“There's my favorite brother,” she said warmly. “Got held up in a meeting?”
“Yeah,” I said, glad that she understood. “Things are nuts today since it's my first day back.”
“Well, I'm glad that you could make time in that busy schedule to have lunch with me,” she said, grinning self-deprecatingly.
“Aww, come on. You know that I'll always make time in my schedule for you.”
“I know,” she said. For all that she claimed to already know that, she looked happy to hear it, all the same. “How was Europe?”
“It was good,” I said. “Hey, I got you something.” I pulled out the small box that I had brought for her and watched as she opened it.
Her face lit up with glee when she saw the earrings. “Andy, these are gorgeous!” she said in surprise. “Did you really pick them out yourself?”
“I had a little help,” I admitted. “They're made in Rome, by the sister of the guy who's going to be heading up the Orinoco office there. She helped me pick out the best ones for you. These ones match your eyes.”
“They're beautiful,” Katherine said. “Thank you.”
“You're welcome,” I said, smiling.
But my brain was running a mile a minute. Thinking of Alfonso, our main contact in Italy, had me thinking of the two logistical issues that I needed to run by the team back at the office. I'd forgotten about them that morning since we were mainly focusing on the London office at the moment, but I knew that if I continued to forget to mention them, they were never going to get resolved. Then, we'd try to launch the office in Rome, and everything would be a mess.
I rubbed absently at my temples, feeling a headache coming on.
“Whoa,” Katherine said, reaching out to lightly touch my arm. “Is everything all right?”
“Yeah,” I said. “Work's just been busy. We never should have tried to expand to two different offices at once. We need the people, and we need the logistical aspects, warehouses in a couple different places to make shipping quicker, but everything is nuts at the moment.”
Katherine was quiet for a minute, her head cocked to the side as she considered that. “That's not all of it though,” she said slowly. “You haven't told me the whole story.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“I've seen you stressed out over work before,” she said. “The fact that you haven't run yourself into the ground yet is actually astounding to me. But this isn't just the normal work weariness.” She paused. “You know you can tell me anything.”
I gnawed at my lower lip. I knew that she was right. It was the stress of having Lexi and Emma at the house and of not knowing what to do about that situation. That was really getting to me. When it came to work matters, I knew what I was doing by now. Relationships, I didn't have a clue about, and children, I had even less of one.
I really wanted to tell Katherine about Lexi and Emma, but at the same time, I was the older brother. I shouldn't have been so irresponsible as to get my
self into this situation, and I didn't really want to tell my younger sister about it.
“It's just work things,” I insisted, shaking my head. “I think I need to find a new secretary. Rachael just isn't her normal perky self anymore, and she's the face of our main office at a crucial time, so I really need her to give it her all.”
“Maybe she's just as exhausted as you are,” Katherine suggested, raising an eyebrow at me. “But come on, Andrew, I know that's not the whole story, either.”
She wasn't going to let it go. And there was definitely a part of me that wanted to tell her about her niece.
I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “A couple weeks ago, one of the women who I slept with showed up on my doorstep,” I admitted.
Both of my sister's eyebrows shot up. “Really?” she asked. “Looking to rekindle that old flame?”
“No, she wasn't alone,” I continued, tracing a pattern in the grain of the wooden table. “She was there with her daughter, Emma.” I paused and cleared my throat. “Our daughter. She was there with our daughter.”
Katherine stared at me. She shook her head. “You have a daughter?” she asked. “Emma. How old is she?”
“She's three,” I said. “And Katie, you would love her. She's so adorable.” I smiled a little, just thinking about her, but then I tried to school my expression back to neutral. I knew I couldn't get too attached to her. Lexi hadn't wanted me to be in Emma's life to begin with, and I had to expect that as soon as she and Emma had their own place to live again, that would be the end of my interaction with the girl.
“To be honest, I'm not overly shocked to hear that you have a daughter,” Katherine said, stabbing at her salad. She chewed thoughtfully for a moment. “Actually, if I had to say anything, I'm surprised that something like this hasn't come up sooner.” She grinned at me, and I snorted. “So, what did Renée have to say about it? Are you still with her, or are you getting back together with your baby-momma?”
“I haven't told Renée about it yet,” I admitted. I rubbed my hands over my face. “There's more to it than that.”