Page 23 of Redeeming Bosley

Excited in a way I hadn’t seen before, Cory grinned. “Are you sure?”

“Ab-so-lute-ly,” I responded in the funny way he had.

These were grown-ass men, but with the offer of dessert drinks on the table for after dinner, all three boys sped through their meal. “Can we go now, Daddy?” Chip asked.

Ollie leaned over and pecked his lips. “Go ahead. Have fun, but don’t bother Oz too much.”

“Who’s Oz?” Cory asked.

Nigel stood up. “He’s the bartender, but he’s a friend of ours. Come on, and we’ll introduce you to him.”

They were barely out of earshot when Ollie wiped his mouth with his napkin and threw it on his plate. “It’s interesting. I had to run an errand for my mom the other day, and I thought I saw you getting out of a car with Rocco Buccelli.”

Oh shit. What were the chances?

“When he mentioned seeing you to me, of course I said that was impossible since you’d only been in town for a couple of days,” Omar added.

I blew out a breath and pushed my chair back. “I…”

“Cat got your tongue?” Omar asked. He didn’t look thrilled with me, but he didn’t look angry either.

“See, what’s funny about that to me is, we all know the Buccelli’s reputation,” Ollie said.

“And it didn’t seem like you knew each other when we ran into them here last time,” Omar added.

“Except, when I really thought back on that day, your face went blank when they stopped at our table. Completely expressionless in that way a person does when they don’t want anyone to notice them.”

Omar tapped his finger against the table. “Then the wildest thing happened. You reached out and told me that you were still in town and wanted to meet up.”

I licked my lips. “Yeah, wild.”

“So here’s what I’m thinking,” Ollie said. “It looks like the boys are having fun together.”

He wasn’t wrong about that. Watching Cory laughing at the bar with Nigel and Chip, even though they were much younger than him, and he was closer to their Daddies’ ages, it was the freest I’d seen him. Even though he had a special relationship with people like Harlow and Everest at the hotel, they were still his employees. I hadn’t realized until tonight how much he still tried to show at least some semblance of being the big cheese.Good grief. Now I was thinking like he and Harlow talked. It had to be stress.

“It would be nice for us all to get together again. I’d like to go in and check out Cory’s boutique hotel.”

Ollie nodded. “I would, too. I think Chip would get a kick out of the speakeasy. The only thing is, we need to know that our boys will be safe.”

Omar held up a hand. “No one’s asking you to discuss things you can’t. Personally, I’d rather you be silent than lie to me.”

I cleared my throat. “That’s fair.”

Omar nodded, then stood. “I’m going to check on them and make sure they’re not pestering Oz too much.”

As he turned, I finally found my voice. “Omar, you can call me Romeo.”

He huffed. “Well, that’s a relief anyway. Every time I said Bosley, it made me think of that guy from Charlie’s Angels. So weird.” He shook his head and walked away.

After taking a sip of water, I met Ollie’s gaze. “I’m assuming we’re not done.”

He held his hand out across the table. Unsure what was happening, I returned his handshake. “Thank you.”

“For what? Not being exactly who I pretended to be?”

He dropped my hand and smirked. “Even though we chased Dr. douche canoe out of town, I kept an eye on him. The guy was always online. It’s funny, though. He ended up being murdered in what they’re calling a home invasion. Although, they didn’t find anything missing.”

Picking up my water, I took a long sip. “You don’t say.”

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