She laughed and slapped his arm. “Don’t you dare. But you can be honest, Jack, if he asks you,” she added, clearing her throat.
As if he would say anything that might end in her leaving the country again. Besides, he knew exactly what he would tell Darron Clark, if Clark actually asked him whether his son or daughter was better at the job. He just nodded.
“Good.” She seemed satisfied. “And I would hurry up a bit. My dad is not a patient man.”
He sighed. “Fine. Where are my pants?”
It took him ten minutes to find them, because they were under the bed for some reason. By the time he kissed Penny goodbye and stepped out into the hallway, he had cleaned up enough to not look like he’d been doing horribly, dirty things all night.
He hurried toward the elevator and when his cell phone rang this time, he picked it up without looking at the caller ID. He was certain it was Gray wanting to know where the hell he was.
But he was wrong.
“Ah, you answered after all,” Anna said with satisfaction. “And I thought you were going to keep ignoring me!”
He made a face. That was what he had actually intended to do, yes. “Never,” he said and pressed the button for the elevator.
“Good. Because what’s up with you having a girlfriend?And your boss, at that? Why are you keeping your personal telenovela a secret from me?”
Oh God, he really hoped the reception in the elevator was bad. “I don’t know if she’s mygirlfriend! And my life isn’t a telenovela! At most...” Damn, if he saidromantic comedyhe would only make things worse, right?
“What? You don’tknow? So, at most what?” Anna demanded immediately.
“Commercial break. Boring subject. Best to skip to the next channel.” He deliberately ignored her probing question. In his opinion, they were in a relationship, but he had no idea what Penny thought.
“I’m pretty sure you’re describing my life, not yours,” she said, offended. “So, who is Penelope Clark? All I got out of Dax is that she scares Leon. Which, I guess, is a good thing. But it wasn’t particularly satisfying information.”
He felt a smile lurking at the corners of his mouth. “Why is my relationship status so important to you?”
“Because I care,” she said indignantly. “What kind of question is that?”
“It’s still quite new and complicated, and I didn’t want to tell you about it until... until everything was a little more certain.” He didn’t want Anna to get her hopes up.
“Oh, please! When is anything ever certain?” she said with a sigh. “And honestly, Jack, I’ve missed so much of your life because I was being considerate of Dax’s feelings…and now that you’re on good terms again, I have a lot of catching up to do. So, whenever you ask yourself if I care about anything that’s going on in your life right now — you can assume the answer is yes. Is that clear?”
His throat tightened and his stomach clenched. Was it that simple? Anna was interested in everything that had to do with him? Was that how it was with siblings? Not all of them, right? But maybe with them? God, he didn’t know. He felt like he was starting from scratch.
He swallowed and nodded slowly. “Okay. I understand,” he murmured. And for the first time, he thought that maybe he should tell Dax and Anna about his father. Maybe Penny was right. Maybe they would be happy to care about him and his crap. Although, that was hard to imagine. If his parents hadn’t shown him any sympathy…who would?
“So, what about the maybe-girlfriend? Do you like her?”
He lowered his gaze as the elevator pinged his floor and smiled. “Yes. A lot.”
“That’s good.”
“I think so, too.”
“Is that all you have to say?”
“Yeah, over the phone.” And especially in a public hallway that could be full of hockey players.
“Fine.” She sighed in disappointment. “Then tell me next time I see you.”
“Gladly.” He stepped into the elevator and was about to hang up when something else occurred to him. “Oh, Anna, if Moreauever asks: There’s nothing going on between us. We’re just friends.”
Silence. Then: “Why would he ask that?”
“No reason. Just a little misunderstanding.”
