She was here for a reason and she was going to make sure she fulfilled her part of the contract.
Because so far he was delivering on the fun part.
Until now!
She turned before she was caught and rushed back to Arik’s table. He was sitting with his grandmother, their heads down, whispering, Sophie’s hand on Arik’s arm.
Dollar to cent, he confessed the conversation to the one person who was in his corner.
He didn’t need her here. He had support.
But she was glad that she had been asked, even if the whole thing was outrageous to her.
With anyone else, she was certain she would have said no, but Arik made her stomach swirl with butterflies, her fingers ache to touch, her heart race like a love-struck melody.
And since when did she have romantic thoughts in her head?!
“There you are,” he said, his hand out for her.
She took it and let herself be pulled close, his arm around her waist again, hugging her to his body. These touches, however much for show, didn’t always feel that way to her.
“I’m back,” she said.
“If you’ll excuse me,” Sophie said. “I’m going to make sure the caterers aren’t destroying my kitchen.”
“Don’t do too much,” he warned. “This should be on Courtney or her parents.”
“I know,” Sophie said, “but they are busy for the moment, then it’s back on them.”
Natalie returned to her chair, then inched it closer to Arik. “Don’t worry about her. I know you know her much better than me, but she comes across as a woman who knows her limits and boundaries.”
He laughed. “She knows them and skydives over them.”
“I doubt that.”
At least the smile was back, even reaching his eyes.
“My grandmother is tough, but she also wants to make sure everything is perfect. Kind of like you.”
“I don’t know that I want everything to be perfect.”
“Sure, you do. The difference is my grandmother doesn’t care how many toes she breaks while she’s marching around and getting it done.”
Her hand landed on his thigh and rubbed. He lifted his eyebrow at her. Just working the show.
“How are you doing?”
“Fine,” he said. “Why?”
“Because there was a part of you that wasn’t fine when you came downstairs after your talk with your father.”
He sighed. “He always surprises me, but I shouldn’t have been.”
“Do you want to share it or is it none of my business?”
He paused. “It’s not a big deal. Maybe it will just give you another example of the joy you’re going to witness. My father seems to have overextended his finances and needs money to make payroll.”
Interesting since she’d heard something different. Should she share that?
