Calvin groaned and rolled his eyes. “Fuck. I’m not eating like a gentleman just so you can get laid man.”
“Eat however you want. Maybe it’ll give her friend some ideas about you.”
Calvin rolled his eyes and shook his head. “I don’t need your help picking up women, Virgil.”
“Yeah, I know, women dig that whole fake lumberjack look these days. Imagine if you actually chopped wood or somethin’.”
“Dick,” he mumbled under his breath and stood up taller as we approached Maisie and her friend.
“This is quite a surprise. Good afternoon ladies.” My gaze bounced from Maisie to her friend and back, and yeah, she was even more gorgeous in the light of day. “Maisie.”
I heard the tiny gasp she tried to hide as her blue gaze slid up my body to my face. “Virgil, this is a surprise.”
“How are you feeling today?”
“Better, thanks to you.” She beamed a smile up at me that was real and genuine, and I couldn’t help but smile back. “Let me buy you guys a meal to say thanks for your help.”
I couldn’t believe my luck, turning to Cal with a satisfied grin. “Normally I don’t like the idea of a woman paying for my food, but I’m trying to be more open minded these days.”
I flashed a wide smile and leaned in close, catching a whiff of surprisingly flowery perfume. Not too sweet and with just enough musk to know it belonged to a grown woman. I leaned in a little closer.
“How fortuitous for me,” she said with a flirtatious smile. “Virgil, Calvin, this is my friend Bonnie. Bonnie, say hey to Virgil and Calvin.”
Her friend Bonnie looked at me and then my brother with a flare of unavoidable but fleeting attraction. Her main expression was one of disgust with a hint of discomfort thrown in for good measure.
“It’s nice to meet the guys who made sure my best friend got home safely.”
“Bonnie,” Maisie said in an admonishing tone, her eyes big as they held some sort of silent conversation. Maisie ended it by sliding over and tugging me down into the seat beside her.
“Don’t mind Bonnie, guys. She’s suspicious of everyone she hasn’t known for a thousand years.”
Maisie didn’t seem bothered, so I decided I wasn’t either, but I sent a quick look to Calvin to look into Bonnie. If she was a local, she probably thought she knew some things and who knew what gossip she’d shared with Maisie.
“Nice to meet you Bonnie.”
“Yeah, that,” Cal mumbled and buried his face in the menu as if we didn’t eat here all the time. Midnight Mass Pub was another Ashby holding, and even though it was just a little Irish pub by all appearances, this was the true heart and soul of our operations.
Jasper had an official office at the Emerald Isle, though he did most of his business out of his office at Midnight Mass. Calvin also had an office as the Chief Technology Officer right down the hall from Kat’s corner office. Midnight Mass was where the big deals went down. Where our real money was made. And this was where Ma had consolidated her power. So it was the lesser known Ashby Headquarters.
“Charming,” Bonnie mumbled to herself and snatched Maisie’s menu from the table with a grunt.
If Maisie was bothered by her friend’s attitude, she didn’t let it show, giving off a casual shrug before she turned to me with a flirtatious smile. “So Virgil, you said your family owns the casino?”
My brows furrowed and I was on edge, as I always was when I met someone new, especially when they start asking questions about my family’s money and businesses.
“Yeah.”
“Well, what do you? Is it something terminally cool like planning parties for the famous and infamous? Do you get to listen to all the hottest DJ’s before hiring them?”
Her eyes sparkled with the glee of the celebrity gossip lover, which I much preferred over the glassy-eyed focus of the gold-digger.
Her question surprised a laugh out of me and I enjoyed it even more when she didn’t follow it up with a question about my celebrity friends.
“Nothing as cool as all that. I’m more of a Jack of all trades, doing whatever needs to be done to keep the wheels spinning.”
Her eyes took me in and her smile made me want to lean in even closer to see if those laugh lines were genuine. The heat that flared in her eyes was hard to miss but she wasn’t over the top in her interest. It was there, low and simmering without a doubt, but she wasn’t in your face about it, which I liked. “A team player. That’s what my brother would call it.”
“Doing your part is what Ma calls it.” Calvin grunted.
Maisie laughed at that. “Gotta love a tough female figure. My brother’s wife is like that. Beautiful and strong, smart as hell and badass, but you can’t tell by looking at her. It wasn’t always great growing up though.”