeah, he is,” Michael agreed. “He’s done a lot for our family.”
“Tony kinda mentioned that,” I said, “But he didn’t say how.”
Michael shook his head. “I don’t even know where to start.”
He frowned at something on his laptop, and all I heard was the tapping of his fingers on the keyboard for a few minutes. He finally turned back to look at me, and for a moment, he looked confused. Then he snapped his fingers. “Right. Jeremy. So, I guess Tony told you we helped Jeremy get rid of a stalker.”
My fists clenched reflexively. “Yeah, I heard.”
Michael saw the motion and his brows rose. “The guy’s lucky he didn’t meet you.”
Imayhave grunted like a damn Neanderthal.
“Anyway,” Michael continued with a slight smirk, “After we got rid of his stalker, Jeremy recommended us to a friend of his father’s.”
He must have noticed my blank expression because he went on to explain. “Jeremy’s parents are big money, and they have a ton of connections. The guy Jeremy referred to us is a big name in the City. He was so happy with our services that he passed on our information to all his buddies. We had to hire a bunch of new people just to keep up.”
“That’s great,” I said.
Michael smiled. “It is, but that’s not even the best thing he did. I mean, that was just business, but he went above and beyond for our family.”
“How so?” I asked.
“Well, first, he helped my sister, Gianna, get into Juilliard.”
I could tell there was more to the story, so I just nodded, and he went on, “And I don’t mean he put in a good word for her or anything like that. See, there’s seven of us, Gianna’s the youngest, and she’s on the autism spectrum. She’s really smart and a talented pianist, but she doesn’t do well with public speaking or being in large groups of people.”
The lightbulb went on. “And she would have to audition for Juilliard.”
“Exactly,” Michael agreed. “So Tony called Jeremy to ask if he had any advice for how Gianna could get through the audition without freaking out.” Michael shook his head and smiled. “Jeremy did one better. He told Tony to bring her up to Juilliard. He walked her around the building and then worked with her on her piece in one of the rooms they use for auditions.” He paused seemingly for effect. “He did that three days a week for a month. Needless to say, she blew them away at the audition.”
“I’ll bet she did,” I said. “Jeremy’s super talented.”
Michael let out a short laugh. “That’s an understatement. Did you know he won three Grammys and was nominated for an Oscar?”
I blinked. “No, I didn’t know that. I didn’t know anything about him before he came here.”
Michael eyed me with a slight frown. “I bet you thought he was going to be some prissy diva, didn’t you?”
