Jenna smiled and snagged another cherry. “She was standing there at baggage claim holding a sign with my name on it. You know, kind of like a town car driver would have done?” She shot him a side look.
“At least a town car driver could have delivered you to my condo or wherever you wanted to go. Sophie’s meddling got you trapped into bowling.”
“Well, actually,” she said, spinning around on her bar stool to look at their group, “it’s been oddly fun. Sophie’s great.”
Gray grunted.
“Are you two…you know…?” Jenna wiggled her eyebrows.
He sputtered on his beer. “She’s my assistant, Jen. That would be…No. She’s an employee.”
“So? Does your company have a policy about coworkers dating?”
“What? I don’t know.” He did know. They didn’t have a policy.
She kept pressing. “How about subordinates dating bosses? Is that off-limits?”
“Who cares? Why are you bringing this up?”
She smiled her cat smile at him, and got to her feet. “Call it feminine intuition.”
“Or I could call it…delusion. And have you not noticed how much she resembles a certain almost-sister-in-law of yours?”
Jenna gave him a disgusted look. “I told you from day one to stay away from that one. And sure, they look a little alike, but it took me all of five minutes to see that Sophie is nothing like Jessica. Not in the way that matters.”
Gray’s stomach knotted as he considered Jenna’s words. If business had taught him anything, it was that tingling sense you got in your hands when you knew you’d made a mistake.
He flexed his fingers. Yup. Definitely tingling.
“How are things in New York?” he asked, annoyed to realize that his voice sounded gruff.
Jenna’s smirk showed she was on to him, but she’d apparently finally done some maturing because she let it go instead of pushing his buttons like she would have a year ago.
“You know, New York is pretty great. It feels like this one might stick.”
Gray had his doubts. Jenna thought every city would stick, but she rarely lasted more than a year. Still, if she could let things go, so could he, so he just nodded.
“Boyfriend?” he asked casually.
His sister gave him a look. “If I tell, are you gonna arrange for
a background check?”
Gray winced. She knew about that?
“No,” he lied.
Jenna stood and dragged him to his feet. “No big-brother prying tonight. My life isn’t the one in deep crap right now. Come on, let’s go land you a hotel deal. And maybe improve your bowling skills. You’re embarrassing the Wyatt name.”
He followed her back to the group and tried to avoid looking at Sophie. She’d either give him a smug I told you so look, or she’d be grinning at him like a proud mother. But as usual, he lost the battle, and couldn’t seem to help glancing at her. What he saw was neither gloating nor pride. She looked almost…affectionate.
Which might have lifted his mood if Jack’s arm hadn’t been around the back of her chair.
Maybe it didn’t even matter if he’d been wrong about Sophie. Even if she lacked Jessica’s more manipulative qualities, they had one very important detail in common.
Neither one wanted him.
“Gray, my man,” Peter said in a whiskey-soaked boom. “Let’s get over here and discuss what you did in that fancy Chicago-based company of yours. Sophie and Jack tell me that a couple years ago you were responsible for turning around that set of fancy resorts on Barbados? Hell, those are five-star celebrity destinations now! I had no idea you had that kind of experience.”