“If you know you’re annoying me, then why do you keep doing it?”

He shrugs and opens the box with his tacos, but doesn’t move to eat one.

“Echo is—”

“See, your lip did it again. Does she annoy you?” He leans in a little, propping his elbows on the table and studying me. I don’t like it. He’s known me two seconds and already he’s reading me like he’s been doing it his whole life.

“Like I said, Echo is like her dad, but with some quirks. She can be—”

“Annoying?” he finishes. His eyebrows rise to let me know I did the lip thing again, but all I can think about is him watching my mouth now.

I take a breath and sit back, crossing my arms. Echo can be more than annoying. She has to control most things. “She can be unpredictable. If I tell her to do one thing and she thinks I’m wrong, she’ll just do it her way. It’s always her way.”

“Then why would you want her?”

“Because she’s normally right and five steps ahead. She’s in her head a lot of the times and isn’t always vocal. She just does it.”

I knew this from experience. We shared a few classes together in school, and I got stuck on some projects with her. She’d actually skipped a few grades. Her parents are even pretty close with mine, so she was around a lot. But she normally favored hanging out with Penelope over me. She’s damn smart. She’s probably smarter than her father. They’re always on the computer together, and I bet it would be easy for her to pick up where he left off.

“Are you in a relationship?” Royce asks, catching me off guard.

I was sure he was going to ask me more about Echo, but he doesn’t really seem to care about work. All his questions are about me. That reminds me that I need to look into him, too. I did a soft check on him when Henry mentioned him, but I trust Henry. He wouldn’t bring him on if he didn’t think it was for the best. I always trust Henry’s instincts because they’re always spot on. Plus, the Davenport name is known around town. Royce comes from old family money. Probably thinks he can do and say anything he wants. I’ve meet a lot of men like him. It’s why, when I first meet new men I’ll be working with, I’m firm so they don’t think they can get something over on me.

Leaning over, I reach out and shut Royce’s taco box. I pick it up and place his box on top of my box, then stack my churros on top of that.

“You just lost your tacos,” I tell him.

I pick up my sunglasses, slide them back onto my face, and then grab the food. He can track me down when he actually wants to talk about work.

He chuckles as I walk away. Then I’m almost sure I hear something about it not being the tacos that he’s after.