Page 113 of The Renter

“I’ll be fine.”

“No,” I say firmly. “You will not be fine.”

“Okay. Okay,” Kate rattles.

“Can I have your new number? I want you to text me when you get home safe.”

She opens her phone and starts texting.Maybe she still has my number?It hasn’t changed.

Unknown Number

You used to be fun.

I shake my head at her, unamused. “I’ll go get Autumn. Stay here.”

Walking back to the private dining room, I hear Greg’s voice. “I’m sure we would all lose in a dick measuring contest with him, but his company is the real deal. He’s never taken on VC money. It’s a larger amount than we anticipated, but I like the deal.”

Passing him, Greg gives me a nod. I’m assuming he’s talking to some potential investor for the Real-ity deal, and I am happy it’s him and not Adam. Walking back into the dining room, I wave Autumn over, not interrupting Adam and Geoff’s conversation. She likes my suggestion of taking Kate home.

“You seem to know my daughter,” Geoff says after I’ve taken my seat next to Adam.

“We spent a lot of time together one summer and kind of fell out of touch.”

“You stopped partying, and she didn’t.” He laughs, doing a terrible job of hiding his frustration.

“Something like that.”

Adam squeezes my knee. “Thank you,” he whispers before placing a kiss on my temple. “I will be showing my appreciation later.”

I hold back a smirk and take a sip of my wine.

Geoff refocuses his attention to Adam. “Working on anything exciting?”

“We’re taking a majority stake in a real estate investing platform,” he says, and Greg walks in.

“Going to be our largest investment in the company’s history,” Greg booms. “Very splashy stuff.”

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“Adam, I need to steal you for a moment,” Greg says after he enters the private dining room. The look on Dani’s face almost makes me laugh. It’s a “don’t be too long” kind of look. She really is a cute little brat.

“Five minutes max, Mrs. Harris,” Greg replies, not missing a beat. I nearly laugh at how quickly he picked up on her expression.

We step out of the room and walk down the hall.

“Where’s Declan?” Greg asks.

“I told him to sit this one out.”

“He’s been running point with Geoff all summer.”

“I know.”

“So why isn’t he here?”

I give him a look that says he should understand why.

“Because of fucking Dani!” He throws his arms up in frustration.