He gave me his lopsided grin and leaned back in his chair. “Nah. We don’t start for another ten minutes.” He nodded toward the door. “What’s up with Jim?”
I chewed on the donut and slumped against the wall. After swallowing, I replied honestly, “I’m here.”
Milo raised an eyebrow. “He thinks the sun shines out of your ass. What the hell could you have done to piss him off?”
“It’s complicated.”
“Drugs?”
“No,” I laughed and shoved the rest of the donut in my mouth.
Milo smirked at me. “Sex?”
I made a face at him.
“Gambling?”
I finished eating. “No. Like I said, it’s complicated.”
His eyebrows drew together. “Now I’m curious. I want to know what the Great Charley Redford could seriously have done wrong.”
Now it was my turn to make a face. “The Great Charley Redford?”
He laughed. “Yeah. You have to know you’re kind of a legend around here. Supergirl.”
I tried not to flinch at the nickname. “I’m not perfect.”
His eyes raked over me. “I don’t know about that,” he murmured.
“Are you actually flirting with me right now?”
Eyes filled with laughter, he shrugged. “Can’t a man appreciate a pretty woman?”
“Not when she’s his boss’s daughter.”
“See, now you’re just turning me on with the whole ‘forbidden fruit’ thing.”
“I’m going to seriously kick you in the nuts.”
“There she is!” he laughed and stood up. “It’s not like you to walk around town looking like a kicked puppy. I don’t like it. It throws everything off.”
Grimly, I stared out of the office. “Yeah, well, my dad has a way of making me feel like a badly behaved four-year-old.”
“Hmm… it’s not got anything to do with that guy that was here a couple of weeks ago, does it?”
My eyes snapped to his face. “What guy?”
“That kid.” He gesticulated with a donut in hand. “The kid… you know… the kid you used to date. Jesus, I can’t remember his name.”
A wave of nausea crashed over me and I felt slightly faint as my heart rate knocked itself out of whack. “Jake? Jake Caplin?”
“Mmm-hmmm!” Milo nodded profusely as he chewed.
Jake had come to see my dad? And Dad hadn’t said anything.
I hurried out of the office and across the workshop to where Dad was glowering at a computer screen. “Dad, I know you’re working but we need to talk.”
He didn’t even look up at me. “Charley, I am working. I can’t talk.”