“Hannah can always help you though,” Cole said. “She’s happy to tutor after school.”
“Thanks, but Grace helps me with my English homework.” Maia grinned up at me, and now I had everyone’s attention.
“Oh? What do you do, Grace?” Cam said.
“I’m a freelance book editor. Mostly self-published fiction but some academic papers as well.”
“Really?” Jo leaned forward, looking extremely interested. “Our friend is a writer, and she’s thinking about self-publishing this series her publisher doesn’t want. She’s been looking for an editor.”
Yay for me! Dinner had suddenly turned into a potential client. “Oh, well, I’ll give you my number to give to her, and my Web site. What’s her name?”
“Jocelyn. She writes under ‘J. B. Carmichael.’”
My jaw dropped.
Jo snorted.
Her snort was quickly followed by muffled laughter around the table.
Clearly my face was a picture.
Considering J. B. Carmichael was a number-one Sunday Times bestseller, however, I think I was entitled to my surprise.
“You’re friends with J. B. Carmichael?” I said.
“This feels like déjà vu.” Cole grinned cheekily at Shannon, and she threw her napkin at him for some bizarre reason.
Jo ignored them. “Yes.” She smiled. “Can I still give her your number?”
“Wait.” I glanced down the table at Logan. “Is J. B. Carmichael our landlord, Braden – your boss’s – wife?”
“Yeah.”
“And you just didn’t think it was important to mention that his wife was a bestselling author?”
Logan’s eyes glimmered with amusement. “Not really.”
“Have you not seen her flat?” Maia jumped in for me. “It’s, like, overflowing with books. Including J. B. Carmichael’s books. You could have told her.”
Cole found this even more hilarious.
“Can we maybe stop calling her ‘J. B. Carmichael’?” Cam asked the whole table. “It’s weird.”
“Agreed.” Jo nodded and turned back to me. “Can I give Joss your number?”
Joss, I mouthed. “Joss.” I managed to utter the word. “Yes. Yes, you can definitely do that.”
Holy crap. There was a possibility J. B. Carmichael could be my client. That would look amazing on my Web site!
“We’ve lost her,” Logan said.
I rolled my eyes at him. “You have not. I’m here.” I grinned huge. “I’m just happier than I was ten minutes ago.”
He burst out laughing but was stopped from responding by the pretty waitress hovering over him. She grinned down at him, cocking her hip toward him. Logan’s own grin deepened.
I felt an unpleasant sensation in my stomach.
“Can I get you guys drinks?” the waitress asked the table while looking into Logan’s eyes. She was just his type. Petite, blond, with exaggerated curves.
“Water for the table,” Logan said.
“Anything else?”
“Guys?” he asked us without taking his eyes off her.
I wanted to punch him.
Hard.
“I like your tattoo,” the waitress said. “Does it mean something?”
“It definitely means something.” He grinned suggestively at her.
Shannon shot him an annoyed look before turning to us. “A bottle of wine?”
We nodded.
“Red?” Jo asked.
We all nodded again.
“A bottle of the house red,” Logan said. “Maia.” He finally wrenched his eyes away from the waitress to look at Maia. He frowned when he found her glaring daggers at him. “What do you want to drink, sweetheart?”
Instead of answering, she buried her nose in her menu.
He looked at me for answers and I glanced down at Maia, unable to look him in the eye. I had no right to feel jealous or hurt by his flirting with another woman. Maia… she had a right to be confused by how it made her feel. I imagined right now she wanted Logan all to herself. “Diet Coke, sweetheart?” I asked her softly.
She nodded.
“Diet Coke,” I said, snapping open my own menu.
I heard him mutter the drink to the waitress, and as soon as she left, I felt his burning stare. I ignored it and looked up at Jo and Cam. “So Logan didn’t tell me what you two do for a living.”
“I work with my uncle Mick. I’m a painter and decorator,” Jo said.
This surprised me, but I tried to hide it. I imagine looking the way she looked, she was used to people making all sorts of snap judgments about her. “That must be fun working with family.”
She nodded. “It can be, yeah.” She nudged Cam with her shoulder. “Cam’s a graphic designer.”
“Oh? Do you work for yourself or…?”
“Both. I work for a marketing company full-time, but I also codesign with multimedia artists.”
I knew Cole was famous in the tattoo industry because he was the top artist at INKarnate, a tattoo studio in Edinburgh of national acclaim. I wondered if he was inspired by Cam and asked. From there the two of them kept me entertained, with Jo and Shannon interjecting every now and then, but I was very aware of a silently pissed-off Maia at my side and her confused father on her other side.
I was also aware it was time I started taking back my own life, because there was no if anymore regarding whether I was going to end up getting hurt. Only when.