Page 102 of The Secret
Cal’s lips twitched. “Remember you get what you pay for.” He said this like it was a warning. Ash did not seem worried in the slightest, and I felt my own cheeks flush.
I really needed to get to Micah’s.
“Two coffees—one black, one extra-extra. And four muffins. Any kind. Surprise me.”
“Connie?”
I turned to find Jules behind me, grinning. “Hey! I saw you and Daniel over there, but I didn’t want to interrupt.”
Julian blushed. “Nah. You wouldn’t be interrupting. You wanna come sit with us? I wanted to talk to you about something.” Ash set a carry-tray with the two coffees and a small box of muffins in front of me, and Jules blinked. “Oh. Meeting someone?”
This was the part where I was supposed to yellsquirreland distract Julian, but I was getting really weary of that.
“Yeah,” I said. “Meeting someone.”
“The girl you’re dating?” I frowned and he rolled his eyes. “Mama told me.”
“Uh. No,” I said. I hesitated. “And I don’t know where Mama got the idea about that woman, but I’ve never met her, let alone dated her.”
“Oh.”
I grabbed my purchases and walked Jules back to his table. “I actuallyhavebeen dating someone. I just… I’m not totally ready to talk about it yet. Okay?”
Daniel looked curiously from Julian to me and gave me a welcoming smile. “What’s this about?”
“Constantine’s dating someone he doesn’t want to talk about,” Julian said, taking his seat.
“Does it run in the family?” Daniel grinned.
“Notexactly,” Julian said, giving him a knowing look and a raised eyebrow I didn’t know how to interpret.
Daniel laughed and twined his fingers with Julian’s on the tabletop again. “Well, if you need help getting your head out of your ass when it comes to your secret relationship, Con… Ah, actually, you know what? Never mind. Don’t talk to me. I just got really lucky.”
Jules rolled his eyes. “What hemeansto say is that we’re here for you if you need anything.”
Daniel nodded. “Yes. That.”
I snorted. “I’ll keep that in mind. What did you need to talk about?”
“Oh, that. Have you talked to Mama since yesterday?” Julian asked, sipping at his coffee. “Because I stopped by the house to give Theo some stuff Sam needed, and she was sitting at the dining table surrounded by papers, muttering something about loans and clients.”
“Ugh.” I closed my eyes and shook my head. “Remember I told you last week I was giving her a proposal to expand the business?”
“Oh,” Jules said, wrinkling his nose. “Shit.”
I sighed. “It’s okay. It’ll be fine. Just maybe avoid her for a bit. She’s set up a meeting to talk to me about it. Doesn’t sound like it’ll go well.”
“A meeting.” Jules whistled. “Well, it looks like you got her attention, anyway.”
“Pretty sure I’ve had too much of her attention for too long,” I said wryly.
“Nah. I think Mama’s been so busy trying toprotect usthat she stopped looking at who we are.” Julian’s mouth twitched up on one side. “Have faith.”
I sucked in a deep breath and nodded, but I privately thought it was easier to have faith when you were someone like Julian, who never had a reason to doubt himself.
“Okay, I’m off,” I said, hoisting my cups and bag. “I’ll try to avoid Mama, and you do the same.”
Jules laughed. “Well, watch out, if you’re trying to avoid her. Her car’s parked out front.” He nodded out the window.
