Kate leaned in to whisper, “Lizzie is what we call a serial dater. She doesn’t have boyfriends. She has flavors of the month. Apparently, chocolate didn’t make the cut, and she’s moving on to something with berries in it.”
“Makes perfect sense,” Adam said.
“Oooh, berries do sound good,” Emma said. “What’s for dessert, Mom?” No one heard her, so the question went unanswered.
“Brady wanted me to ask if anyone would be willing to do the pitch speech at the fundraiser. Any takers?” their father asked.
There were ten seconds of complete silence before Lucy turned to Lizzie and asked what she thought ofWuthering Heights.
“I think Jane Austen outdid herself with that one,” Lizzie replied.
“Jane Austen did not writeWuthering Heights,” Emma said.
“What?” Lizzie asked. “Are you sure? Then who did?”
“Emily Brontë,” Kate, Sophie, Lucy, and Emma said in unison.
“Hmph.” Lizzie said.
Perplexed, Adam looked again to Kate for translation.
“Oh,” she said, swallowing a bite of salad. “It’s what we do when we want to change the subject. Just randomly bring up something about a classic novel. Brady is dad’s campaign manager, and a pitch speech is where you ask everyone for money.”
“I’ll take that as a no,” their father said. “So, Adam, Katie’s been dating some real assholes lately. You’re not an asshole, are you?”
“Dad!” Kate threw her arms in the air. “Adam and I are not dating. He is a client. He came by to sign some papers and got sucked into our vortex of crazy.”
“Oh. Sorry,” her dad said just as a phone rang.
“Whose phone is not in purgatory?” Sophie asked.
Before Adam could even ask, Kate leaned over and explained that “purgatory” was a wicker basket everyone had to put their phones in before dinner. Her dad pulled his phone out of his pocket. “I’m sorry, dear, but I’ve been expecting this call, and I need to take it.” He rose from the table and walked down the hall.
“Must be important,” Lucy said. “Dad is usually the one hounding us about calls at dinner.”
Adam thought this might be a chance to find out if Edward was up to anything shifty. He asked where the restroom was and then excused himself.
On his way to the bathroom, he slowed his pace as he walked by the other doors, hoping to catch a bit of Edward’s conversation. Sure enough, door number two was ajar, and Edward had his back to the door. Adam stopped and listened. He felt guilty as hell, but his mother had been adamant that Chuck needed some information.
“I know. Look, we’ll figure it out,” Edward said to whoever was on the phone. “We can just do like a money laundering thing. You pay me, I’ll pay them, and no one will know where the money came from.”
Adam’s mouth dropped open. Edward was laundering money?
“Well, what if I pick you up and we go to a hotel for the weekend? I’ll tell Sophie I’m going on a fishing trip. No one will find out.”
And cheating on his wife? Holy shit. This was big. He heard a commotion in the kitchen and thought someone might be heading his way. Not wanting to get caught eavesdropping, he hustled to the restroom.
Back at the table, he decided to poke the bear a little.
“So, Mayor Parker, I understand you have an opponent this year. You worried about that?”
“First of all, call me Edward,” he said. “And, of course. You gotta take every race seriously. Chuck is actually an old friend of mine. Well, I considered him a friend. I think he’s still mad at me for stealing his girl, right, babe?” Sophie had just gotten up, and he playfully smacked her on the tush as she walked by. “I’d do it again in a second though.” He winked at Adam. Adam wanted to punch him in the face.
“I wasn’t evenhisgirl,” Sophie said from the kitchen. “We only went out twice. He just thought I was and got all upset when I told him I was seeing you. You beat him out for dorm president freshman year too. And he was mad because you got an internship he really wanted. Someone told me later he started referring to you as his nemesis after that.”
“Nemesis? Pft. I didn’t do either of those things to spite him specifically. I wonder if that’s why he’s running against me? You don’t think he still holds a grudge, do you, honey?”
Uh, yeah, he does, Adam thought, but didn’t say. Edward had moved on to talking more to his wife than to Adam, so he let the subject slide.