Traded by Lisa Suzanne
CHAPTER 13
I walk a few paces behind Jack as we enter the restaurant, and he walks toward a table near the back. It’s not super crowded for a Monday night, which is nice given the fact that I’m here with a celebrity.
Sort of.
I’m not allowed at his table, so technically I’m not here with a celebrity. Technically I’m at the same restaurant as one.
He’s being a dick, which I should have expected when I was hired for this position regardless of who my client turned out to be. He’s thirty-three and used to doing whatever he wants, and now he has someone constantly breathing down his neck. I’m sure it’s not fun, but I’m not being paid to be fun.
And when he slides into a booth across from two other people, one of which looks to be very pregnant, I see why he wasn’t ready for me to sit at the table with them.
I’m a huge Vegas Aces fan, and the fact that Jack Dalton is sitting at the same table as Luke Dalton at a restaurant in Las Vegas the day the trade went public is definitely newsworthy.
The table they chose is far in the back, and there’s nobody else sitting anywhere near it. The tall booth walls create plenty of privacy. Still, I choose the table closest theirs so I can keep an eye on Jack.
But somehow I doubt his brother and the pregnant woman beside him are going to talk him into a strip club.
A minute later, an older woman with a sharp, dark bob and shrewd blue eyes walks through the restaurant and slides into the booth beside Jack.
“Where’s JJ?” she asks without a greeting, and I’m at the perfect distance to hear the entire conversation as long as they don’t lower their voices.
“Home with Brooke,” Jack says. He tosses an arm around her shoulder and leans in to kiss her cheek. “How’ve you been, Mom?”
Mom. So this is literally just a nice family dinner out. He could’ve told me that.
I guess it wouldn’t have changed anything.
A girl who looks to be in her early twenties rushes through the restaurant, and I get a little nervous she’s a fan as she approaches the table with two hot football players sitting at it. “Kay! You made it,” the mom says, and I have no idea who Kay is but apparently she’s part of this crew. She greets everyone as she squeezes in beside Jack and the mom.
“Luke said you have a babysitter now?” the mom asks, and my chest squeezes. They’re talking about me. I’m just a short table away and they don’t even know it. “Is that in addition to Brooke?”
“It’s not for JJ,” Luke says with far too much merriment.
“It’s for Jack,” the woman beside Luke says, her voice a little lower but still full of merriment as well.
“What?” the mom asks.
Jack blows out a breath, something I notice he does a lot. “It’s not a babysitter.” He doesn’t try to hide his exasperation, but he lowers his voice so anyone who might be listening wouldn’t be able to hear. I strain to catch what he says. “Cal hired a behavior coach.”
I stare down at my menu even though I so badly want to see the mother’s facial reaction to that news. “For what?” she asks.
“To keep me out of trouble,” he mutters.
“That’s not a bad thing, Jack,” the mom says.
“Where is she now?” the woman next to Luke asks.
My heart starts racing as I realize I might actually meet Jack Dalton’s entire family right now, including the brother I’ve watched every Sunday during the football season for the last decade...and it’s not just that.
I’ve slept with Jack, and now I might be meeting his family. I realize these two things are completely unrelated. It’s not like he’s introducing me as his girlfriend. I’m not his girlfriend, nor do I want to be knowing the way he treats people.
And yet...he’s been inside me.
I can’t forget that night.
I can’t forget the passion and the heat between us.
I can’t forget what it felt like as he moved inside me and his eyes locked on mine.
Holy cheeseballs. Did it just get about a thousand degrees hotter in here?
I fan myself with my menu.
“She’s right here. Kia!” Jack calls, and I glance up. He flicks his neck as if to tell me it’s okay to come over to their table.
I close my eyes a beat as I wish away the redness in my cheeks, and then I turn around. “It’s Kate, actually,” I say with a little wave. “Nice to meet all of you.”
The woman next to Luke motions with her hand in a come on over kind of way, and I glance at Jack, who looks annoyed but also a little defeated.
I stand and cross the few feet over toward their table, and the woman pats the booth beside her as she pushes in closer to Luke. “Come join us,” she says. “I’m Ellie, Jack’s sister-in-law.”
Luke waves. “And I’m his brother, Luke.”
“I know who you are,” I say, and my cheeks redden even more. “I’m a huge fan.”
Jack snorts across the table, and his mother smacks him in the arm in a be nice sort of way.
“It’s nice to meet you,” Luke says. “You are exactly what my big brother needs.”
I chuckle. “He doesn’t seem to think so.”
