Imperfectly Beautiful (Jordan Knight Fanfic, Liadan #3)

Barbies and Bears

-LIA-

"Hello?" Mallory's voice echoed through my cell phone and I ran a hand through my hair as I rested against the edge of my desk in my home office.

Throughout the duration of the ride home from visiting Jordan's old apartment building, I'd gone back and forth in trying to decide if I should text Mallory back or just ignore the message for a while. However, after a bit more contemplation, I'd decided that it would be better just to get it over with than to try to hold all my questions inside of my head.

She was one of my oldest friends and I wanted to believe that she had to have a valid reason for keeping such a big secret from me—but even more than that, I desperately needed to know that she wasn't going violate my family's privacy and sell our secrets to the media.

A giggle followed by a male voice sounded on her end of the line and I felt my eyebrows draw together.

"Hey, Mal," I said and ran my finger along the rim of my desk. "Is now a good time?"

"Stop," she whispered and then cleared her throat. "Oh, hi Lia, yeah, what's going on?"

"Well, uh, I was hoping you'd tell me? I got your message about meeting or something?" I asked.

She whispered another 'stop it' and I tried to make out the response back, but it was too muffled. "I was just hoping that maybe we could meet and talk about the sponsors for the play? I know you mentioned your law firm and your dad's firm would back it, but I kind of got a chance encounter with Antonio Holloway at the soiree last night. One thing led to another and my work on the play kind of came up. He said he'd be all in with being a sponsor, he just needs the specifics, but of course I didn't really know everything that you and Jordan had planned so I was hoping you could get me that info."

"A chance encounter?" I repeated as I tried to figure out just how she'd managed to run into Antonio in all the chaos of the soiree. It seemed to me that he would've been the last person anyone was trying to "encounter" after that whole fiasco.

"Yeah, we just so happened to leave around the same time and I had a bit of car trouble. Antonio was nice enough to give me a ride and in the midst of that we started talking work and ultimately him wanting Holloway Tech Corp to be a sponsor. He really believes the arts are important for children."

I, for one, wouldn't put the words 'nice' and 'Antonio' in the same paragraph, let alone the same sentence. I also couldn't help making a mental note that he hadn't casually left—he'd been escorted out by butlers and security, but I didn't say anything about that or the fact that Mallory conveniently didn't specify exactly where he'd given her a ride to—or the kind of ride he'd given her. The little voice in the back of my head led me to question if he was the reason she was currently so giggly, but once again, I decided not to let my heightened emotions run wild.

"Well, actually Holloway Tech Corp is already serving as a sponsor for the play."

"Oh?" she asked. "How? Antonio didn't know anything about it."

"My daughter's fiance, Tony, authorized it," I said simply. "So thanks for the offer, but we've got it covered."

"Tony has the authority to do that?" Mallory questioned.

"He received all of his stocks for ownership in the company from his trust fund upon finishing graduate school, so yes."

"But his father is CEO, you don't think it might be helpful just to run it by him too?"

I could feel myself getting agitated. "I'm not sure if you noticed it at the party like everybody else, but Tony and his father don't get along. Grace is going to be in the play and he doesn't want him around his daughter, so we don't intend on including Antonio in any of this."