Champagne Brunch: The Stiletto Sisters Series

by Ainsley St Claire

  He just smiles his four-tooth grin. Alana swoops down, plucks the pen from his hand, and spots the lid on the floor in the living room. She scans for damage a moment, but doesn’t see any.

  “When are we going to meet this badass girlfriend of yours?”

  I watch Alana pick up as she goes around the room, and it’s like the boys follow and put the mess right back behind her.

  “Well… She’s coming to pick me up. I can ask her to come in, but I don’t know if she’ll be up for that or not. Right now, I have to get in the shower.”

  Alana nods. ”I’d like to meet the woman who finally turned your head.”

  I zip upstairs, and after a quick shower, I change into jeans, chukka boots, and a dark blue Henley. Then I text Mia.

  Me: I’m ready whenever you are. My sister is hoping you might come in for a minute to meet her and the kids. But if you’re not up for it, no pressure. Really.

  Mia: Sure. We’re leaving now.

  I walk over to my liquor stash and find a can of Stillhouse Black Bourbon. The old-style oil can is probably a marketing ploy, but it’s a great bourbon and a nice host gift. Looking around my living room, I tell myself again that wherever my sister lands, the furniture in my place is going with her.

  The bell rings, and Nina lets Mia and Peter in. Mia looks stunning in a floral sundress and light blue sweater. Alana appears with Tavish on her hip and Laird hiding behind her.

  I kiss Mia on the cheek. “You look beautiful.” I turn to my sister. “This is my younger sister, Alana. This cute little guy is Tavish, and behind her is Laird.” The thunder of feet pounds down the stairs. “Ah, I hear Clay and Duke coming to meet you too.” They magically appear to stand in front of Mia.

  “Nice to meet you,” she says.

  “Are you our Uncle Axel’s girlfriend?” Clay asks as he scrutinizes her.

  “I suppose I’m a girl and I’m his friend, so I could be called a girlfriend,” she says.

  “Awesome.” And he runs away.

  “Yes, she’s my girlfriend,” I yell after Clay. At seven he doesn’t really know what a girlfriend is, but my sister does, and I want her and anyone else who understands to know I’ve staked my claim.

  Alana watches him leave with all his brothers in tow. “I’m sorry. My boys are a little excited today. They have a play date, and they’re tired of just playing with one another.”

  “No problem. I love the boys’ names. Are they named for professional surfers?”

  Alana’s face brightens. “Yes, except for Tavish. He’s named for a surfboard designer.” Alana bends down and picks up toys. “I was hoping Tavish would be a Carissa, but he’s perfect, and I’m done.”

  She stands, wiping the hair from her eyes and smiles.

  “It looks like they’re having fun,” Mia says.

  “We are, thanks to my brother. It’s our fault he wasn’t able to join you in Hawaii. I just wanted you to know that. I thought he could make it happen, but we were struggling to adjust, and he was having a hard time getting his work done with the boys and their jetlag.”

  I shake my head. “I did fine. It’s all good.” I hold up my oil can of bourbon. “I’ve got some good bourbon for Walker, but nothing for Marci. Should we stop on our way over?”

  “Already done,” Mia says. “I have a nice bouquet of flowers in the car.”

  “Perfect.” I turn to Alana. “You guys have a great time. I’ll see you later. I’ll let you know if I think I won’t be home.”

  Alana nods. “Have fun.”

  I lace my fingers with Mia’s, and we walk to the car.

  “Your sister is lovely.”

  I nod. “Thanks. She is. However, her husband was arrested a few days ago trying to enter the US with too many Oxy pills and a brick of heroin.”

  She looks at me with her mouth wide. “Are you serious?”

  “Unfortunately. He’s being held without bond because he escaped Australia while out on bail for domestic battery. He lied to the US Embassy and told them he lost his passport and needed to catch up to his family here in San Francisco. They got him one right away.”

  “He sounds like a winner. How did they have such great kids?”

  “Alana. All her.”