I’m introduced to Kaylee, who is the Dalton sister, and the family asks me a little about my background and Jack quietly mentions how I’m his new assistant to everyone outside this little circle.
Aha! The circle again. This is part of it.
We order our dinners, and I can’t help but appreciate the dynamic around this table.
Luke and Ellie are adorable together and seem like a whole lot of fun as they try to put Jack in his place. Jack’s mother, Carol, is serious but seems to lighten up a little when her kids call her out. They chat for a bit about JJ, but nobody mentions their father.
I sit quietly and listen as Carol fills the boys in on everybody’s lives from the town in Michigan where they grew up, and I learn that Carol recently moved from Michigan out here to Vegas, and she’s absolutely thrilled that both her sons are in the same city for once. I discover that Kaylee will be moving in with Carol as soon as she graduates college in May. She already got a job at a middle school here in Vegas that’ll start in a couple months. She’d thought about staying in Michigan, but with her entire family here in Vegas, making the move made sense.
Carol treats everyone to dinner, including me. When I offer to pay for my own, I’m met with a stern look that basically tells me to sit down. And so I do.
I’m ready to head home once the meal has been paid for, and it’s only then I realize I don’t get to make that call. I won’t get to make that call for the next ten months. I’m at his mercy, and I suppose I should count myself lucky that his family was just so nice to me.
He catches my eye from across the table. “Anyone up for one more drink?” he asks, and I know he’s not asking me if I want a drink when he smirks in my direction. He’s waiting for me to tell him not to drink.
I don’t care if he has a drink or two, or even three or four. What might come after those drinks is what I need to watch out for.
“We’re good for one or two more,” Luke says, his arm around Ellie’s shoulders.
She nods and holds up her water. “I might get crazy and switch to Sprite, though.”
“I’m going to head out,” Carol says.
“She’s my ride,” Kaylee jokes. “I took an Uber here. And I have a meeting in the morning at the school.”
Kaylee and Carol scoot out of the booth after Jack kisses his mom’s cheek. Ellie and Luke bid their farewells, too. “Nice meeting you, Kate. Take good care of Jack,” Carol says.
I offer a warm smile. “I will.”
“Are we staying here?” Luke asks, and I stand and move across to the seat Carol and Kaylee just vacated. I’m beside Jack, but it felt weird staying on the same side with Luke and Ellie when Jack was over there by himself.
“We can start here,” Jack says.
Ellie laughs and shakes her head. “Yep, a babysitter is a fantastic idea for you.”
“How are you really handling all of it?” Luke asks. “The trade, Calvin, Michelle...”
Jack sighs and glances down at the table. “I’m handling it.”
“Are you?” Luke asks. He glances at me and then back at Jack. “I assume she signed an NDA?”
Jack nods.
“I figured you would’ve broken off the engagement by now,” Luke says as he lowers his voice. “Don’t give me this bullshit that you’re so in love with her because only a few months ago you said you had no idea how I put up with her, and then suddenly she has Grandma Rose’s ring on her finger?”
Jack lowers his voice, too, and he leans forward a little to make sure the conversation is just for the four of us...or three of them, but I’m here, too. “It’s the right thing to do. We share a child. And she gave me Grandma’s ring back.”
Ellie snorts with disgust.
“It has nothing to do with Dad’s will?” Luke asks.
Jack presses his lips together but doesn’t respond to that.
“What’s she getting out of it?” Luke presses.
“The man she loves,” Jack says.
Luke snorts. “Oh, please. She doesn’t love anybody but herself.”
“Ain’t that the truth,” Jack mutters.
“What about JJ?” I ask, mostly because my curiosity takes over.
All three heads at the table swing in my direction.
“Of course she loves her son,” Ellie says softly.
“But she will always come first,” Luke adds.
They both nod as they press their lips together like it’s a tragedy. Jack seems to be doing what he can to be a good parent to his son, but I’m not so sure the same can be said for Michelle. I can’t help but wonder whether she would benefit from a behavior coach, too.
Jack appears to be an adult who can fare fine without me, and the longer I sit at this table, the more I think Michelle’s father brought him to the Aces and subsequently hired me as a way to keep a thumb on his future son-in-law.
So I’m faced with my second moral dilemma of my first day on the job.
Do I do anything about it? Or do I just shut my mouth and collect my paycheck?
As a psychologist, the welfare of my patient is supposed to be my top priority. But there are two issues at play with that: for one, my client is technically Calvin, not Jack. And second, am I technically practicing psychology when, let’s face it, I’m nothing more than an adult babysitter?
As tainted as that money may be, when I think about my future without it...well, I don’t think there’s a real choice in the matter.
