Been There Done That (Leffersbee #1) - Hope Ellis Page 0,66

focus?

But I also loved my sweet, protective brother.

“It’s just the way you go about things. As if there’s no chain of command, that you’re not accountable to anyone. Walker is not some nameless barrier to maneuver and manipulate. He’s our brother, Tavia. Our brother, and he’ll be that even if Leffersbee Financial ceased to exist. You’d do well to remember that.”

I recognized the moment when she decided to stop, change course. She had the instincts of a cross-examining lawyer, and oh, that’s right, she also had an agenda for this lunch.

“I shouldn’t have led with my issues with Walker. I should have started by asking how you’re feeling.”

So much for connecting, for having a real moment. I suddenly wondered if the previous moment, the demonstration of her emotion had been real. Maybe I was just blind and easily manipulated. My shield rose back in place.

“Cut the bullshit. What do you want?”

She was silent for a beat, then, “Two things. Walker and I are going to be out of town for a conference at the same time the American Cancer Society is doing their gala in Knoxville. We need you to—”

“No. You know how much I hate those things.”

“Oh, come on. This isn’t torture. You get gussied up in a ball gown, press a little flesh, and present a big check.”

Press a little flesh. It would be as revolting and as nerve wrecking as it sounded.

“Get Dad to do it. He loves giving those long-ass speeches for a captive audience.”

“He’s coming with us. You’re the researcher. You work with cancer patients, Zora. Hell, maybe it won’t hurt to have people remember what you do for the community—”

“Tavia—”

“Zora. There’s no one else. For once, can you pretend to care about our family’s business?”

That was patently unfair, and she knew it. “You’re about to get a repeat of Walker’s performance, when he said whatever he said to get you out of his office. I’m at my limit. I can’t take that on right now.”

Her shoulders stiffened. “I’m not asking for much, Zora. It’s one night, for a couple of hours. Would it be that hard?”

Yes, I wanted to shout in her face. Yes. Because I’m so tired of going through the motions. I can’t take any-fucking-more. What would it take to get a reprieve? Streaking across campus, followed by a week-long vacation at the psychiatric hospital in Knoxville?

That’d be worth shaving my bikini area.

“Also, I wanted to know how you felt about Nick being back,” she added smoothly, and I realized that was likely her real objective for inviting me, what she’d been circling around from the start. “I heard he was back in town.”

I studied her and her now empty, inscrutable expression. Was she asking as my sister? Or as a VP at the bank?

“Yes,” I said, trying to work the starch out of my voice. “He’s back. I don’t feel any away about it.” I’d never told her all that happened after Nick left; I’d only trusted Leigh with that truth. Tavia would scent blood in the water and pursue the issue mercilessly if I told her about my current entanglement with Nick.

She squinted at me. “Really? I would have thought you’d feel . . . I don’t know, something more. You were devastated after mom found that letter from him. I mean, you know I loved Nick but I wouldn’t have wanted to get so serious about a guy right before college.”

I wondered if Tavia and I would ever grow into a better relationship, once we weren’t still so affected by the need to prove whatever the hell we felt a need to prove to ourselves and each other.

“Why are you asking? What do you want?”

She leaned in, eyes bright as she went in for the kill. “Do you care if I contact him, meet up with him? I’m trying to break into some of the same corporations he already has relationships with—”

Why hadn’t my mother’s uterus stopped at one fertilized egg?

Nick had just gotten into town, I was trying to find a way to manage my feelings while keeping a professional distance from him, and I didn’t want to get into why it didn’t feel okay to ask him for personal favors for my family.

“And if I say yes? Yes, I mind. Does that mean anything?”

Her mouth twisted. “Then I’d ask you to think big picture and not be selfish. This family, this business, our name, it belongs to you, too. You don’t care about the work we do