Chapter 15

Barrett

“He’s not like that,” Nancie whined the next day, her insistent voice echoing in my office. My phone was set to speaker so I could work while she continued her tirade, outlining all of Scott’s best qualities.

“Maybe not,” I said. “All I’m trying to tell you is that you have to be careful, Nance.”

Annoyance crept into my tone. We’d rehashed this issue more than once and I, for one, had had enough. Evidently though, she wasn’t giving up until I got to know him better.

“We are being careful,” she said. “We haven’t even done anything more than kissing yet.”

My eyes nearly bugged out of my head as I stared at the phone in stunned silence. “What? That wasn’t what I was talking about.”

“Well, now you know anyway,” she replied. “He respects me, Barrett. If you got to know him, even a little, you’d see that he’s not into me for your money.”

“Is there any way I can be spared details like that in future?” I asked. “I’m asking my assistant to go get me pepper spray to wash my ears out after that.”

I looked up to find Adam listening to our conversation from my doorway with an amused expression on his face.

Motioning for him to take a seat, I turned my attention back to what Nancie was saying. “Don’t be such a prude, dearest Uncle. Do you honestly think I don’t know what you get up to? I mean, it’s plastered all over every gossip magazine.”

I frowned, replying darkly, “You know better than to believe what you read.”

“Maybe so,” Nancie argued. “But you’re no angel. Don’t try to lie to me.”

“I’m also an adult, and I know how to take care of myself,” I countered, supremely uncomfortable with the direction the conversation was taking.

Adam chuckled, clearly enjoying the hell out of my discomfort. “Hey, Nance. You tell him, girl.”

I glowered at him, especially since Nancie’s voice was immediately less defensive when it came over the line again. “Uncle Adam! I haven’t seen you for ages. Please tell Barrett to stop acting like an ass to my boyfriend.”

“Ass, Nancie. Really?” I raised a brow, even though she couldn’t see me. I used to be her damned hero. Now I was an ass? Raising teenagers sucked balls.

“Yes,” she replied. “Ass. I call it like I see it. A wise man once told me to call a spade a spade.”

“And I will never stop regretting that day,” I groaned, my eyes pleading with Adam for help.

He shrugged. “Give him a break, Nance. He might be an ass, but he happens to be a very protective ass.”

Nancie’s laughter tinkled over the phone. “This is true.”

“Stop teaming up on me,” I grumbled, unable to believe that I could easily command the attention of some of the most powerful men and women in the industry and bend them to my will. But my own niece flat out ignored my wishes.

“Stop being a protective ass, then,” Nancie answered without hesitation.

“I just don’t want you to get hurt, Nancie,” I told her, going for the sincere angle. “There are a lot of people out there who think the rules of common decency don’t apply to people like us. We’re an easy ride to them, and that’s it.”

“I know that but Scott isn’t one of those people. He didn’t even know who I was when we met. It doesn’t matter to him.”

It occurred to me that I didn’t actually know how she met him. “How did he not know who you were?”

“We met while I was at the arcade with Nicole and the girls.”

Nicole was one of Nancie’s best friends, a scholarship student at their exclusive school who took no prisoners and fit right in among them, despite her status.

“Were you still in your school uniforms?”

“Yes, but—”

“Then he knew it was a good shot that you had money, Nancie,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest and leaning back in my chair as if that was the end of it. I should’ve known it wasn’t.

“Nicole doesn’t,” Nancie was quick to point out the obvious flaw in my reasoning. “He came over to help us when one of our bowling balls got stuck in the machine.”

“He sounds like a nice guy,” Adam interjected, smirking at the crawl into a corner and die stare I shot him.

“He is,” Nancie said. “He really is. Please just think about it, Barrett. We’re going to prom together. Wouldn’t you feel better if you knew the guy I was going with a little?”

She had a valid point. If my own memories of prom served me correctly, I was going to have to put the fear of god in the little shit before he stepped into any limo with my niece. “Fine, I’ll think about it.”

Nancie squealed. “Thank you! Finally. I’ll need your answer ASAP.”

“Don’t push your luck,” I growled, my resolve crumbling when I heard how happy her voice sounded at my small concession. “I’ll talk to you later. I need to get back to work. Right after I wash out my ears and scrub my memory with steel wool to erase your little confession earlier.”

Nancie laughed, a genuine laugh, straight from her belly. The sound made me smile. “You’re such a prude, but sure. I’ll let you go. Bye, Uncle Adam.”

“Cheers, Nance,” Adam called out as Nancie hung up the phone. “You know, if there was one thing I’d never have thought you would be accused of, it’s being a prude.”