  Peter drives us to the end of Jackson Street and lets us out in front of a large home that backs up to the Presidio.

  “This house is stunning,” I say as we get out of the car.

  “You should have seen it when they had President Bolden show up for New Year’s. That was crazy. All of their neighbors were pissed. The Secret Service blocked off the street and several were having their own parties.”

  “Wow. I’ll bet.”

  Mia hangs out with the president of the United States and the wealthiest people in the country. She is one of the wealthiest people in the country. I’m not usually intimidated, but suddenly, I’m a bit out of my depth. As if she senses this, as we walk to the front door, Mia takes my arm and pulls me close. I can feel the pillows of her breasts, and I want so much to turn us around, go back to her house, and spend the day making sure everything is right between us so I can explore every millimeter of her body.

  “Don’t worry,” she says softly. “They overwhelm me, too.”

  I look at her and smile. She’s magic with me just like she is with Jeremy.

  Walker opens the front door in jeans and a T-shirt. “Welcome!”

  I shake his hand and give him the oil can. He looks at me, surprised. “Don’t let the packaging fool you. That’s a pretty incredible bourbon. One of the best you’ve ever had—guaranteed.”

  “Guaranteed? Well then, I guess we’re going to need to give this baby a spin. Come on in and let’s find a glass to do a proper tasting.”

  I nod and follow him while Mia goes in search of Marci.

  After pouring us each a glass, Walker smells it and takes a generous sip. His face lights up. “I like this,” he says. “This is really good.”

  “I found it by accident at a bourbon tasting room. I searched for it after that and when I found how they bottled it, I bought a case. I guess it’s designed so you can take it anywhere, since the list of places you can’t take glass is pretty long. I think it’s good, too.”

  He motions to a sitting area and we settle into chairs. “How’s she doing?” he quietly asks.

  “She’s tough.”

  Walker nods.

  “We both have been thinking about what Marci said last night. It has her worried that she’s going to be walked into betraying Nate. I certainly don’t know him as well as you do, but I figured he’d understand her predicament and she should just talk to him.”

  “That’s what Marci wants to talk to her about today. We discussed it last night. As I said before, it would be ideal if Viviana were just going to give up, go to jail, and hope the secretary of state makes a deal that moves her back to Russia. But Marci thinks she’s more vindictive than that. Chances are, Marci’s right. She usually is.”

  The women appear, each with a mimosa, and find seats.

  “—it’s just a thought, but I don’t think it would hurt,” Marci says.

  Mia looks at me. “Marci is doubling down on her reasoning about why I wasn’t cross examined.”

  I take a sip of my bourbon. “I think Marci has a brilliant legal mind. So, if she were going to use a prosecution witness to her client’s advantage, she wouldn’t want to discredit them with a difficult interview. It’s something to consider.”

  “Can I refuse to testify in January and take the fifth or something?” Mia asks.

  Marci chuckles. “No, I’m afraid not. Not answering her questions and being pushed by the judge will only land you in jail. What are you worried about?”

  Mia takes a deep breath. “Nate’s my friend. What will I do if they warp the conversations Viviana and I had? Make it look like I was part of the conspiracy?”

  Marci reaches for her hand. “I guarantee that’s their plan.”

  Mia looks at her lap.

>   “You just have to be ready for it,” Marci explains. “But even if they did paint you as a conspirator, it would only be to sow doubt with the jury. It’s the US Attorney they’ll have to actually convince. And they don’t have any facts. I wouldn’t worry about it. I know Nate will understand. Chances are they’re going to get him to say awful things about Cecelia, and we all know how he feels about her.”

  Mia sighs and requests a subject change, so we spend next little while talking about baseball and the perfect game Jeremy pitched. Then Walker asks me what I see in the college ranks and farm teams.

  “I think there are some promising players,” I tell him. “I’m planning a day trip down to LA to meet with an interesting shortstop out of UCLA. I think he’s a potential complement to Nate’s roster.”

