“And you weren’t supposed to be having alcohol with your pain pills,” Caleb chortled.“We had to carry you out of there.Me and Thornton, you remember?No, I guess you don’t – you were out cold.We were the only ones on the team that could pick you up.”
I shook my head at the memory – or lack thereof.Probably not the best thing to reveal to my innocent secretary.I glanced at him.
He was looking back at me.
Looking at me in a way that seemed completely new.
Maybe it was good for him to hear these stories.
“People think I hate Caleb because of the knee,” I said.“And because he stopped being my client when he started his own firm.We just didn’t argue with the reports.”
“Hell, that was the funniest of the lot,” Caleb said.He chuckled again.“You were the one whohelped mebecome a manager.Even set me up with my first client.We’ve never been rivals.Only teammates.”
I smiled at the term and nodded.I reached for my glass.It was filled with water only.Caleb had been a heavy drinker when his career first ended.I had no problem with sticking to water to support him.I raised the glass in the air in salute and took a sip.
“Who’s hungry?”Aubrey asked.She was walking back into the room with a huge dish in her hands.Steam and an incredibly pleasant aroma rose from the top.
Caleb and I raised our hands at the same time.Like schoolboys.
And we laughed.
Keaton walked ahead of me and got into the car while I was still saying my goodbyes.Aubrey whispered a warning to me about letting him get away.I nodded a promise not to be the same man I always had been.As if there was a way I knew how to keep it.
I got into the driver’s seat beside him and buckled up.He was staring pensively out of the window.
“Keaton Dunbar,” I said.The magic spell of his name at least brought his attention back to me.
“What?”he asked.Not rudely.Not loudly.Quiet and almost sad.
“The food was good,” I said.It was a statement.Designed to test the waters.
“Yes,” he agreed and looked out of the windshield.“I… I don’t think I thanked Mrs.Coleman properly.”
“I think she’d allow you to call her Aubrey.”
“Right.”Keaton swallowed.“Sorry, Mr.Harvey.”
I half-smiled.Was he fishing?
“We’re not at work,” I told him.“Your obligation officially ended with dinner.You don’t have to call me Mr.Harvey.”
He peeked at me from the corner of his eye.“… Oliver?”
I barked a laugh.“I’ve never been Oliver.”
He must have heard what they called me.Caleb and Aubrey.Ace.He knew.
He cleared his throat.“Olly.”
The sound of it was like a guitar being strummed.A note of my favorite song.The favorite song I hadn’t heard yet.
I cleared my own throat and started the engine.“I wanted you to know the truth,” I said.I wasn’t one to talk just to fill a silence.I certainly wasn’t one to explain myself.Why did I feel the need to do both?“Not everything is as it seems.”
“I’m gathering that,” Keaton said.He fidgeted silently for a moment as I drove us back to the road.“I still don’t…”
I shot him a look of alarm.No.Surely?“You should know something else,” I told him.I hadn’t wanted to part with this secret.But if it would make him stay… “Something I don’t reveal to anyone.Not even Ace.”
He paused.Whatever he had been about to say was gone.For now.“Are you sure you want to tell me?”
