‘I’m sorry, I don’t speak French.’
‘I was asking if you’re here for the party,’ the woman said, in accented English.
It was then that Mia realised she was blocking the entrance. The outside was roped off, and she was standing in the only gap that led to the door.
‘Sorry, yes, I?—’
‘Would you like to walk in with me?’
Hope nodded, grateful. ‘Yes. I don’t like crowds, and I only know Joe.’
The woman’s eyes widened. ‘Ah, I see. I’ll take you to him.’
She followed the woman, snaking through the pockets of people, seeing Joe behind the bar, surprised that he was serving. She’d thought that he was a guest tonight, but it seemed he was working rather than mingling.
‘This isn’t what I was expecting,’ Mia thought out loud.
‘Joe throws this party every year. Our mother asked him to do it once, for family, friends and all his staff, and now he has no choice. No one would forgive him if he didn’t invite us.’
Joe hadn’t seen them yet, and Mia turned to the woman beside her.
‘I’m sorry,hisstaff?’ she asked, confused.
‘Ah, did I have the wrong word in English? The people working for him,’ she said, waving her hand as she spoke. ‘Theyall love him, but they especially love him when he gives them the night off to enjoy the party.’
Mia smiled, feeling embarrassed that she’d not realised the place was his, when a hand was pressed gently to her lower back, followed by a whisper of words.
‘I see you’ve met my sister. It looks like we’ve fooled her already.’
Joe leaned in and kissed Mia’s cheeks, and she felt her skin flush not just at the touch of his lips or the way his arm slipped around her waist, but at the wide-eyed expression on the other woman’s face as he did so.
‘Mia,’ she forced herself to say, holding out her hand.
‘Vivienne,’ his sister said, pressing her palm to Mia’s at the same time as shaking her head.
Mia stood and listened as brother and sister spoke in French—a conversation that ended with Joe tightening his hold a little around her waist, and his sister giving him a look she couldn’t decipher. Although she was still smiling, so she didn’t seem angry. Perhaps she was just annoyed that it was a surprise.
‘It was lovely to meet you, Mia,’ Vivienne said.
The moment she turned, Mia looked to Joe. ‘What did she say?’
‘That she never believed me for a moment when I said I’d have a date,’ he said, as his hand dropped from around her waist. ‘They’d told me that if I didn’t introduce them to someone before my thirtieth birthday, they’d take it upon themselves to find me someone. Apparently they worry too much about me being alone.’
Mia laughed. ‘You’re not serious? They would do that?’
‘Oh, they would definitely do that,’ he said, taking her hand and leading her towards the bar. ‘This is the problem when you’re the only man in a family of women.’
‘Also, is this yourbirthdayparty?’
He reached over to take two glasses of champagne he’d already poured from behind the bar, passing one to her.
‘It is. I close every year on my birthday, and I just invite family, the waitstaff and some old friends. I couldn’t care less about the day I was born, but I do love all these people, and it’s an excuse to do something nice for them.’
‘You invite them all toyourrestaurant,’ she said, more as a statement than a question. ‘Why didn’t you tell me you owned the place yesterday? I feel a fool for presuming you worked here.’
He gently clinked his glass to hers and took a sip. ‘I don’t need anyone to know I’m the owner. Now, let’s put on our best act and go and meet my mother. I think you’ll like her.’
Mia took a long sip of her champagne as Joe took her hand and walked her back through the bar, wondering how he could possibly know that she’d like his mother when he didn’t even know her. Joe stopped along the way and introduced her to so many people her head felt like it was swimming, until they reached a woman with sleek blonde hair like her daughter’s, and dark brown eyes the exact shade of her son’s. It was only then that she realised he said he was the only man in a family of women, when last night he’d spoken of his brother.