  “Can they also trim the fat?” Walker shakes his head. “I mean, Jonas Raymond? The kid was supposed to be better than Jeremy, and now look at him. He doesn’t have a quarter of the talent. The team can’t plan their entire World Series strategy around Jeremy.”

  “You know, George Jordan made it clear to me that Jeremy is with the Prospectors because of Mia.”

  She looks at me in surprise. “When did he say that?”

  “Last week, when I was at the game and you were in Hawaii.” I take a drink of my bourbon. “He told me how you took Moneyball to the next level. Your math skills, plus an understanding of outside dynamics like bringing up Jake, Crispin, and Jeremy all together, made you invaluable.”

  Mia turns a beautiful shade of pink. I couldn’t be prouder of her. She’s brilliant and beautiful and so down to earth and humble.

  She looks at her glass and not at any of us. “Jeremy was so young; I knew Crispin and Jake would be integral to his success.”

  “Well, that was an excellent call,” Marci says.

  “Yes, but part of it was luck,” Mia assures us. “I knew they’d eventually mature into great players. I just couldn’t gauge when.”

  We have a fun time together, enjoying an egg frittata with tons of fruit, big stacks of bacon and sausage, and fresh croissants on the side. We also consume what seems like gallons of coffee, plus bloody marys and mimosas. We chat about our different interests, and I now have plans to play golf with Walker at his club in a few weeks.

  I was intimidated coming to this house, but Marci and Walker quickly put me at ease. They’re really likable. I’m incredibly impressed with Walker and can see why people talk about what he’s going to do after being the US Attorney for Northern California. And, damn if Marci isn’t ferocious when it comes to her clients. I feel entirely confident she has Mia’s best interests at heart.

  As we get in the car, Mia holds my hand. “What should we do this afternoon?”

  Chapter 27

  Axel

  “SoBe, stop being an attention whore.” I turn to the couple at the next table. “I’m sorry. He’s such a manipulator when it comes to strangers. He doesn’t want your food; he just wants your attention.”

  The woman smiles at me. “No problem. We’ve got one of those kinds of dogs, too. People must think she never gets any affection at home.”

  I turn back to Mia, and she’s hardly touched her clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl. I thought sitting here would be the right place to continue the talk we started this morning, but the tables are too close for a private conversation. “Is everything okay?” I ask.

  She nods. “I’m just stuffed after that huge brunch at the Cliftons.”

  Relief washes over me. “Do you want to take that home?”

  “No. It’ll just go to waste. Let’s pack it up and maybe we’ll find someone in need we can give it to.”

  Always kind.

  As we walk down Pier 39, it’s slammed with tourists. Peter is close, but not so close that we’re a trio of friends walking down the sidewalk. I’m grateful he’s with us. I lace my fingers with Mia’s, and we meander through the crowds.

  “So, tell me more about the pirating of your dating app,” I suggest.

  She sighs. “The extent of the problem depends on whether they took the algorithm from the test app or if they got into our network. If they got it off of the network, they have access to the basis of the algorithm for my other company.”

  My eyes go wide. “Diamond Analytics?”

  She takes a big breath. “Yes. While I was in college, I wrote an algorithm—a set of instructions for a computer program. I showed you how it works when I did the data mining with the query on Jeremy.”

  I nod. “Right. Okay, wow.”

  “And whoever pirated Flirt could potentially reverse-engineer the Diamond Analytics algorithm, which is highly confidential.”

  “How big is Diamond Analytics?”

  “It’s a Fortune 50 company.”

  I turn to look at her. I do recall that from one of the real articles I finally read. “You founded a Fortune 50 company?”

  She nods, standing a little straighter as she walks. “We didn’t start that big. But we’re publicly traded now, and we hit a trillion dollars in top-line revenue last year.”

  “Are you still involved with them?”

  “Officially, yes. I’m the CEO. But with this mess with Viviana, I’m on leave. That’s why I built Flirt. I needed something to keep me busy. So, I started with the basic algorithm and built it into what became the Flirt app.”

