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“Very good. Excellent work. Your tailor deserves awards.”
He chuckled and took my hand. “My tailor has nothing on you. I’m a very lucky man to be seen in public with you.” He rested my hand on the crook of his elbow. “We have a reservation,” he said to the hostess.
We wove through the packed restaurant like that. Side by infuriatingly close side. I could smell a hint of cologne that was oh, so Isaac. He was warm and strong, a presence to be beside. A few eyes swung our way. Some simply appreciative of his sexiness. A few that flashed with recognition. I was grateful for his arm because the whole experience overwhelmed me.
We were given a cozy table slightly tucked away from the open part of the room. It had two candles burning and a bottle of wine waiting. “We are honored to have you dine with us tonight, Mr. Anson. Loretta would like you to have this bottle of wine with her compliments and great hopes for the season ahead.”
Isaac blinked, clearly in shock. “Uh, yes. Please tell Loretta I’m flattered and honored. The team looks good.”
The hostess bowed slightly and was immediately replaced by a boisterous waiter who poured out our wine and explained the specials in excruciating detail.
“Well that was an intense start to our night.” Isaac shook his head. “I feel like I need to apologize for some reason.”
“It wasn’t your fault.”
“Next time I’ll use a fake name.” He grimaced, staring at the menu.
“At least they sat us at a quieter table.” Anywhere else would have put a spotlight on us.
“Yeah.” He let out a breath and shook himself. “So what should we order? You say they make their own pasta?”
“Every day. And everything is delicious. I have a soft spot for the lobster ravioli. The meatballs are heavenly too.”
Isaac’s eyes danced as we went through the entire menu and decided on sharing three dishes to go with our bottle of wine. “How’s Rosie?”
“Good. She’s better than me about all of this. I would take it personally that she doesn’t miss me more, but I think she has more of her mother in her than I realized.” He scrubbed his cleanly shaven chin. “It’s all just facts to her.”
And Isaac was a ball of emotions. “It’s also your job to do the worrying about her life and future.”
“Yeah. That. Let’s talk about less complicated things. Tell me about your friends.”
In our evening phone conversations we talked a lot about work, wine, and music. We kept things light. “You saw my two best friends at Reds. Mei and I have been friends forever, so she’s also close with my sister and parents.”
“And what does Mei do for a living?”
“She’s an engineer. She actually works for the company that Eve Spencer’s husband owns.”
Isaac nodded. “Jake and Greg. Good guys. You’ve got to be careful around Greg though. He’s the kind of guy who gets you to invest in a pyramid scheme and disappears before you figure it out.”
“Really?”
“Not actual pyramid schemes. Like I said, he’s a good guy. But he’s also a troublemaker.”
“And who is Greg?”
“Greg Hamilton. Jake’s business partner. He’s also married to Marie Bancroft of Bancroft Sports.”
The talent agency. “That’s a connected group.” No wonder Mei didn’t want me getting too close. “So half the table at Reds were engineers that work with Mei.” And apparently Jake and Greg. “And the other half are the Tampa Bay Tangerines.”
Isaac’s eyes lit up. “Ah ha! Mark said something about athletes. It all makes sense now.”
“My other best friend is the captain of the team. Jeri and I were roommates in college. We are bonded by a very unusual commonality.” I intentionally doled out the information, dangling it in front of Isaac because every time I made him curious, his eyes danced. And it was really sexy when they did that.
He took a sip of his wine, eyes sparkling away. “And what is this unusual commonality?”
Since we kept our phone conversations fairly superficial I hadn’t shared anything about my name with him. “Well, as I’m sure you noticed, Jeri isn’t exactly a common name for a girl these days.”
“I did notice that.”
