A Long Time Coming (Cane Brothers, #3)(28)

“Well, thank you. That’s really kind of you, Brian,” I say, feeling my professional side come out, and I can see Lia chuckling behind her menu from the corner of my eye. She always makes fun of my professional side. She thinks it’s hilarious when I drop the sarcasm and am on my best behavior. She says it’s like witnessing children visiting their grandparents. They’re always on their best behavior, minding their manners, and never saying anything that would ruffle anyone’s feathers.

After the server takes our order, I decide to get to know Birdy better. By the way, she ordered a salad with dressing on the side, no croutons, no onions, and no cheese. So basically, just lettuce and meat. Doesn’t she know that the croutons are the best part?

“So where are you from?” I ask her.

“Originally Tennessee, but I’ve lived in Los Angeles for the past ten years. I went to school here and loved it so much I decided to stay.”

“Hard to leave California once you live here. Did you study marketing in school?”

She nods and pushes her hair behind her ear. “I did. And my master’s. I’ve always been good at spinning a good story to sell something.”

I shake my head. “It takes a creative mind to be in your field. When my brothers and I first started building our business, we had to work on our marketing, and Huxley, my eldest brother, thought it would be smart to give me the job of branding.” I lift my water glass up to my lips. “Let’s just say that didn’t go over well.”

“Oh come on,” Lia chimes in. “I really liked the logo you created.”

“Don’t even bring it up,” I say as I move my hand over my face.

“Oh goodness,” Birdy says. “I have to see this now. Do you have a picture?”

“I do,” Lia replies while taking her phone out of her clutch. “I have a folder in my phone of all of the embarrassing things Breaker has done over the years. It comes in handy when I need to ground him.”

“Which is not often,” I say, trying to make sure Birdy knows I’m not some egomaniac.

“Often enough to have a folder.” Lia flips through her phone and then turns the screen toward Birdy. “So he combined an H for Huxley, a J for JP, and a B for him all together with a C as well.”

Birdy cringes. “It looks like a bunch of crumpled-up letters.”

Lia laughs. “He was going for simple.”

“To my defense, I had no right being in charge of this. I never said I had any design experience, and it was poor judgment on my brothers’ part for putting me in charge of this task. But I was smart enough to suck at it, which made us spend the money to get it done professionally.”

“Smart,” Birdy says. “Always leave it to the professionals.” The server comes up to our table with the bottle of wine that Brian ordered, and while he samples it to make sure it’s what he’s looking for, I ask Birdy if she has any siblings.

“Just a brother. But he’s ten years older than me, so we’ve never been super close. Not like best friends, but we do look out for each other. But friends, probably not like you and your brothers, I assume. You must be close to work together.”

“Very close, sometimes obnoxiously close. We get into each other’s business way too much. When I’m the one who isn’t needing help or hasn’t done something stupid, I enjoy watching the drama unfold.”

“Would you say you’re in charge of mediation in your family?”

“I am,” I say in surprise as I turn more toward her. Brian must have approved the wine because the server starts filling up the wineglasses. “Does it seem like I would be the mediating type?”

“You’re very calm. You have this air about you that makes me think that you like to keep the peace.”

“I do,” I answer. “Don’t care much for drama.”

“Pffft,” Lia says next to me.

I glance over my shoulder. “Care to weigh in?”

“Uh, senior year, the second semester during the Scrabble championships, you were living for the drama. You were part of the drama. Flirting with two girls from the same team, creating an uproar when they found out . . . in the middle of the game.”

“That’s not drama, Lia. That’s called strategic Scrabble play.” I tap the side of my temple. “Mental fortitude is a key component to winning championships, and if you can mess with your opponent in any way to throw off that mental fortitude, then you have to. So yeah, I took one for the team and flirted with two women.” I turn to Birdy and add, “I don’t ever do that in real life, just need to put that out there.”

She smiles softly. “Doesn’t seem like you would be that kind of guy.”

“Hey, Lia, why don’t we go stand out on the balcony while the food takes some time to cook, give these two some alone time to chat?” Brian says with a nauseating wink.

“Oh, sure, yeah,” Lia says while she lifts from her chair and joins Brian. I can tell from the stiffness in her response and the hesitation in her step, the last thing she wants to do is give Birdy and me space. No, she wants to be a voyeur, watching and listening to every second of this interaction.

If the roles were reversed, I would be the same way.

“They’re so cute together,” Birdy says.