a small, tight smile as I approached from the elevator.
“Hello, Catherine.”
She tucked a lock of her neat auburn hair behind her ear. “Good afternoon, Mr. Rossi.”
Catherine had been working for Elliot for a few months. Her smiles were always small and tight, but her posture was perfect—a contrast to the typical beaten-down spines of his previous assistants.
I nodded toward Elliot’s closed office door. “How’s he doing today?”
She stacked one hand on top of the other on her desk. “I haven’t noticed anything out of the ordinary. Mr. Levy is always busy.”
Tapping the edge of her desk, I grinned. “I get it. I’ve known him since college. The guy never changes.”
I was lucky to pin him down for lunch today. He didn’t normally stop for longer than it took him to consume enough sustenance to power him for the rest of the day, so going out anywhere was a stretch. But things had been off between us since I’d gotten married. Our gym meetups had been quieter—which was saying something since Elliot wasn’t exactly a fount of conversation.
Being at odds with Elliot didn’t work for me. It was time to end it and move on.
Catherine stood from her desk and turned to the side, giving me a view of her small bump.
“Hey, congratulations.”
She swiveled back to me, her brows popping. “Oh.” Her hand flew to her belly. “Thanks. I’m not used to people noticing yet. It only started happening this week.”
“I have a pregnant sister, so maybe I’m more attuned to it these days.”
Her smile was a little looser this time. “Well, congratulations on becoming an uncle. I’ll let Mr. Levy know you’re here.”
Lunch with Elliot meant takeout in his conference room. Weston joined us too. He was just as difficult to pin down as Elliot, though he actually had some flexibility.
I couldn’t say much about their schedules, though. My lunches the past few weeks had been spent at the Davenport if I found room in the day. Not meeting Saoirse today hadn’t been easy, especially knowing it would be another twenty-four hours until I let myself have her again.
But now wasn’t the time to think about that. I’d drive myself crazy with it later.
“How’s Elise?” I asked Weston.
“Excellent. I’ll be asking her to move in with me as soon as I’m certain she’ll say yes.”
I dipped my salmon roll in soy sauce. “Why wouldn’t she say yes?”
“It’s too soon.” He cocked his head, addressing Elliot. “Don’t you think?”
Elliot drummed his fingers on the table. “If you think you’re worthy of living with my sister, then ask her. She’ll tell you if it’s too soon.”
I laughed. “You didn’t think through what it would be like to have Elliot Levy as a brother-in-law, did you?”
Weston’s mouth twitched. “To be honest, I wasn’t thinking about Elliot at all when I went for Elise.”
“Maybe you should have,” Elliot gruffed.
“Then he would have missed out on living under the constant threat of you murdering him if he messes up. What fun would that be?” I popped an eel roll into my mouth. “By the way, Elliot, what are you going to do when Catherine goes on maternity leave? Is she already training her replacement?”
Judging by the size of her bump, she had months to go, but I wouldn’t have been surprised if Elliot already had her prepping someone else to work under his exacting demands.
Surprisingly, a deep crevice was carved between his brows. “What are you talking about? Catherine isn’t pregnant.”
“Uh…” Weston and I exchanged a look. Elliot wasn’t the most personable man, and I had a distinct feeling he didn’t get to know his employees, but I found it hard to believe he’d missed that detail about his own assistant. “She is. We had a conversation about it when I arrived.”
The crevice deepened. “She hasn’t discussed this with me.”
Weston chuffed. “I don’t think she’s required to discuss her pregnancy with you.”
I nodded. “Actually, I think there are laws that specifically say she’s not required to discuss it with you.”
“Wasn’t there a reason for this lunch besides mocking me?” Elliot tapped his chopsticks against the table, clearly done talking about his assistant. That was fine with me, though I looked forward to how thrown off balance he would be during her maternity leave.
“Yeah, that was.” I wiped my mouth with my napkin. “I need a PI referral.”
Neither Weston nor Elliot spoke. They were waiting for me to expand on my request, but I was still deciding how much I wanted to say.
To be honest, I was still sorting through the conversation Clara and I had this morning.
Clara walked in and flung herself into one of the chairs in front of my desk.
“Good morning to you,” I said, barely looking up from my computer.
“I think Miller’s cheating on me.”
That got me to look up. “What makes you think that?”
“A feeling. He’s more distracted than ever. Secretive with his phone. He’s coming home late when I know he’s not at the office.” Her chin wobbled as she broke off and looked away. “I might be crazy, Luc. I asked him, and he swore he’s not being unfaithful and never would be, but something’s going on with him—”
“I’ll talk to him.”
“No.” She cradled her belly. “No, I’m probably wrong. I don’t want to blow everything up on a feeling.”
I decided to expand. “Clara’s dumb fuck of a husband might be cheating. Or he might be innocent and Clara’s hormones are running wild.”
Elliot shifted, resting his elbow on the table. “I have contacts. I’ll send you names.”
“What are you going to do if you find something?” Weston asked.
My fingers curled tight into my palm. “I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it. I’ve always known Miller was an idiot—”
Weston frowned. “He’s your CFO.”
“He’s good with numbers. That, I trust him with.” I dragged my hand down my face, frustrated to be in this position. “I used to think I trusted him with my sister too. Even if he isn’t betraying her, he’s stressing her out, which makes him an idiot.”
“You’re not letting this stand, are you?” Elliot intoned. He didn’t play around when it came to his sister. Elise’s ex-boyfriend had mistreated her, and he’d basically extracted her from her old life without a trace. I was certain he expected my response to be no less mercenary for my sister.
“I won’t. First, I need to gather facts. Once I know for sure, I’ll do what needs to be done.”
Elliot dipped his chin. “I have contacts for that too, if you need them.”
Weston slowly shook his head. “I’ve known you since we were little kids, but in times like these, I question if I even know you at all.”
I chuckled. “Does it really surprise you that Elliot has a contact for every situation that might arise?”
Elliot lifted a shoulder. “It’s simply good planning.”
“For every contingency,” I added.
“Exactly,” he agreed.
Weston let out a sigh. “Is everything else going well? Happy wife, happy life?”
“Yeah, all is well on the marriage front.” I smoothed my tie, only half-guilty at the lie I kept telling these two men. “Being married to Saoirse is easier than I ever expected.”
That part wasn’t a lie.
“I’m glad. There aren’t many women like Saoirse out there.” Weston pointed his chopsticks at me. “But if you could tell your wife to stop poaching my employees, that would be great. I’m already losing Miles to her. She can’t take any others.”
I shot him a bemused grin. “What do you mean?”
He waved me off, picking up a piece of sushi. “I’m only kidding. To be honest, I haven’t seen Miles as enthusiastic and committed to anything since they started planning their business. I don’t want to do anything to dampen that. If they want to take Simon and Rebecca, they can have them. Although, I draw the line at Elise. She’s staying at Andes.”
In the back of my mind, I remembered Saoirse vaguely mentioning working on something with Miles, but that was all it was. Vague.
I worked hard at schooling my expression. If Elliot or Weston had any idea how out of touch I was with my own wife, they would know none of this was real.
But it wasn’t confusion I had to work to fight off. It was disappointment.
Not in Saoirse but in myself.
I shouldn’t have been sitting across from my best friends, learning important information about my wife from them. I obviously hadn’t made it clear to Saoirse that I was interested in more than fucking her.
We were in this thing together.
And what kind of teammate was I to not know what was going on with my other half?
A shit one.
We’d be talking tonight.
