I decided to move us past this part as it seemed all had settled quite well with that and now it was time to move on to the next part.
“As soon as this is sorted, we’re having dinner with Lahn, or Dax, as he’s known here. You will, of course, need to invite Circe to this dinner,” I shared.
Noc dropped his eyes to me. “Did you hear me when I said this was your gig?”
“I heard you when you said you’d do anything for me,” I replied quietly.
Yes, that wasn’t fighting fair.
But love was on the line.
That was the one time anyone had to agree it was all right not to fight fair.
“I just…need to text Glover,” Josette murmured and slid off her stool, moving out of Noc’s kitchen.
I watched her go, and when she was in the living room, I again looked to Noc.
“I’m not asking you to break any laws, be my wheel man. I’m asking you to affirm I am who I am and I have the money I’ve offered his charity. And I’m asking you to ask Circe to dinner. That’s it.”
“And I’m gonna affirm you are who you are and I’m doin’ that part because I got no choice but also because you got half a billion dollars, you can give a million to a domestic violence shelter. Circe, I’ll give you her number. I’ll show at this dinner. But I’m not gonna be the one who leads her to the Savage.”
“Noc—”
He took a quick step to stand opposite me at the island.
“Do anything for you,” he whispered. “Anything you ask. Call Circe. Set her up for an ambush. Right now what I’m askin’ you to do is not ask me to do that. I am who I am to her. That means something to me. She trusts me. That means even more. So please, babe, I’m askin’ you. Don’t ask me to do that.”
I nodded immediately. “I’ll phone her and you don’t have to be at dinner.”
“I’ll be there if only to keep your ass out of whatever hot water you might get it in and to be there for Circe if she freaks way the fuck out you’re throwin’ her right to the wolves.”
Dax was frightening but I’d seen his tender streak.
He was no wolf.
I did not share my insight into Dax Lahn’s character.
I said, “I think that’s wise.”
Noc drew in breath through his nose.
I sat still and said nothing as he did that.
When he released it, he declared, “I cannot believe you waltzed into his office and told him off for missing a non-existent meeting with you.”
We had told him the story.
All save the part we were intending unauthorized access to Dax Lahn’s computer.
We did not (as far as I knew) break any laws.
Noc didn’t need to know we’d intended to.
“You told me to get creative.”
“Well, Frannie, you succeeded in that.”
I held his gaze and asked softly, “Are you angry at me, my love?”
“Fuck no,” he replied instantly. “Why would you think that?”
“You seem,” I flipped out a hand, “irked.”
His lips twitched. “Irked isn’t angry, gorgeous. Irked is irked.”
“So you’re irked not angry.”
“Yeah, the woman I love confronts the most vicious attorney in the city, she succeeds in her objectives and comes away unscathed, I’m not freaked because she’s good. I’m not angry because she’s good. I’m irked because she’s a lunatic.”
My spine snapped straight. “I’m not a lunatic.”
He shook his head and returned, “This is an argument I don’t think we should have when I’m hungry and need food…or maybe ever.”
I decided we shouldn’t have it, maybe ever, because I was also hungry.
But further, I was pleased Noc was not going to get more than irked about what Josette and I had done, making me feel like I’d gotten away with something that day, twice. Therefore I felt it best to quietly enjoy my success and move on.
“Thoughts on dinner?” Noc prompted.
“Pizza!” Josette cried from the living room.
Noc grinned in that direction and then he transferred that to me.
“Good for you?” he asked.
He didn’t have to ask.
It was pizza.
I still answered. “Most definitely.”
He jerked his chin up to me, expression no longer irked, just sweet.
No.
Just Noc.
“Get on your phone, Frannie. You can’t slice a tomato, but you can learn how to order a pizza.”
I instantly exited my stool to get my purse to find my phone, for it would be no hardship to learn how to order a pizza.
None at all.
Chapter Twenty
I’m In
Franka
“I’m thinking about beauty school,” Jo declared in Noc’s bathroom where I was leaned forward across his basin and putting on my lip gloss while she twitched and flipped strands of my hair that hung around my face, tucking pins more securely in the large chignon that rested at the side of my neck.
I shifted my eyes to hers in the mirror.
“Sorry?”
“Beauty school. I wish to go to one. After Noc teaches me how to drive, that is.”
I straightened, slid the wand into the gloss and turned fully to her.
She dropped her hands.
“Sorry?” I repeated.
“You know, for something to do,” she stated confusingly. “I’ve always enjoyed doing your hair, best part of what I do. You have lovely hair.” She grinned. “But it’s even more fun here with curling irons and straighteners and smoothing elixirs and—”