Her sudden turn had him wary. She was evading his question, he knew it, with one of her own. “I’m good,” he stated, still wondering why she was trying to deflect the attention from her.
“I had brunch with your sisters and they told me an interesting tidbit.” Her eyes narrowed on him now. Great! He groaned inwardly. When she hadn’t mentioned anything this morning, he was confident his sisters had served him well as wingmen last night, but now he wasn’t so sure. He suddenly had a feeling he knew in which direction this conversation was headed.
He twisted his face into a knot assuming his sisters had mentioned the previous evening’s activities. Next time he spoke to them, he would have to instruct them on proper wingman etiquette. Rule one, don’t spill the details to your mother. Or any woman for that matter.
Now that Jonathan was married, he wouldn’t have him to back him up on an evening out. After last night’s success, he’d thought his sisters had been very effective. He’d definitely reconsider using them again. But they had to understand the rules.
“Just a girl, Mom.” He let out an exaggerated sigh. His sisters had most certainly ratted him out.
“From the kitchens?”
Yep, rats! “Yes,” came his terse reply.
Tawny wrinkled her nose. Not because of the woman’s career, but because he had probably slept with another employee. As much as she tried to dissuade that, her son was a man. One who rarely left The Mystic. Where else was he going to pick up girls? He had to live a little. She understood that. A man’s needs. And as much as she hated to admit it, all her children were grown now.
He continued when he saw her expression, “I am always up front with them. And careful.”
She nodded, piercing him with a heavy glare, but he saw beneath the surface a mild curiosity. “So, not seeing her again?”
He didn’t answer right away and that rewarded him with an eyebrow lift and a smile. It was the first time he had seen her smile today, so he threw her a bone.
“I might,” he lied. “She’s interesting.” He didn’t want to give her hope that he had met someone he was serious about. And he didn’t want to give details either. His personal life was off limits. But, after seeing Jewel that afternoon, he knew he would definitely be seeing her again. He was planning on it. He planned on tracking her down soon. But no sense having his mother’s feathers get ruffled by him continuing to see an employee, or worse, hoping for more for him.
“Dawn and Eve said it looked like you were really into her.” She had a habit of making her statement sound like a question.
“Really, Mom. You want details.” His voice was full of humor. Full of the threat of giving her those details.
Tawny laughed and returned the sarcasm. “No. No. Just be careful.” She got on her tiptoes to press a chaste kiss to his cheek. Her daughters had made it sound like there was more to the story. It seemed they had been exaggerating, she thought a tad gloomily. Joseph’s heart would be harder to crack than Jonathan’s. She knew he’d been burned before. Tara. She wrinkled her nose remembering how she had hurt her son. It would have to be someone really special to get Joseph to trust again. She got back down onto her heels and patted her son’s cheek affectionately. Very special. Was this Jewel possibly it? She’d have to wait and see.
“I always am.” He promised his mother and watched as she turned, headed toward her office. He too had work to do. So like Tawny, he walked back to his office to make a few more calls. He had some digging to do this afternoon, and his number one priority before he left work was to learn all he could about Jewel Diamante.
*
Knowing Jewel was not working because he pulled up her schedule, resume, and other personal information, Joseph decided to pay Miss Diamante a visit. He saw from her employee records she lived in a trailer just off of the reservation. He didn’t know too much about her. Yet. But he wanted to know more. A Google search showed on old Facebook account. But there wasn’t much activity on it. It hadn’t been used in quite some time from what he could gather.
Glancing at photos she had uploaded or was tagged in, he saw she’d gone to school in Boston. But that was about it. From her account info, he learned she was single and five years younger than he was. She’d graduated from the culinary institute in Boston. There was one photo of her in her graduation cap with two older people. He vaguely recognized them from the reserve. They were probably her parents.
Her employee records showed that she was working towards an online business degree, but had not worked for nearly eighteen months prior to getting hired here at the casino. That was interesting. Why would she have not worked in so long, putting her degree in the culinary arts to use? He very much wanted to learn more. Shutting down his computer for the evening, he headed out. It was time to learn more. First hand.
He stopped at his home on the river for a quick shower and then made himself a light dinner of pasta and shrimp.
Glancing at the clock, he saw it was just a bit after eight. Now was as good a time as any. Not too late for a surprise visit. Not too late at all.