“What'd you do to get him?” Nicolas wondered.
“Pay for a sponsored ad on Tinder?” Ronan joked.
“If I did, I wouldn't waste my breath telling you three about it because you're so hopeless a sponsored ad would do you no good.”
“You work in the perfume industry!” Gracie was saying to Jude. “How wonderful. My late husband, Paul Bettencourt, was a member of the family who owns and makes Rhapsodie perfume.”
“We're only getting appetizers,” Gemma told them all. “And then we have to go.”
“To work on orders for Perfumes by Gemma Clare?” Colette jabbed. “Jude, how did you and Gemma meet?”
“I really am sorry that we don’t already know these things,” Mom said to Jude.
Jude gave Gemma an expectant look like,Go ahead and tell them how we met.
She swished a hand. “I told the story to the last person who asked. You can tell it this time.”
Their fictional meeting was a whole lot more hilarious when she told it. But he looked uncomfortable enough at having to relay the fantastical tale that she was pleased with herself for making him do it. She was also pleased with herself for suggesting they set their fictional meeting during a real-life trip to Vegas her family knew she'd taken for a perfume conference.
“So then there he was,” she added after the part where he'd saved her from the canal water and given her his sweater, “without a shirt, and I couldn't help noticing that though he's somewhat reserved, he does have a fantastic upper body.”
Her brothers snickered.
“What?” Stevie asked.
“Jude has a fantastic upper body,” Gemma called loudly to Stevie.
Mom laughed nervously. “Gemma's teasing you, Jude. Don't let it bother you.”
Colette craned her neck. “I need a drink.”
Gemma's family wasa lot. For anyone. For her, even. Jude was about to spend time earning his paycheck the hard way.
“So, Jude,” Mom said, “I'd love to know what it is that you appreciate most about Gemma.”
Jude shrugged. “Everything.”
Mom waited hopefully.
Jude met Gemma's eyes. “She's creative and brave. Independent, confident, talented, funny.”
Mom bestowed the Swiftie look on him again.
“I don't recognize the person he's describing,” Nicolas murmured.
“Who's he talking about?” Hugo whispered.
“I'd like to meet this person,” Ronan added.
“It's nice to hear that you've noticed Gemma's strengths,” Mom said to Jude. “Did you know she's currently trying to help Gracie track down details of her past?”
“Yes, she mentioned that to me.”
“Gemma has some flaws as well as strengths,” Colette confided to Jude. “She ran away from home when she was six. Once, she marched in a one-person picket line demanding that she never be served honeydew melon again. And we couldn't keep clothes on her when she was three.”
“I learned to accept clothing,” Gemma pointed out.
“Good thing, otherwise I'd have been traumatized,” Ronan muttered.
