Brad gently removed the menu from her fingers and folded it on top of his. “You have to have the lasagna. I don’t think I’ve tasted better outside of New York.”
“Ah, OK.” Looks like it was lasagna, whether she wanted it or not. What was wrong with her? Brad was trying to be thoughtful, and here she was taking offense at nearly everything he was saying or doing.
The wine arrived and saved her the trouble of coming up with small talk. Jessie watched Brad’s profile while he went through the process of tasting the wine and approving it. His features were just as she remembered: nice but not overly strong. His face was a little narrower than she remembered. There were no dimples when he smiled, and the smile did seem to lack something.
Jessie sipped her wine and watched him over the rim of the glass. The wine tickled the back of her throat, then slid down easily.
“What do you do at the hotel?” Brad asked.
“I’m sorry?” She didn’t understand his question.
“You do work at the hotel, don’t you? I thought for sure you were a waitress there.” He cocked his head to the side when he spoke.
“No, I don’t work at the hotel, but I do wait tables.” She couldn’t for the life of her figure out how he knew what she did for a living.
“You must know someone at the hotel who managed to get you a ticket to the party, then.”
Jessie couldn’t help but feel as if she were under interrogation. She thought of Jack and the risks he’d taken to get her in the door.
“Is being an investigator part of a lawyer’s job?” she asked with a little laugh.
Brad let a sly smile pass his lips before he abruptly steered his words in a different direction. “You seemed a bit lost that night.”
“A friend of mine forfeited his ticket for me,” she explained.
Brad tipped his glass back again. “A friend who is a man?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t think I can call any woman in my life a friend. An ex–romantic engagement, a sister, a family member, a colleague, maybe, but never simply a friend.”
“What about the wives or girlfriends of your male friends?”
“I don’t consider them personal friends, more like how you just explained them…the wife of a friend of mine. Is this friend of yours married?”
Strange how this date had a third person at the table the entire time. Jack may not have been there in person, but he certainly was in spirit. “No.”
The waiter arrived, and Jessie wanted to kiss him for his timing.
“Have you decided?” Their waiter was a man around forty-five, maybe older. His waistline looked as if he enjoyed the food at Antonio’s, and his Italian accent kept her guessing if he was any relation to Antonio himself.
“I think so,” Jessie said.
He smiled at her and poised his pen over his order slip.
“The lady would like the lasagna,” Brad said before Jessie could open her mouth. “With the antipasto salad, and I’ll have the same.”
Jessie had the strong urge to glance at her watch, but squelched it.
Jack looked at his watch for the third time in fifteen minutes. Jessie was out with that lawyer. Brad Leland, to be exact. Jack had checked out the guest list of the benefit party and found only one Brad in the invites. A quick online search resulted in a name, the name of his practice, and a few hits on cases he’d tried recently. Jack had hoped to find a little dirt on the guy, but he didn’t see any. Not married, his romantic entanglements were private at the current time. Jack did find an old girlfriend, one whom Brad had been engaged to. There was a write-up in an archived paper about the engagement, but it had been nearly two years ago. All the current information on Brad pointed toward a single status. As a corporate lawyer, Brad had a full plate of clients, and from the look of the pictures of his office, he wasn’t hurting for cash.
There was even a picture of the guy on the website for the law firm he worked with.
Dull and boring. Jack couldn’t imagine Jessie finding him remotely attractive.
Still, Brad the Boring was out on a date with Jessie, and Jack was in the penthouse, stewing. He would have to wait until Tuesday, the next time Jessie worked, to find out how the date went. Unless Jack wanted to come off as a jealous, jilted lover.
No matter how many sexy dreams Jack had experienced since meeting Jessie, he couldn’t call himself her lover.
Not yet anyway.
Jack had turned toward the bar in the suite, intending to pour himself something big and strong, when his cell phone rang. His phone sat in the pocket of the suit hanging on the back of a chair.
Jessie’s home phone number popped up on his caller ID. Maybe she had skipped out on the date after all. His lips slid into a grin.
“Hello?” he answered, trying to sound bored.
“Jack? Is this you?”
Not Jessie.
“This is. Who’s this?”
“It’s Monica, Jessie’s sister.” The alarm in her voice made Jack drop his bored demeanor. “I hope it’s OK I called you.”
“Is Jessie OK? Danny?”
“They’re fine. Sorry to worry you. Jessie is out with that guy, the one from the party.”
As if Jack needed to be reminded.
“And Danny is right here. It’s…ahh…Danny suggested I call you.” Monica was bothered about something.
“What’s going on, Monica?”
“I’m at the apartment, with a friend, studying. Anyway, Lynn got a call a few minutes ago…her mom was in a car accident. Lynn’s shook up, shouldn’t be driving. I need to get her to Pomona Valley, but I’m babysitting Danny. I’d take him with me, but the emergency room is full of all kinds of people, illness.”