Dana felt the cheese go down the wrong pipe and had to cough it out. Rux gave her a short look, making sure she was okay before turning back to the man Dana had realized was Griffin Malone.
“Tragic news,” Rux said, a mournful look crossing his face. “Do you know how what could have happened yet?”
Griffin shook his head, his lips a thin line of feigned empathy.
“It’s been a mystery to us all.”
Then, like a robot, Griffin snapped his expression back into the jovial man who had initially greeted them.
Yeah … he gives me the creeps.
“Nevertheless,” he said, clapping his hands together. “Life surely does go on. I am looking forward to canoodling with you at my island party.”
They shook hands again, and he gave Dana his signature bow. She nodded in response and watched him walk away like he was attached to an assembly line.
Rux sat, a scowl painted across his face.
“Sorry about that,” he said quietly. “The many benefits of being tall and a member of the higher class.” Rux rolled his eyes playfully, but Dana was thinking seriously.
“What do you know about him?” she said.
“About whom?” Rux said, picking up another slice of pita.
“Griffin,” Dana replied. “He’s giving me someHALvibes.”
Rux’s face lit up, and although she adored how he looked when she was amusing him, she wanted to get to the bottom of the situation with Jennifer.
“It sounds to me like you know more than I do,” Rux said, chomping down on his pita.
Dana picked up her glass of whiskey and held it in front of her face, trying to change her tone to match the direness of the matter.
“I teach Dennis’s daughter,” she began. “I’ve known about him and who he is for years. His daughter is downright grief-stricken about it, and now, suddenly, Griffin swoops in to live with them?”
Rux leaned back and crossed his legs, placing two hands on the table in front of him like he was interrogating her. It was hard for her to focus because all she could think of was letting him put handcuffs on her.
“That doesn’t sound very abnormal to me,” Rux said seriously. “Maybe they bonded over the grief? That happens all the time.”
Dana nodded, then pointed a finger at him.
“That’s what I thought initially. But I looked into it.”
Dana placed her glass down and then looked around the restaurant. She lowered her voice into a whisper, which made Rux’s lips tremble briefly with mirth.
“His plane went down right around where Griffin’s island is,” she murmured. “A rescue team wanted to go in, but he wouldn’t permit them. If that’s your girlfriend's brother, don’t you think you’d want to do everything you can to help?”
Rux nodded, looking around the room thoughtfully. Since they had first kissed, and she had rebuffed it, Rux would choose his words wisely. She appreciated it because most men barely took a millisecond to consider what was going to come out of their mouths next.
He lifted the whiskey to his lips and swirled it around, taking in its aroma.
“That’s a fair point,” he said.
“So, then they never found a body,” Dana whispered. “And he and Rebecca are telling the daughter that he died?”
Rux continued to look around thoughtfully, downing the rest of his drink.
“You certainly aren’t wrong about that,” he said.
They took a break from the conversation and ordered their meals. Rux ordered a lobster linguini, and Dana ordered a steak and buttered asparagus. When their food arrived, they dug in with Rux bringing the topic back to the forefront.