His Forbidden Love (Manhattan Billionaires #2) - Ava Ryan Page 0,54

from thinking of them as contributing members of society.

“Why have you been avoiding us, Mike?” Liam continues. “You don’t call. You don’t write. What should we make of that?”

“That I’ve had my quotient of morons for the month?” I say. I hate to go in hard like that right out of the gate, but I’m eager to divert the conversation away from my disappearing act ever since Ally and I got together.

“Harsh,” Liam says good-naturedly as he grabs a chair from the nearest table and slides it over. “What’s with the face when we walked up? Lose another patient?”

“All my patients are still alive, Liam,” I say as the two of them sit down and offload their trays.

“That’ll change,” Liam says. “Glad you’re still alive. Wish you’d learn to juggle your relationship and your friends—like I have—but you can’t have everything. It’s probably hoping too much to think that you could walk and chew gum at the same time. That’s why you can’t meet us for drinks or have us over to watch a game or anything. But hey, as long as you’re happy.”

“That I am,” I say cheerily.

He picks up his fork, stirs his salad and takes a closer look at my lunch. Without a word, he drops his fork again, snatches the sandwich half out of my hand and takes a healthy bite. “Ham and Swiss. Sweet.”

“Help yourself,” I say sourly.

“Thanks,” he says, snatching the remaining half from my plate.

Shaking my head, I slide his salad plate over and get busy with it. That’s what happiness will do for you. I can’t even get upset. Although I do draw the line at French dressing. “Get blue cheese next time,” I tell him.

“Aye, cap.”

Jake, meanwhile, grabs his spoon and gives his bowl of clam chowder a morose stir. I’m about to ask what the hell his problem is when Liam flashes his phone in my face.

“Check it out. My new baby.”

It’s a photo of him and my sister leaning against the latest-model Porsche SUV. I’m impressed despite myself and can’t stop my brows from shooting up. One of the benefits of the three of us making our fortunes on the sale of our medical equipment is that we get to enjoy a few perks and toys. We also try to outdo each other in the car and apartment arenas. I’d hoped that my high-end Tesla would keep me in the winner’s column for a bit longer, but obviously now I’ll have to up my game.

“Not bad,” I say.

“Mia had hers first. I fell in love with it. It’s a great car. Three hundred and twenty-five horses. Your little Tesla gets, what? Thirty?”

“Ha. Clever.” I’m reaching for my water bottle when inspiration strikes. All this talk about cars reminds me that Ally is still tooling around in her old Camry. The car’s in good shape and Camrys last forever, but I’d love to see her in something sturdier for driving around the city. Especially with winter coming. In three months.

But still. You can never be too safe. Not when you’ve got such precious cargo on board.

Would a car be too much for her birthday? Or maybe when she finishes her residency?

And hang on, when is her birthday? That’s the sort of thing I should know by now. I’d better ask HR when I go back after lunch. Anyway, definitely something to bookmark for later rumination.

“I’m thinking about a Range Rover,” I tell him.

“Good choice,” Liam says.

I turn my attention to Jake, whose expression looks as though it’s been flattened by a steamroller. “What’s your major malfunction, Jake?”

Hearing his name, he blinks and looks up from his soup with what appears to be great difficulty. I get the feeling that he’d forgotten we were there and hoped we’d have the decency to leave him the fuck alone.

“There’s no malfunction,” he says, his tone surly. “Nothing to see here. Let’s move on.”

This, obviously, is tossing bloody chum into shark-infested waters. I circle back around for a closer look.

Jake is hollow-eyed and thin-cheeked, the kind of haunted look that only ever has one source.

“Who is she?” I ask.

“The nanny,” Liam says with unrestrained glee.

“The nanny,” I say, leaning in because shit just got interesting. “I didn’t even know there was a nanny.”

“That’s why you need to stay in touch,” Liam says, polishing off the first half of my sandwich and starting in on the second. “You miss out on important news. Like when one of your best friends runs his personal life into