Page 17 of The Player Next Door
“Spending most of her time down with the grandbaby in St. Louis.”
Right, his daughter had just had a baby.“Boy or girl?” he asked, leaning back to let the server nervously place a refill of the bread on the table. Logan smiled at her, which led to anotherharrumphfrom across the table.
“Boy. But I think we need to cut to the chase here. We have a problem.”
At least he wasn’t wasting Logan’s time. He sat up straighter. “I have heard that you’re unhappy, and I asked you here to—”
“It’s that business,” Schneider interrupted, waving his hand at Logan and the empty space where the server had been. “You’re too much of a pretty boy. I want someone I can count on, someone reliable. A family man.”
Logan really hadn’t thought he would be this blunt, which meant things were dire indeed. He also hadn’t been flirting with the server in the slightest, but arguing that point would get him nowhere. He put on a smile and kept his voice soothing. “I’m very sorry to hear that, and while it’s true I’m not married, I can assure you, I am working with your best interests at heart.” When Schneider didn’t so much as crack a smile, he decided to try another direction. “But if you’d be happier with someone with a family, my colleague Vince is an excellent financial advisor and new father. I could put you in touch with him, because above all else we want you happy at Loyalty.” Losing Schneider would be terrible for his portfolio, but maybe if he could keep Schneider at Loyalty Logan wouldn’t lose his job immediately.
“I already told Roth I’m not interested in switching. You’re the third advisor I’ve had there, and what I want is stability. Stability, and values. Like Marc Wimberley over at Confidential Wealth, for example. You know him? Married, three kids, pretty wife.”
Fucking Wimberley.“Values,” Logan echoed. He had an idea of where Schneider was going, but quite frankly, he was going to make the man say it himself.
“Values.Familyvalues.”
Logan made himself nod, as if he was taking this seriously. He was, in the sense that his job was on the line if he couldn’t convince Schneider he was steady enough. Sometimes, though, with prospective hookups and with clients, the best way to handle things was to give them another option. “What’s stopping you? If you’re unhappy and he’s the kind of advisor you want, I know he’d happily take your business.”Please don’t fall for it, please don’t fall for it, please don’t fall for it, Logan mentally chanted as he waited.
“I was with Loyalty when it started. I value that.”
Well, that was a reason, at least. “As I said, I understand that my marital status is giving you pause, but—”
Schneider waved his hand and tucked into the steak in front of him. “I don’t care so much about the vows; I just want to know you’re settled. Not playing around. Committed.”
Logan desperately wanted to ask him what the hell his dating life had to do with his ability to invest money, but he had to get out of this somehow. “As it happens, I am seeing someone.” Sam would kill him for this, but desperate times called for desperate measures, or whatever. They had been friends long enough that if Schneider called his bluff and demanded a dinner, they could fake it.
Getting through dinner without Sam peeling Schneider’s face off with her bare hands was not going to be easy, but Logan had to get through this meal first.
Schneider looked at him suspiciously. “You are?”
“I am,” he said with a confidence he did not feel. If Schneider even suspected he was winging it, he was done for.
“Then I’d like to meet her,” Schneider replied.
“She’s a busy woman,” Logan evaded.
“If she wants you to keep your job, she’ll find time,” Schneider growled. He eyed Logan again. “I’ve heard stories about you.”
“Stories?” Logan asked mildly.
“About your . . . dating habits.”
Fucking. Wimberley.Out loud, Logan merely said, “I’m not sure where you got that information, but I assure you, I’ve turned over a new leaf.”
“Then prove it. Dinner with me and Theresa and this woman of yours.”
“Clare,” Logan corrected automatically, and his stomach jolted.What the fuck did I just say?He had meant to say Sam, but his brain, which had been insisting on thinking about how cute Clare had been that morning before Peggy arrived and it all went to hell, had gone and fucked it all up. Now he was going to have to either get Sam to pretend her name was Clare—and she would like that even less than spending time with a guy like Schneider, so that plan was looking less and less viable by the second—or he would have to do what his idiot friends suggested, and make this thing with Clare real. He watched Schneider chew the last bite of steak, considering Brooks’ words from the basketball game. While he didn’t really like the way Brooks had talked about Clare, it wasn’t the worst idea.
It wasn’t the best, either, but Logan was desperate. And now that he’d gone and told Schneider that his girlfriend’s name was Clare, his options for fixing this had narrowed to basically one. He had to get Clare to date him.
It couldn’t be that hard. She was already into him, and he didn’t mind spending time with her. Who knows, maybe she would even get bored with him the way most women did eventually. She might even end up dumping him first; he just needed to make sure it was after she agreed to have dinner with Schneider.
Oh, he was so, so fucked.
Schneider just grunted. “The wife wants me down in St. Louis with the grandson for a few weeks, but I’ll be back next month. Call my secretary and set it up.” He threw his napkin down on the plate and leaned back, clearly thinking he had set a trap for Logan.
Logan just hoped he could get out of it.