  “Wait. Why haven’t I ever heard of Diamond Analytics?”

  “If you’re not in the industry, it makes sense. I would imagine there are quite a few companies in the Fortune 50 you wouldn’t recognize. All sorts of companies use our services, but they use us through intermediaries. For example, I would bet your company uses a public relations firm to track your clients’ names as they appear in the media. The firm likely uses our services to do that, to the tune of five hundred dollars a search. You have ten or so clients. How many clients does your firm represent?”

  I shake my head. “Thousands. Not just sports, but writers, directors, producers, actors, photographers, musicians, cartoonists...”

  She nods. “Then you know the other kinds of things public relations firms track. We look at thousands of platforms every day, hour, and minute. And we service thousands of industries through various consultants.”

  I nod, impressed.

  “Now think of Nate and his company, Lancaster Holdings. They started in artificial limbs and then grew into robotics, which grew to artificial intelligence. Additionally, he’s overseeing technology that he’s giving away to developers for free. He’s involved with Lilly’s stroke software, which will quickly begin to splinter into a thousand other uses. He has the baseball team, and the list goes on. He always has an eye on his competitors and what they’re doing, as well as what people say about them—things they like and dislike about them. Lancaster Holdings wants that information for research and development, to sell against them, to improve current products, to identify possible groups to sell to—the list is unending as to what they use the information for. Everything is public these days.”

  This is an amazing accomplishment for one woman. “Did your parents help you start Diamond Analytics?”

  She laughs. “No. But my dad is an investment banker, so I knew how to position the company to get funding from venture capitalists. The platinum funder for technology is SHN, and I was lucky they agreed to finance me and help me take Diamond public. They still own a large enough portion of the company that Mason sits on the board.”

  We’ve reached the end of the pier and begin to circle back. Mia turns toward an older woman who has her hand out begging for change. She offers her the leftover lunch, and the woman’s face lights up.

  “Thank you,” she says.

  Mia smiles and pulls a five-dollar bill out of her pocket and hands that to her as well.

  “I’m floored by all your accomplishments,” I tell her as we move on up the pier. “You’re beautiful and smart.” She turns to look at me, and I brush her hair back from her face.

  “I
t can be intimidating to some men.” She looks down.

  I snort and squeeze her hand. “Maybe because my mom kicks ass as a lawyer and has argued two cases in front of the Supreme Court, I’m not threatened by a strong and successful woman. I love what I do. I’m good at it, and thankfully, I make plenty of money. I like you for you.”

  Mia closes her eyes for a moment. “Good. Because I like you for you, too. I’m so glad to hear you say that.”

  “I’m grateful to have the chance to say it.” A wave of relief flows through me, and I temper the panic that follows. I’m not my father.

  Holding Mia’s hand and spending time with her is easy, and it’s right. Looking back at the relationships I’ve had in the past, I know they weren’t right for me. That may be why I assumed I was like my dad. Now I just have a lot of work to do to get Mia and me on the right road forward. That’s where I want to be.

  “I love days like this,” Mia says as we continue to walk.

  “Me too. I don’t get a lot of time to myself. I’m either recruiting new players, going to games, or it’s the constant negotiation of contracts and making sure people are happy.”

  “You like what you do, don’t you?”

  “I do,” I assure her. “But I learned early that players are a commodity. It’s all about what they did for the team yesterday—not last week, last month, or last year. So, if a player has a bad game, they can lose their spot on the team.”

  “Do you work with players in other sports?”

  I nod. “I represent a handful of surfers. But they’re not part of a team, of course. For them, management is about their endorsement deals. They have to grab a great wave and score points to make it to the next invite, and there’s not much management can do to control the ocean. I just help them become walking billboards for their advertisers.”

  “How did you get into baseball?”

  “My college roommate was on the baseball team, and our neighbor was the California Angels’ general manager. I kept talking to him about my roommate, and eventually I got him a tryout. He played for two years. I was hooked, but I also knew I needed to learn a lot more, so I went to law school.”