Page 68 of Devil's Deal

With my own nerves, I hadn’t realized how tense Cory had been until it melted from his body at Nigel’s words. He’d asked me if he should change before we left tonight, but it hadn’t even occurred to me that he was worried about his classic 20s style outside of the hotel. It was so much a part of who he was that I didn’t even think about it anymore.

“Thank you,” Cory said. “I really love how you paired the blue streaks in your hair with your eyeshadow and skirt.”

Nigel fanned his face. “Please. Thank you for noticing.” Omar smiled indulgently at his boy. They were as cute now as the weekend they met.

“Nigel’s a fashion designer,” Chip said. Then he leaned forward. “Now hurry, how did you and Bosley meet?”

They were off and running, starting with Cory describing his hotel, then Nigel spoke about his move from Oklahoma after he met Omar. By the time they got around to Chip explaining how he ended up in Takoda with his friends and Ollie, our dinner had arrived.

Ollie tapped the side of Chip’s plate. “Eat up, and then maybe you can take Cory up to the bar for one of those fancy alcoholic dessert drinks you like.”

“Oh, I drove,” Cory said.

Omar’s chin tipped down as his eyes bore holes into my face. I had a feeling Ollie had been sending them to the bar on purpose. Since there was no escaping this, I said, “You should let loose a little. I’ll drive home.”

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.”

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