But why kiss him in the first place if that was how she truly felt about him?
His gloomy and, he’d admit, distressing thoughts were broken when she let out a long sigh. “It’s just… I’m tired, James. Really tired. And I’m sick of this rollercoaster feeling, you know?”
He didn’t. But he couldn’t tell her that, could he?
“Sure,” he lied. “Is there anything Aidan or I can do to help?” The offer was freely given. With or without her sweet, pilfered kisses, he’d always be there for her.
She shook her head, but sadly whispered, “No.”
“Liar.”
When she flung herself around to glare at him, throwing her whole body into it, James simply shrugged. “You wouldn’t be here if you didn’t want to talk to Aidan. I’m well aware you needed to speak to him today.”
Hailey gritted her teeth. “Yet you purposefully invited yourself to lunch anyway?”
He smirked. “You know what killed the cat.”
“I wouldn’t call you a cat. I’d call you an ass,” she said as she turned her head to look out the window.
“My feelings are hurt,” he snarked, folding his arms across his chest as he spoke. “Look, you think you invented sarcasm? You think you’re the first one to be obstinate around me? Credit me with something here, Hailey. Jesus. I know you might think that my trust fund alone paid for things like this baby, but it wasn’t. Aidan and I would always have made it to this playing field. With or without my family’s money.”
She turned back and blinked at him, then ducked her head to stare down at her lap. “I know that,” she said softly. “You don’t have to tell me that like it’s some revelation.”
“I don’t? Well, apparently, you’re fo
rgetting that I’m a pretty smart guy myself. Aidan isn’t the only whiz kid on our two-man team. What’s going on? Can Aidan and I help or not?”
Silence fell between them until she admitted, “I don’t know, James. Truthfully. I don’t.” She ran a weary hand through her hair. “I-I feel like you could, but at the same time, I’m not sure if it’s just pointless asking you, getting you both involved in something I don’t even know if I want. Damn, I hate feeling like this.”
“Like what?” James asked sounding almost desperate, wanting to understand.
She closed her eyes. “Out of control. I had all my ducks lined up neat in a row, you know? I never imagined that one thing, just one, would come and knock them out of place.”
Hell, what was she trying to do to him? Make him perish out of curiosity?
Desperate to know more but knowing she’d only reveal what she wanted because she could be as close-mouthed as hell, he said, “As long as you know that Aidan and I are here to help. Aidan’s a rich son of a bitch now, but I’m richer. And I have old friends. Family friends. If something’s… wrong, then they might be able to help.”
Her eyes popped open and she shrieked, “Are you talking about the mob?”
He clucked his tongue in disgust. “What? Jesus, you don’t believe those rumors too, do you?”
His father had made a fortune in construction. A fortune so vast that people liked to discredit his hard work by intimating that the mafia had been involved. As little as he liked his father, James couldn’t and wouldn’t allow that opinion to run unchecked in his presence.
Dear old dad might be a dick of the first order, but his billions had been earned without any aid from the Cosa Nostra.
She shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know if I believe in them. I’ve never thought about it until now.”
“Well, unthink it,” he snapped. “My family has nothing to do with the mob. Never has done and never will. Fuck, Hailey. Credit us with some decency. You’ve met my dad. Does he seem the kind of guy who’d break bread with that kind of person?”
She bit her lip. “Nope. But we all have pasts, don’t we? And the mob are like spiders. If I think about it, rationally, it makes perfect sense for someone, over the years, to have approached him.”
“Are you trying to piss me off?” James raged.
“No,” she confessed. “Not this time.”
Great, the one time she hadn’t been trying to agitate the fuck out of him, and she did it on this.
Running a hand through his hair, he didn’t stop until he could grip the back of his neck.