“You’re telling me,” I muttered, staring at the skyline beyond my window, trying hard to think of the fact that before I knew it, Nancie would be all grown up and living her own life somewhere down there.

“Why are you giving her such a hard time about this?” Adam asked, smiling like he was the cat who ate the canary. “Lord knows you’re no stranger to all things of the sexual persuasion.”

“That’s exactly why I’m giving her such a hard time about this,” I grumbled, turning my gaze to meet his as I waved my hand between us. “Do you honestly want her to end up with an asshole like us?”

Adam’s eyes grew contemplative. “True, but is it entirely avoidable? I mean, she’s not a baby anymore. When is the point when you just have to trust that you and Bex raised her right and let her spread her wings and see if she’s ready to fly?”

“When she’s fifty,” I replied firmly. “Maybe fifty-five.”

Adam laughed. “You know you’re only thirty-two, right? By all rights, that means that you should be tucked in early every night with a hot cup of cocoa for at least the next eighteen years. We both know that’s not going to happen.”

“It’s different.”

He arched a thick eyebrow and gave me a pointed look. “Careful, Hart. Your inner chauvinist is showing.”

Sighing in exasperation, I ran a hand through my hair. “It’s not like that. I just want to protect her from assholes like us. I mean, do you have any idea how many hearts we’ve broken over the years?”

“Are you growing a conscious in your old age all of a sudden?” Adam asked, amused incredulity in his voice. “Weren’t you just fucking the new face of the company in this very office like, a couple of days ago?”

“Demi’s a grown up. She knows who I am. It’s different.” Despite my protests, I was starting to see the point to his argument.

“True, and it sounds like Nancie knows who this Scott kid is,” Adam argued. “Maybe just invite him over to dinner and see how it goes.”

I didn’t even have to think about it. “No way.”

“Okay, look. I understand your reluctance. We’re not exactly the best guys but think about it this way. There are plenty of guys our age who have been married to their high school sweetheart for more than a decade and are great fathers to their spawn.”

“And they’re cheating on their wives with the head of the cheerleading squad from way back then and jerking off to the chicks we shoot every day.”

Adam’s eyes widened as he chuckled. “Wow, I hate to say it, bud, but you’ve really lost the plot. When did you become such a shining beacon of relationship pessimism? There are good guys out there, Barrett. Maybe this Scott kid is one of them. How are you going to know if he’s one of us or one of them if you don’t give him a chance? Size him up in person.”

Two more points for the away team. Damn. “First of all, I’m not a shining beacon of relationship pessimism. I’m just pointing out that it’s not all rainbows and sunshine out there. Secondly, I’ve already met him.”

“For all of what, two seconds to be a snob about the clothes he was wearing before you ran them off?”

It was another good point. The scoreboard was becoming seriously lopsided. Unfortunately, the results were not in my favor.

I groaned loudly, rising to pace the length of my office. “Since when did you become the voice of reason?”

“Since you had this little fit of overprotective assery out of nowhere,” Adam said, smiling as he leaned back in his chair.

“Fine, I’ll text Nancie and tell her to invite him for dinner tonight, but I’m warning you, Campbell, if this blows up in her face, you’re eating every pint of broken heart ice cream with us.”

“Get me chocolate chip,” he answered. “On the other hand, if that happens, we could just get her drunk and—”

I silenced him with a look. “We are absolutely not doing that. No getting her wasted. We’re sticking with ice cream.”

Adam laughed again, throwing his hands up in surrender. “You got it. Now send that text.”

As I fired off the text to Nancie, another thought occurred to me. I thumbed through my contacts and hit Demi’s name. She answered after only a few rings. “Barrett, I’m glad you called.”

“Yeah, me, too.” I ignored the strange look Adam gave me. “Listen, I need a favor.”

“I’m listening,” she said, her voice warm and friendly. It did unfamiliar things to my heart and stomach when she was so open and receptive. I wondered idly if I was coming down with something but I filed the thought away to be considered later.

“Adam and Nancie have convinced me to have the boyfriend over for dinner later. Please tell me that you’re not doing anything and that you can come over to help keep me from killing the poor boy?”

“Failing which, to help you bury the body, right?” She laughed.

My heart pounded. She got me. She so got me. “Exactly.”

“Okay, I’ll be there,” Demi agreed, laughing. “Just don’t get the shovels out before I get there.”

“Deal. See you at seven.” I didn’t add that I couldn’t wait to see her, though that was the thought that consumed my mind for the rest of the day.