fun. She was pretty sure those two would think he’d gone off the deep end since Nate’s life was already one big party.
“I should do that,” Nate agreed. When they got back to the house Nate walked them to the door.
Jen watched her nephew go inside, then turned to Nate. She couldn’t read his expression but he’d kept his keys in his hand and had almost turned to walk back to his car. It was as if he couldn’t wait to get away from here.
“Nate?”
“Hmm?”
“Thanks for everything you did with Riley today.”
“No problem. I think he’s the first kid I’ve been around since I was a child.”
“My life is so different than yours,” she said. But hadn’t she truly known that from the beginning? They came from different worlds and that was part of why she liked him so much.
“Yes, it is. Well, I’ve got to go,” he said.
“Bye.”
She watched him walk away, realizing how good Nate was at making himself fit into whatever the situation was. Because it was only as he drove away that she realized he’d been the perfect uncle figure to Riley the way he’d been the perfect date to her last night.
She thought he was multifaceted but now she was afraid he was simply a chameleon used to changing his colors wherever he was. No matter how kind he was to Riley, Nate hadn’t really wanted to spend time with her nephew and that, more than anything else, should serve as a reminder that he wasn’t the settling-down kind.
Eight
“Hello, boys, thanks for taking time out of your busy schedules to meet with me,” Cam said as he joined Justin and Nate in the VIP lounge at the back of the club on the first floor.
The place was empty except for staff as they had an hour before it opened.
“Not a problem. What’s up?”
“We need to start working on the tenth anniversary celebration in May. Justin, I’d like you to reach out to the local community and try to get them involved in this. They are bringing in some big-shot lawyer from Manhattan to oppose overexpansion so if you can make sure they aren’t up to anything that’s going to cause us trouble, I’d appreciate it.”
“I’m on it, big bro. There is a community open house tonight and I’m going to attend to see what’s on everyone’s mind.”
“Good. Nate, I need you to pull out all the stops and get us some big-name A-listers for this thing. Not just people who will stop by, but celebs to headline the street party.”
“I will hit the phone and see who I can get. What do you want them to do? Hutch will come and do a rap show I’m sure, but what else do you want?”
“I’m going to have Jen Miller choreograph a dance show that will run on Saturday night. I want to showcase everything the club has to offer.”
“Okay, that’s not a problem,” Nate said. “I’ll let you know in a few days who can make it. Are we still talking about Memorial Day weekend? “
“Yes,” Cam said. “I am meeting with an event planner next week to approve invitations and coordinate our print media for the event. It’s important that the Latin community feels a part of this. When you are at that event tonight, Justin, will you see if you can get some volunteers to help with this? “
“I will do that. I talked to our merchandise department and they are going to go ahead with the commemorative cigars. I got the final legal wrangling taken care of so we can use the old labels from this place along with our logo.”
“That’s going to be great,” Cam said. “Boys, I can’t believe we’ve been doing this ten years.”
The rest of the meeting went by rather quickly and Nate found himself reluctant to leave. He wanted to talk to his brothers about their mom. For the first time in a long while he wanted to discuss her and figure out if his impressions and beliefs were the same as his brothers’.
Justin got up to go but Nate stopped him. “I … I went out on a date with Jen last night.”
“Our employee?” Cam asked, his eyebrows furrowing in a way that Nate knew from his youth meant trouble.
“Yes. I didn’t do anything inappropriate like threaten her job security, so chill out.”
Cam stood up and leaned over the table. “Did you sleep with her? “
Nate didn’t answer. Jen was private. What had happened with her wasn’t for public consumption. “That’s neither here nor there. I was letting you know because I might go out with her again.”
He wanted to say she was different and see if his brothers had any clue as to why she would be the woman to make him react like this. But he would never ask them about that. He would never really be able to talk about her because that wasn’t the kind of thing a man did.
“Good for you,” Justin said. “I don’t really know her, but if you are thinking of dating her, I say go for it.”
Nate glanced at his middle brother. Justin looked the most like their mom out of the three of them. “Legally that’s okay?”
“As long as you don’t put her job on the line I think you’re fine. I can draw up an agreement for you both to sign …”
Nate shook his head. “That doesn’t sound good to me. Jen’s different. She lives with her sister and her nephew.”
Cam came around the table and sat down in the chair that Justin had vacated. “Family is important to her. She’s not like the kind of girls you usually hang out with.”
“I know that,” Nate said. Cam was falling into big-brother mode. It didn’t matter that he and Justin were adults now; Cam still felt that he had to watch over them and give them advice. “I can handle this.”
Justin nodded. “He’s a big boy.”
Cam shook his head. “I don’t care too much about that. I’m more concerned with the fact that I don’t want to lose a valuable employee. She took my dream for the rooftop club and made it viable.”
“You did that,” Nate reminded his brother. “She’s just talented enough to know how to get people up on their feet.”
“Which is what makes this club so successful. Just play it cool, Nate. Don’t let this get to be more than she can handle. I don’t want to have to replace her.”
Cam walked away before Nate could say anything else and he just watched him leave. Justin stood there for a second but Nate got up and left as well. He walked out of the club and started down Calle Ocho. He stood on the corner and looked back at Luna Azul.
He wasn’t going to do anything to ruin the success he’d found here. He was too old to find another new career, especially since he really liked this one.
And he refused to be the man who stole this from
