was worth it just to hear the shakiness in his usually confident assistant’s voice. Then he remembered something else he needed to discuss. “We need to talk about the party next week.”
“It’s all in hand, and the next event too. Stop worrying. And thanks for letting me deal with Holden. It gave me great pleasure to tell him to fuck off.”
“He won’t stop trying. He’s convinced he could be my Daddy.”
“Like he could. You’d eat him alive,” Jamie scoffed.
Louis grinned. There were few secrets between him and Jamie, and one of the reasons Jamie had been his assistant for so long was that he didn’t think any less of Louis because he was a boy. Louis had a feeling Jamie was a boy himself, but he’d never spoken to Louis about it, and Louis respected his privacy.
Craig put his head around the door. “Lunch.”
Louis nodded and held up one finger. Craig frowned, but he disappeared.
“I’ve got to go, Jamie.”
“Okay. I’ll deal with Mr. Holden in the future.”
“With pleasure.” Louis would be happy never to talk to the scheming asshole again.
He said goodbye, disconnected the call, and made his way into the kitchen.
“Good timing,” Craig said as he poured soup into two bowls.
“You’ll be sick of soup,” Louis said. He was sick of soup, but it was one of the few things which didn’t hurt his mouth.
“This is homemade chicken noodle soup.”
Louis frowned. “You had time to make homemade soup?”
“No. Jace’s fiancée made it for you when she heard what happened.”
“That’s really kind of her, but why?”
Louis had met Jace when he was first with Craig, but not his fiancée. Why would she be making him soup?
“She goes to your club. She says, and I quote, “It’s one of the few places I can go and not get groped, thanks to Louis. Hence the soup.”
Louis nodded as he sat down. He had a zero-tolerance policy on any kind of harassment. “I’ll call her before we go, if that’s okay with Jace, to thank her.”
Craig grinned and waggled his phone. “I thought you’d say that, and I have her number.”
The soup was delicious. Louis managed about half of it before he had to concede defeat. At Craig’s frown, he said, “You keep feeding me. It’s more than I’ve eaten all week.”
“I like cooking for you,” Craig said.
“I know you do. It’s a good thing you like cooking because I’m still useless at it.” Louis chuckled, then winced and held his jaw. “I’ve got to remember that hurts.”
“You were getting better when we were together.”
Louis shrugged. “After you left, I went back to my old ways. I eat at the club most days.”
Craig grinned at him. “Is Vera still there?”
“She is. And you’d better make sure you see her again before you go, or she’ll kill me.”
Vera was the head chef at the club. A dynamo with a very short fuse, she and Craig had adored each other, and Vera had imparted some of her culinary secrets to Craig. Not Louis, just Craig, as she said they’d be wasted on Louis. She was right, but it stung a little.
“I can’t wait to see her.”
Louis hid a grin. His Daddy sounded really excited about the prospect of meeting his chef again. Then the amusement drained away. Not his Daddy, not now. Probably not ever.
“What’s wrong?” Craig asked.
“Nothing.” Louis forced a smile. “I was just thinking about work.”
Craig looked unconvinced but he didn’t pursue it, to Louis’s relief. “We should go. You know Graham will be snippy if we’re late.”
Louis looked down at the leftover soup and pushed the noodles around with his spoon. “I don’t know that I want to go, Craig. I moved away from that life when you left. I don’t want to get sucked back in again.”
Craig sighed and reached out for Louis’s free hand to give it a squeeze. “Graham needs to know you’re all right. Just humor him. Please? You only have to see him once.” He sat back in his chair. “Since he discovered what Cade’s ex-Daddy was doing to him and other boys, he’s been very unsettled.”
“That wasn’t his fault, though,” Louis said. He only knew a little about the abuse Cade endured at the hands of Eric Strada, as he and Cade were business acquaintances, not friends. He shuddered a little, knowing he’d dodged a bullet.
“It happened on his watch,” Craig said. “Graham wants to ensure it can never happen again.”
“But I didn’t get assaulted by one of the Daddies.”
“You’re still one of his boys, whatever