“I couldn’t bring myself to fill two gigantic closets, so this one is vacant for your use, my lady.”

Her eyes were huge as she walked in and inspected the rows of shelves, massive custom cabinets, luxurious vanity, and stellar lighting. I liked impressing her a little too much, wanted to spoil her rotten.

“There’s a fucking chandelier in your spare closet.”

“To be fair, I have lots of spare closets. There’s only a chandelier in this one.”

“Give me a second, and I’ll go back to playing it cool, but this closet is enough to make Carrie Bradshaw come in her pants.”

“Why don’t I give you a few minutes to freshen up and relax, while I go make sure we’re all set for dinner?”

“You’re leaving me unsupervised in your giant house?”

“Snoop to your heart’s content. We boy scouts have nothing to hide.”

“Ha. That’s what they all say. If I stumble upon a collection of shrunken heads or fingers in jars or something, I’m going to be really pissed.”

I was still smiling when I got down to the kitchen, where Maia, my chef, was hard at work finishing dinner.

When I’d first had to bulk up for a role, we’d hired her to help me with the nutritional component of packing on thirty pounds of muscle, and I’d kept working with her after that because her food was so good and she was easy to be around. Sometimes, she handled all my food and other times she just helped me with an overall nutrition plan depending on what else was going on with my schedule and where I was.

“Smells good, Maia!”

She pulled a dish from the oven. “Thanks! I know your mom’s vegetarian now, so I’m trying a whole vegetarian spread this time.”

“Zane will be thrilled.” My brother needed some part of a dead animal on the plate or it didn’t count as a meal.

I didn’t catch what she muttered as she kicked the oven door closed, but it sure sounded like, “Fuck Zane.”

To me, she said, “I should be finished up here in about an hour and my assistant will have the table ready out on the deck. You sure you don’t want anyone to stick around to help serve or clean up?”

“No, thanks. It’s just family. My mom gets stressed if there’s someone waiting on us.” Realistically, so did I, but she didn’t need to know that. “Do you want to stay and eat with us?”

“Thanks for the offer, but I’ll head out once I’ve finished with everything. Have some plans to put together for a new client. Did I hear correctly that you’ve brought a girl home?” She hip-checked me when I stole a piece of broccoli off a plate.

I winked at her. “I did indeed. I think you’ll like her. Takes no shit.”

“Glad to hear it.”

I popped my head outside where two people were finishing setting a table beneath a shade structure on the deck. From there we’d be able to see the waves of the Pacific as we ate, and I felt lucky every single time I stopped to think about that being a reality of my life.