James raised his eyebrows. “Problem?”
“You failed to mention that the Daily Tribune is a nut barn,” Grady said. “That little tidbit might have helped.”
Finn chuckled. “Nut barn?”
“The people there are crazy,” Grady said. “Oh, by the way, Marge was crushed when I told her you wouldn’t be coming this week because you were tending to your sick girlfriend.”
James smirked. “What did she say?”
“She wanted to know if it was serious.”
“What did you say?”
“I lied,” Grady replied, shooting James a double thumbs-up. “In her mind, she’s still got a shot.”
“Who is Marge?” Finn asked.
“She’s the receptionist at the newspaper,” Grady said. “She’s in love with James and his dreamy eyes.”
“I’m sure she would settle for you,” James shot back. “Did she really call my eyes dreamy?”
Grady ignored the question.
“What’s she look like?” Finn asked.
“She’s not your type.”
“How do you know what my type is?”
“Let’s just says she smiles all the time and leave it at that,” Grady said. “Three of the advertising women did insist on walking me back out to the lobby, though.”
“Hey, some of them are attractive,” James said. “You could’ve probably gotten lucky with one – or more – of them, if you really tried.”
“They’re not my type.”
“Why not?”
“Because they’re too … agreeable,” Grady replied.
James snorted. “I forgot. You only like them when they say no before they say yes. You like the challenge.”
Grady’s mind drifted to Sophie. “Not all of them.” And not that big of a challenge.
“Uh-oh, I know that look,” Finn teased. “What’s her name?”
“What’s whose name?” Grady asked, feigning innocence.
“Whatever woman did catch your fancy,” Finn pressed. “If it wasn’t the women in advertising – and Marge is too happy – there has to be someone else. You’ve got that … look.”
“What look?”
“That someone-told-me-no-and-I-need-them-right-now look,” Finn said, merriment flitting across his face.
“I don’t have a look.”
James steepled his fingers, regarding Grady with an unreadable expression. “I have to agree with Finn on this one. You’ve got a look.”
“I didn’t meet anyone I was interested in,” Grady argued.
“Okay.”
The room lapsed into silence for a moment.
“There was a woman who had some sort of incident in the parking lot as I was leaving, though,” Grady said, avoiding meeting either of his brothers’ interested gazes.
James and Finn exchanged amused glances.
“She’s a reporter there,” Grady continued. “Sophie something-or-other. Some guy was giving her a hard time when she was trying to leave.”
“Do you know what it was about?” Finn asked.
“She said it was nothing and that she had no idea who he was,” Grady said.
“You don’t believe her?” James asked.
“I don’t think she’s lying, if that’s what you mean,” Grady replied. “I just think the guy seemed really intense, like he was upset about something really specific. He was kind of a jerk.”
“And we have no idea what she’s working on?” Finn asked.
James opened his laptop. “We can find out pretty easily. What’s her last name?”
“I didn’t catch it.”
James typed for a few minutes, his attention focused on the laptop screen. “Her name is Sophie Lane.”
“Like Lois Lane?” Finn said, his eyes sparkling. “You could be Superman in bed. That’s got to be fun.”
“She’s got the personality of Lex Luthor,” Grady grumbled.
Finn pursed his lips but refrained from saying anything, instead focusing his attention back on James. “Anything?”
“She’s got quite an impressive list of stories here,” James said. “How old is she?”
“She’s young,” Grady said. “Like mid-twenties. What kind of stories did you find?”
“There’s a lot of county corruption scandals here,” James said, continuing to scan the screen. “She’s the one who took down Donald Jaye out in Romeo last year.”
“That’s the guy who was dating a sixteen-year-old, right?” Finn asked.
“That’s the scumbag,” James said, nodding. “It looks like, at least for the last three months or so, she’s been torturing the sheriff’s department with a series of stories about missing funds and prisoner mistreatment.”