The waitress came over a few minutes later to take their orders and smiled at Jack. When she left, Jack started making a fort out of sugar packets. Immediately, Theo joined in.
“You need to reinforce this wall,” he told Jack. “Otherwise, the dragons will knock it right down.”
“Dragons?” Jack’s eyes lit up.
“Oh, yes. There are lots of dragons in these parts.” Theo raised his eyebrows at the little boy.
“Oh, no,” Jack said. “Mom, are you scared?”
“I’ll try to be brave,” Nina said. “With my SuperJack around to protect me, I can’t be too scared.”
“That’s good. And don’t worry, Theo isn’t really a supervillain.”
“Good to know.”
Jack and Theo built a fort, then knocked it down and built another. When their drinks came, Theo showed Jack how to tear off the end of the paper straw cover and blow it at someone else, which made Jack laugh and laugh. He kept trying to chase the paper cover to do it again.
Usually, Nina wasn’t able to take her eyes off her son, but today, she couldn’t help glancing at Theo, too. He looked so handsome when he let his guard down and played with Jack. She’d thought the same thing at the brunch when she’d seen him playing on the slide with Jack and his friends.
The man Nina had run into outside his office, the man with his neat suit and arrogant turns of phrase, seemed completely different from the man now playing table soccer with a rolled-up paper napkin.
When the food arrived, Jack fell onto his fish burger like a starving boy who hadn’t eaten in decades. Theo and Nina exchanged a smile.
“Where doyouusually go when you eat out?” Nina asked as she poured syrup onto her pancakes.
“I don’t eat out much either,” Theo admitted. “You know about my private chef. And if I want lunch or dinner out, I usually have it ordered to the office so that I can work while I eat.”
Nina frowned. “So, all you really do is work and work some more, huh?”
“Hey,” Theo threw the paper-napkin soccer ball at Nina. “I do plenty of other things.”
“Like recruiting fake families?” Nina suggested.
Theo laughed. “Sure. And I travel.”
“For work?”
He lowered his head, smiling. “Yes. I was hoping you wouldn’t ask that.”
Nina giggled. “I mean, I understand — all I really do is work and spend time with Jack. But that’s because I don’t have any other option. Youdo.”
“Not really, not if I want to keep Epsilon afloat. I worked so hard to build that company, and stepping away would mean it would fall apart.”
“So, has taking a little time with me and Jack this week made the company fall apart?” She raised her eyebrows in challenge.
Theo chuckled. “No, but that’s different. I’ve set people up so that they can work without me, and I’m working at night after you’re both asleep.”
“Me too,” Nina said. “I’ve been working after Jack’s bedtime.”
“You should come join me then,” Theo said. “We can have a little coworking space in my office, keep each other on track.”
Nina smiled at the thought of a nighttime working party with Theo. Then she remembered the last after-hours hangout they’d had, drinking champagne while celebrating Jack’s Holyoke Academy acceptance, and how close she’d come to a kiss. It was probably better to avoid one-on-one time with the handsome billionaire.
With that in mind, she dug into her stack of pancakes. She also had hash browns and bacon, as well as a small dish of fruit.
Theo tried his pot pie and nodded approvingly. “Not bad.”
“How’s your burger, Jack?” Nina asked.
