“Please. Bastian went home for the summer, and everyone knows his ex is lying in wait to pounce on him the first chance she gets. And after seeing your ex, there’s no way Bastian measures up,” Keira said with a look of mischief. “Be honest, which one was better in bed?”
Brook had refused to share any personal information about her relationship with David. This was just another ploy to get her to spill details. She gave Keira a look that communicated her feelings on the topic.
“Okay, fine. Just tell me this. Is he as good-looking in person as he is in the movies?”
“Better,” Brook said.
Keira fanned her face with her hand like some Southern belle having the vapors.
“Do me a favor and talk me up to him,” she begged. “Oh, and don’t let the others get near him. We don’t need a repeat of what Mallory did at our last party.”
They’d had a little get-together after finals that had gotten out of hand. Brook’s sisters had to get rid of all their alcohol, so someone got the bright idea to make the ‘kitchen sink’ of sorority-girl drinks: Long Island Iced Teas. The trouble started when the syph boys had shown up.
There was a fraternity next to their house that had a bad reputation. The girls had started calling them ‘syph boys’ because the rumor was they’d all gotten syphilis over spring break from a bunch of skanks from Wellesley College.
Mallory had started early and made some bad decisions. They’d had to save her from herself when she decided to climb this poor freshman boy in the middle of the party room. The funny part was she denied it ever happened and insisted that all the pictures they took were fake.
Brook had to chuckle because that little stunt would have ended up far differently if she’d climbed up David and stuck her tongue down his throat. He wasn’t some ordinary nervous freshman.
Truth be told, David would never have done anything with Mallory because she was drunk. That was one of the things Brook missed about him. While he wasn’t really a ‘good boy’ in the sense that he was saving it for marriage, he had a solid moral code.
A good example was a New Year’s Eve party where David had lectured some men that you don’t take advantage of a drunk girl; you take her home. Brook had learned the hard way that not many guys followed that code. It was one of the main reasons she’d joined a sorority. The sisters at least kept an eye on each other to prevent anything that would be regretted the next day.
Brook grabbed her bag, and she and Keira rushed out the door to go to work. She groaned when they reached the lobby and saw the sidewalk full of paparazzi. She would be glad when her fifteen minutes of fame were over.
◊◊◊
When Brook had reached work, she’d gone to her mom’s office and promptly been told that she and Mallory were picking up David and his entourage at the airport. They each checked out a town car and headed to New Jersey and Teterboro Airport.
They were almost there when Brook received a text from her grandmother, letting her know they were on the ground and giving her directions where to pick everyone up. Brook was familiar with the airport since it was the main airport near New York City where private planes routinely landed. She’d picked up a few of their wealth-management clients there over the past week.
She spotted David’s mom standing curbside. Brook pulled up and got out of the car to greet Carol.
“Brook!”
The two women hugged.
“How was London?” Brook asked.
“It was a lot of fun. I even got to meet all the men who played James Bond.”
“What does Rob think of that?”
Carol rolled her eyes to let her know that her husband didn’t get why she had a crush on James Bond. The two of them caught up until Brook spotted David pushing a cart loaded down with bags.
“He’s not seeing anyone,” Carol whispered.
David saw Brook and grinned, which caused her heart to skip a beat. Not fair at all. His smile should be licensed as a lethal weapon.
“Mister Dawson!” Mallory called out to get his attention. “Let me help you with your bags. You’re supposed to ride back to the city with me.”
Carol snorted out a laugh when she saw Brook’s reaction to her fellow employee’s attempt at catching David’s attention. Brook had to hide her own smile when David let Mallory take the cart to load their luggage into her vehicle.
“You know Frank,” David said. “And this is my temporary PA, Kristen. Everybody, this is Brook Davis, Grace Davenport’s granddaughter.”
Brook would have to dig into the ‘temporary’ comment about his PA. She noticed that Kristen had caught it and looked concerned.
Mallory was a little out of breath after hoisting all their bags into the car when she came back. Brook introduced her to David’s group.
“Mom, you and Frank go with Mallory to the hotel and get us checked in. I’ll ride with Brook to the meeting and call you when I’m done,” David said, taking charge.
“Adrienne’s partner, Tyler, called, and we made plans to go shopping,” Carol said. “She said that Adrienne is working with Jill Lacier and Kara Tasman today, and they all want to have dinner with you tonight.”
Brook slugged David in the arm when she caught his look of lust as his mom listed their names. He really was a ‘stupid boy’ sometimes. He glanced over at Brook and raised his eyebrows, which caused her to remember that he was her ex, and she had no say in who he spent time with.
“Sorry, that was a knee-jerk reaction,” Brook admitted as she heard the words tumbling out of her mouth, faster and faster, as if she needed to reassure herself.
David’s security took the car keys from her. Kristen joined the security guy in the front seat as Brook and David got into the back. Frank and Carol went with Mallory.
◊◊◊
“Guess who’s in town that I’m meeting tomorrow?” David asked once they got on the road.
“Tony Giovanni,” Brook guessed.
He raised an eyebrow.
“Now that you mention it, that is probably someone I should reach out to while I’m in town … but no. Think crush,” he prodded.
“Darius Rossetti?” Brook asked, and David nodded. “Did you know that he made me go to homecoming so we could crown the next king and queen?”
“Chrissy dumped him, so he asked me for your number. I can’t believe that you blocked him,” David teased.
“If you thought his ‘special’ text was hilarious, you should have experienced some of the other gems he pulled out of his you-know-what to express his feelings,” she all but groaned.
“I’m surprised he hasn’t figured out how to pull a text back yet. I would have bet one of my imaginary beach houses he would have been motivated to solve that little problem.”
“You need to talk to him and explain that not sending a text is probably his best course of action. That way, you don’t regret what you sent two minutes later.”
“He’s no longer working on drones,” David said to floor Brook. “His roommate at MIT turned him on to virtual reality. He says they’ve created something for me to use for football. He wants me to fly them both out to LA for a month so they can prove that it works,” he said.
“Do you still fund his crazy projects?”
“For the most part,” David said.
“Good, because except for his total cluelessness with respect to women, he has some real talent.”
“At annoying you,” he added.
Brook didn’t even bother to say anything about that. Dare had gotten into his head that he was in love with her. The boy was the furthest thing from a person she would ever consider dating, but she had to give him credit for persistence. If he would turn his eye to other girls, she had no doubt he would be dating right now.
“Hey! I have some great news,” David said.
“Do tell.”
“I just logged enough hours to get my jet certification. When I get back to LA, I’ll take the test.”
“How did you manage that with your busy schedule?” Brook asked.