California.
“You got it.” Clarissa moved close to hug Stan again. He gave her a squeeze when she kissed his cheek.
Pulling back from Stan, Clarissa sighed and looked over at Eli. “Nice meeting you, Mr. Joss,” she lied in a subdued tone.
“Sweet li’l thing,” Stan complimented once Clarissa had gone. “It’s a wonder some cat hasn’t taken her off the market.”
Elias smirked. “Has she ever been on the market?” His question was rhetorical. Like most people in Philadelphia, he knew of Jazmina Beaumont as well as her place of business. Until today, he’d never seen or met the woman’s niece.
Stanford’s laughter came as a huge burst of sound. “Well, if you ask Jaz Beaumont, the answer would be an emphatic ‘Hell no!’”
“She’s the protective type?”
“That’s puttin’ it a might subtle, kid.” Stan glanced toward the staircase Clarissa had taken up and out of the shop. He shrugged, saying, “Guess it’s understandable. In Jaz Beaumont’s biz, she’s seen all kinds. Makes sense she’d wanna protect her sister’s kid from it.”
Elias returned to the raised platform where Stan had been taking his measurements. “I wonder if looking so much like her aunt gets her in trouble.”
Stan nodded while making note of a measurement on the pad he’d pulled from the burgundy smock he wore. “That answer would be an emphatic ‘Hell yeah.’ Ain’t easy bearing the face of a woman who’s been successful at sleepin’ with most of the married or attached men in town.”
“Guess not...” Elias muttered.
Stan realized the weight of what he’d just said. “Sorry, kid, that was truly crass.”
Elias clapped Stan’s shoulder. “Crass but true,” he said in a reassuring drawl.
Stan nodded and Elias withdrew into his thoughts, wondering if he’d just treated Clarissa David in a less-than-polite manner because of her aunt’s history. It was, of course, a history he knew more about than he cared to admit.
“I believe I got everything I need, son,” Stan was announcing as he closed his measurements pad.
“So she doesn’t live in Philly?” Elias almost didn’t recognize his own voice. He cleared his throat and made a pretense of studying his phone while leaving the platform. He put it in the pocket of his walnut-brown jacket when Stan fixed him with a curiously comical look.
“Only off and on when she does business for her aunt.” Stan decided not to question Elias’s reason for asking. “She has a place out in California somewhere,” he added.
“Hard not to be interested in a curvy beauty like that, huh?” Stan finally queried Eli’s motives while observing the younger man knowingly.
Eli only shrugged. “So when can I expect my suits?”
“Right.” Stan understood and silenced any further questions regarding Clarissa David. “Time frame’ll be same as usual, Mr. Joss.”
Eli grinned. Stan only addressed him as ‘Mr. Joss’ when he thought his client was being pompous. At any rate, Eli went over to shake hands with the man.
“Have my mother home by midnight,” Elias ordered in pretend gruffness.
Laughter rumbled again between the two men. Soon, Stan was clapping Eli’s shoulder and telling him that he’d see him around.
Chapter 2
“Now’s just as good a time as any,” Desmond Wallace kept his voice low as he spoke into the phone. “He’s humming.”
“Right.” Desmond had to confirm what he’d just told the person on the other end of the line. “He came in humming. How often does that happen?...Right.” Desmond ended the call and then headed for his boss’s office.
At the door, Desmond applied a soft knock to the wide slab of mahogany and waited.
“Yeah.” The quick reply was an invitation.
“What’s up, boss? How’d the fitting go?”
“Stan’s getting ornery in his old age,” Eli said in response to Desmond’s cheery greeting.
“Ornery.” Desmond laughed over the word when Elias grinned. “That sounds pretty bad.”
“Worse than bad. But he’s my mom’s problem now.”
“Oh?” Desmond lifted a bushy brow.
“He’s taking her to the Reed House Jazz Supper in three and a half weeks,” Eli explained.
“I’m impressed you’d allow that and haven’t threatened the man with bodily harm over even looking at Miss Lil,” Desmond chided, referencing Eli’s mother, Lilia Joss.
“I told him to have her home by midnight. I’d say that signifies progress.”
“Indeed,” Desmond mused, silently acknowledging that folks often thought twice before they even asked Elias Joss about the weather. For the man to allow someone to date his mother with ease was definite progress for the serious, sometimes unnerving, entrepreneur.
Desmond often marveled over the number of friends Elias Joss could claim. Desmond himself had almost turned tail and run the day he met Elias for a job interview. Desmond would wager he didn’t swallow a quarter of the food ordered during their lunch.
Still, somehow Elias had an uncanny knack for drawing people in. He could set them just enough at ease to allow him to determine whether they were worth his time. The technique definitely worked its magic on Desmond, and Eli was pleased enough to take him on as a personal assistant.
Even so, it was no mistake to label Eli as a workaholic loner. While his disconcerting demeanor never tipped the scales completely over to menacing, there was the element of unease he could instill that not many dared to rouse.
“You had a few visitors that weren’t on the books,” Desmond announced, shuffling through the message slips he’d brought into the office. He passed them to Eli. “Maybe we could set some face time with them during the next week. And Mr. Rodriguez and Mr. Brooks are on their way over.”
“Crap, what’d I do now?” Elias murmured absently while he scanned the messages that Desmond had taken. His partners Santigo Rodriguez and Linus Brooks had also been his friends since nursery school.
“They have some papers that they need you to take a look at. They’ve been wanting to schedule some time for a few days now.”
“A few days.” Eli was still browsing through the messages. “Takes that long to make it across the hall, huh?”
Desmond smiled at the sarcasm. The three men each had corner offices on the top floor of the striking black downtown skyscraper.
“They’ll need to square away more than a few minutes to talk to you about this,” Desmond said.
