Chapter Twenty-One
Jacob
“Who was that?”
Greg glanced at me as I stepped back into the lounge room, slipping my phone into my pocket. After all the stressful shit that’d been happening at the office lately, we’d decided to have a sneaky beer and lunch at my place, well away from all the drama.
“Vanessa. My nanny,” I replied. I hesitated before speaking again. “Greg, I…”
“You’re banging her?” he asked with a grin on his face.
“It’s a bit more than that.”
He winked. “Trust me, I know. You’ve seemed a lot….happier. For weeks now.”
I grinned too. “It’s been that obvious?”
“Hell yeah, it has. I’ve been wanting to meet her for a while. Was wondering when you’d finally admit it to me. So what’s she like, anyway? Sexy?”
“Very sexy. And she’s just lovely personality-wise as well.”
“That’s great. She sounds sweet.”
The smile faded from my face as I realized he was missing a key component of the story; one which he’d find out as soon as Vanessa stepped through the door in all her blonde glory.
“Greg….she’s only eighteen.”
To his credit, his expression didn’t change. No flinching, no judgment. Instead, he simply nodded. “Women mature a lot faster than men. That’s just a scientific fact, honestly. I’m sure she’s wonderful, even if she’s younger than us.”
I breathed a quiet sigh of relief. Greg and I had been friends for so long—I should’ve known he wouldn’t judge me.
“We’ve been hiding it from everyone because of the age difference,” I explained.
He held his hands up, palms facing me. “Hey, man, I totally get it. I mean, I think it’s great that you’ve found someone, but I’m not an idiot—I know what most people are like. A lot of them would act like you’re some sort of sex offender for being with such a young girl.”
I sighed impatiently. “Exactly.”
“It’s bullshit. Don’t worry, Jake. We’ll figure out some way to make people accept it. We can speak to Tonya and the PR team about it once all this insider trading shit has blown over.”
“Yeah.”
At that moment, I heard the front door opening, and Vanessa stepped through seconds later, her blonde hair slightly mussed up from the wind. She was holding her laptop, and her tote bag with all her college books and notepads swung from one shoulder.
“Hello,” she said shyly, spying Greg over my shoulder.
“Greg, this is Vanessa,” I said.
He got up and extended a hand to her. “Nice to meet you, Vanessa. Heard a lot about you. I’m Greg Sistero.”
“It’s very nice to meet you too,” Vanessa replied with a warm smile. Such a polite girl; such good manners.
“So you’re at college when you aren’t working for Jake?” Greg asked, gesturing to her books and laptop.
She smiled and put them all down on the coffee table. “Yes, I’m studying to be a teacher. I also do some writing for the college paper.”
“That’s great. Smart girl.”
Vanessa giggled softly, nervously. “Thank you.”
“Anyway, I better get back to the office,” Greg said, glancing up at me. “You’ll be coming back as well, right, man?”
I nodded. “Sure. I’ll be a bit later than you, though. Need to, er….clean up after our lunch,” I said, motioning toward the coffee table, where our beer bottles and dirty plates sat next to Vanessa’s stuff.
He smiled, a wicked gleam in his eyes. He knew exactly why I was going to be late getting back to the office. “No worries. I just need to make a quick call, and then I’ll go.”
Vanessa helped me clear our plates and drinks from the coffee table and take them into the kitchen, and as we stacked the dishwasher and put the bottles in the recycling trash can, she smiled shyly up at me.
“What is it, baby girl?” I asked, grinning back at her.
“You introduced me to someone,” she said. “Without saying that I’m just your nanny. It felt….nice.”
“Glad to hear it. We’re going to figure out a way to tell the whole world about us without them judging, sweetie. Might take a while, but we’ll get there.”
“I’m glad.” She cast her eyes down, and I could tell something else was on her mind.
“Vanessa, what’s wrong?” I asked.
“I heard from my father again today. He called me.”
I frowned. “What did he want?”
She outlined what had been said during their conversation, and I nodded slowly. “I see. So you want to go to his seminar and hear him speak?”
“I just think it might help us. If he’s the one who’s been feeding all the rumors about our relationship to Damon Schwartz, then I might be able to find out. If I confront him face to face, that is.”
I sighed. “We still don’t know that the man has changed at all, Vanessa. I’m not comfortable with you being there alone, and I don’t trust him one bit. I’ll be coming with you.”
“I assumed you would,” she said.
“Good. I’m glad we’re on the same page so often,” I replied, slipping my hand into hers. “And thank you for letting me know this time.”
“Of course,” she replied with a sweet smile.
“All right, I’m done on the phone, so I’m heading out now! Thanks for lunch,” Greg called out from back in the lounge room. Vanessa and I both returned the goodbye before turning back to each other.
“So, you said there was another reason you wanted to come home and see me,” I murmured, stroking Vanessa’s soft skin. “Care to tell me what it was?”
She arched an eyebrow and smiled wickedly. “Care to take me upstairs and find out, daddy?”
“Naughty girl,” I growled, scooping her up in my arms. “The mouth on you…”
She batted her long eyelashes at me and giggled as I carried her upstairs.
There had never been a sweeter sound in the entire history of the world.