When the waitress had taken our drink orders, I’d been tempted to ask for the entire bottle of scotch rather than just a tumbler with a few fingers poured neatly. But getting shit-faced at a dinner where I was about to tell my largest, most important client that I was dating his daughter didn’t sound like the appropriate thing to do.
I needed to be aware.
Conscious.
I had to be on more than ever before.
So, I’d asked for a double instead, and I held the glass in my hand while the three of us sat in LA’s finest steak house.
I’d taken Walter here before, so I knew how much he enjoyed the food. I’d hoped the dim lighting, which was far more forgiving than sunlight, and the dark wood accents would create a relaxing vibe for him.
Except he didn’t appear relaxed at all.
In fact, for the last five minutes, he’d been on the phone, dealing with what sounded like an emergency at one of the properties.
Jo kept looking at me, gaining my attention each time her eyes widened, each time her head turned toward me. Without speaking, I knew she was wondering if we should postpone the talk to a later date.
But if we didn’t do it now, we would continue to put it off.
I didn’t want that.
I was ready to face this head-on, regardless of the outcome.
Walter’s opinion wouldn’t affect anything between Jo and me.
But what if he forbids us from being together?
What if he tells me to never get near his daughter again?
What if he fires her for this? Or forces her to resign?
What if he tells me he’s going to ruin my reputation?
I couldn’t think about that.
I couldn’t think about the problems this could cause.
I could only think about the relief I would feel when I finally told him the news, and that was what I concentrated on during the silence and when the waitress approached our table again.
“Can I get you any appetizers?” she asked. “Or are you ready to order your main courses?”
Food was the perfect distraction.
“Can we get a couple Caesar salads to share?” I asked. “We’ll also have the calamari and the beef carpaccio. I think that’s enough for now.”
“I’ll get those started,” she replied and left our table.
Jo had been holding her menu and placed it down in front of her. “I’m going to run to the ladies’ room,” she said, rising from her seat.
I tried to keep my eyes off her as she walked away from the table, but I couldn’t.
Not when she had on that dress.
One that was red and short, only reaching the top of her knees, hugging her ass the way I would if my hands were on her cheeks.
She was so incredibly sexy.
And she was mine.
“Just handle it, do you hear me?” Walter said.
The sound of his voice pulled my eyes away from Jo, and I instantly connected with his stare.
He hung up and shoved his phone in his pocket. “The fire alarms are going off at my hotel in Manhattan. No fire, but they can’t seem to find the cause. Total fucking shitshow.”
I reached for my drink, needing it much closer.
And before I was able to respond, he said, “What were we talking about before my phone rang?”
I tried to remember the conversation.
Utah?
Marketing?
The Napa renovation?
Jesus, Jenner.
My brain was so busy that I couldn’t even remember five minutes ago.
“Ah,” he said, “to be young and handsome again.”
He had glanced away, and I was so lost in my thoughts that I had no idea what he was referring to.
“I’m sorry?”
“Every woman who walks by stares at you.” He nodded in the direction where Jo had disappeared.
I held my breath as I looked that way.
The woman he was referencing was tall and blonde, her dress putting her tits on full display.
She held my eyes until she turned the corner.
“Is she on the conquered list?” He chuckled. “Or is she one you’re about to follow into the restroom?”
Fuck.
I regretted the conversation we’d had over that dinner where he learned how much of a player I was.
But never had I imagined I’d be here.
“That’s the old Jenner,” I told him. “I’m a new man now.”
“A new man,” he mirrored. “Does that mean she’s back in your life? Or there’s someone new?”
The brief conversation we’d had was replaying in my head.
“She’s back,” I told him.
He took a piece of bread out of the basket and bit off the corner. “So, timing was on your side after all, then.”
“Yeah …” I eyed the bread, but I wasn’t ready to put anything in my stomach. “Something like that.”
“What did I miss?” Jo asked as she took her seat.
“Jenner was just telling me that he’s off the market.” Walter chuckled. “Take it from a perpetual bachelor who’s seen it all; when a woman returns to your life, she doesn’t leave again. That shit right there deserves to be celebrated.” He raised his glass and clinked it against mine.
Jo looked at me, her expression telling me she wanted to make a fucking run for it.
My chest tightened. My hands felt unsteady as I lowered my glass and said, “Walter, there’s something I need to talk to you about.” I made eye contact with Jo again. “Something we need to talk to you about.”
“I assumed that’s why we’re here.” He moved his menu to the side, leaning his elbows on the table. “What’s going on? Do you have more ideas for Utah? A change in the design? What?”
I’d spent all day trying to come up with the best way to discuss this with him. How to approach the conversation. What angle to take.
But as my mouth opened, I forgot every goddamn thing I’d planned.
My mind went blank.
I took a deep breath, holding in the air. “I’m in love with your daughter.”
He looked at Jo and then back at me. “You’re … what?”
That certainly wasn’t the way I’d wanted to initiate this talk, but, fuck, it suddenly felt like the right way. The words he needed to hear first before I backtracked to the beginning.
