Vera ignores him and hands me back my card. “It was nice to meet you.”
“You too.”
“I’ll see you later, Rory, and I expect details.”
“There will be nothing to tell.” He hisses like a pissed-off kitten, so I lead him to a table. “Sorry about her. She’s nosy andloud.”
“She cares about you.”
“She cares too much.” Rory huffs, but he’s smiling.
“You deserve to have people who care about you.”
He nods. “Okay, so what do you do?” Shit. “For work, I mean.”
“I’m a businessman.”
Rory raises an eyebrow in challenge. “That couldn’t be more vague if you tried.”
Damn. Normally that’s enough to get people to back off, but not my sweet observant boy. “I run a number of businesses?”
“Not any better,” he teases.
“I have my hands in a lot of things. Like restaurants, bars, distilleries, finance, fashion.” Underground fighting rings, brothels, running drugs. “You know, normal stuff.”
“The fact that you have to say ‘normal stuff’ makes me worry.”
I laugh loudly, trying to throw him off the scent. “I’ve been growing my business for years, but I’ve handed most of them off to other staff I can trust. I still oversee everything directly.” I just don’t always listen to Numbers.
“Brendan said that?—”
“Big Daddy,” Vera calls out, and Rory groans before slumping in his seat. “Coffee for Big Daddy,” she calls out again, even though she’s looking directly at us.
I chuckle and get up. “You really enjoy embarrassing your friend,” I tease her.
“He’s the strongest person I know. Yeah, he’s been more reserved since the ordeal, but he’s getting better. I mean, he’s leaving the house. That’s huge for him! But seriously, I don’t know if you’re into him or not, but please be careful with him.”
Rory notices us talking, and he slumps even farther under the table. He’s so damn cute.
“I will. Rory’s special.”
“He is.” She nods, and I look at the iced coffee drinks with whipped cream and chocolate sauce.
“This isn’t coffee.”
“I warned you,” she sings and gets back to work.
Taking my cavity in a cup with me, I head back to our table.
“What did she say?” Rory asks when I get close. “It was probably a lie. I mean, besides that one time, but it was totally her fault!”
“She told me that you’re strong.”
“I’m not,” he whispers and ducks his head.
“Remember what I told you when we first met?” I raise his chin to look at me.
“That you’re the boss and what you say goes.”