“Hold on …” His eyes bounced from Jo to me, like we were getting cross-examined. “I need to make sure I heard you correctly.” His cheeks were beginning to turn red. “You said”—he exhaled, his head shaking—“you’re in love … with my daughter?”
“Yes,” I replied.
“What the fuck?” His face was now fully flushed, his voice getting louder.
“Let me explain myself—”
“Jenner, I would say you have a lot of explaining to do.”
I quickly came up with a starting point and kept my voice low as I said, “I met Joanna when I was in Vegas for March Madness. I didn’t know who she was. In fact, I didn’t find out she was your daughter until months later, during our first trip to Utah.”
His brows furrowed, and his fingers clenched, his knuckles sticking up like points. “I don’t understand …”
“Dad,” Jo chimed in, “we’re asking for your blessing.” She reached across the space between us, her hand resting on top of my arm. “He’s the man I want to be with.”
He lifted his glass and took a long, heavy drink. When he returned his scotch to the table, he wiped his lips with the back of his hand, his mouth turning into a thin line. “Let me get this straight. You, the man I’ve trusted with every business venture for the last—I don’t know—seven years, wants my blessing, so you can be with my daughter?”
My chest was so fucking tight that a finger tap would shatter it. “Yes.”
His stare shifted to Jo’s hand before he glared at me. “Looks like you already took what you wanted, Jenner, and it sounds like this has been going on for months.”
“I didn’t want to keep you in the dark, Walter. That wasn’t—”
“But you did,” he said, cutting me off. “Both of you did.”
“You’re right,” I replied.
“And you’ve looked me in the face how many times since then?” His voice was staying the same pitch but getting grittier. “And never once did you mention that you were fucking my daughter—”
“Dad!”
“What, Joanna? Would you rather me sugarcoat the fact that you’ve climbed in bed with Hollywood’s biggest playboy? Or maybe you’re about to tell me that he’s suddenly become celibate?” His eyes narrowed as he waited for a response. He didn’t get one. “Do you understand the type of information Jenner is privy to? The responsibility he has to my company?” His fist pounded the table, the glasses rattling. “The millions of dollars I pay him every year?”
He was right.
Every word.
But there had to be a way to fix this.
As I attempted to budge in, he added, “And now, he’s sleeping with my twenty-two-year-old daughter, who was in college at the time, and he’s what, ten, twelve years older than you?”
Her chest rose and fell so fast. “Dad, I’ve never been happier in my life.”
“At least one of us is.” He waved the air, like he was dismissing me. “Jesus Christ, Jenner, I expected more from you.”
He was disappointed.
An emotion far worse than anger and disgust.
I poured the rest of the scotch down my throat, my heart fucking pounding. “Walter, I know I’ve crossed boundaries—”
“Boundaries,” he hissed. “Had you brought that blonde with the big tits into the restroom and fucked her in a stall next to my daughter’s, that would have been crossing boundaries. This”—he exhaled loudly—“this is a goddamn invasion.”
I placed my hands under the table, squeezing them together. “I know I’ve put myself in a bad position with Spade Hotels. That’s the last thing I want. Representing your brand is a job that’s extremely important to me. But if you no longer want to work with me, I understand.”
The sound that came out of his mouth was almost like a laugh. But one that told me he found none of this funny.
“It’s important to you, huh? So important that you couldn’t keep your hands off my daughter?” His head dropped, like he was collecting his breath, and there was a temper in his eyes when he finally looked up. “I once told you, when you find the right one, you hold on to her. You put a ring on her finger, and then you make her a mother. I just didn’t tell you that the woman couldn’t be Joanna—goddamn it, I didn’t think I had to.”
“Dad, it’s not Jenner’s fault—”
“Stay out of this, Joanna. This is between me and my lawyer right now.”
There was no reason to convince him of the truth.
He wasn’t going to listen.
So, I would take the blame instead.
The last thing I wanted was for him to be angry with Jo, for this to hurt her career.
For there to be any ramifications because of me.
“You’re right, Walter. I wasn’t thinking about your brand. I was thinking about the woman I’m in love with.”
His stare intensified. “You have some fucking balls.”
“If it comes down to Spade Hotels or Joanna, I’m not willing to lose her.” I looked at my girl and added, “I will always choose her.”
He licked across his lips, his knuckles white.
The silence like nails stabbing me.
“I don’t know what to say to you right now, Jenner, but I will tell you one thing: there’s no way in hell I’m about to share this meal with you.”
His napkin stayed on his lap.
His ass planted on the seat.
He wasn’t moving.
That meant only one thing.
He wanted me to leave.
I got up from my chair and stood across from him.
I wasn’t going to make Joanna choose.
I would never put that kind of pressure on her.
This was her father.
Her employer.
So, I reached into my pocket and took out my credit card and dropped it on the table. “Call me when you’re ready to talk,” I said to him.
I didn’t wait for a reply, for the look in his eyes to worsen.
I just left the restaurant and got into my car and drove the fuck away.