Kieran, despite his inexperience, wasmuchbetter at this than I was. He always had a gaggle of listeners, people passing him glasses, vying for his attention like he was Angelica’s newest starlet and they all wanted to get to know him before he was famous.
Right now he was surrounded by two new fantasy novelists Angelica had recently signed, my editor, Angelica herself, and, to my relief, one of the marketing team.
Angelica’s doing, I thought. Once I’d decided to go through with all this, she’d agreed to do everything in her power to make it look good.
She’d confessed to me that her nephew had come out to her earlier in the week. Her fifteen-year-old nephew who she loved with all her heart.
So now Alex was forhim, too. I could trust Angelica’s support.
“There you are,” I laughed as I eased my way into the conversation circle by Kieran’s side, resting my hand on the small of his back. It was strange, touching him like this after all this time, but I could get used to it again.
“Kieran was just telling us about the time you proposed to him,” one of the new novelists—Lily, I was fairly sure—enthused, grinning broadly as she raised her glass.
It was lucky dinner wasn’t too far off, or we’d all be too drunk to get through it at this rate.
Angelica had been right, though. I was being treated like a rock star.
“Still got the ring,” Kieran said, producing his keys from his pocket and handing them to Lily, so she could see the cheap little ring he was still carrying around with them.
“This is sosweet,” Lily said, passing the keys along to the next person. “It’s like a fairytale. Could you guys be cuter?”
Kieran laughed, wrapping an arm around my shoulders and kissing just above my ear.
The room spun. How much champagne hadIhad?
“We just adopted a cat together,” Kieran said, because apparently wecouldbe cuter, and he was already getting out his phone to show off photos.
“She loves Felix more than me,” he added, flicking to one I hadn’t even known he was taking—a photo of Hemingway touching her nose to mine while I’d been distracting her to give Kieran a chance to work on dinner.
That was the second candid photo Iknewabout—how many had he taken?
“She’s so pretty,” Riley-from-marketing said, his face softening as he looked at the picture.
Yeah, if I hadn’t been here with Kieran… he would’ve been my first choice.
But Iwashere with Kieran, and…
Well, Riley’s nose was a little weird. I didn’t like the way his voice squeaked sometimes. This lighting wasn’t doing anything for his dark circles…
He wasn’tKieran.
Kieran, who was apparently determined to be perfect tonight.
“She really is,” Kieran agreed. “And she’s got great taste in men.”
A round of laughter punctuated that statement, Kieran grinning broadly and then turning the softest, warmest look on me.
Another kiss, this one to the tip of my nose, and I suddenly couldn’t breathe. Not because of the kiss itself, necessarily, but because of thelook.
If I’d been hitting on him, that look would’ve been a clear green light.
“So do I,” I said, more sincere than I meant it to come out.
Kieran wasn’t justplayingperfect. Hewasperfect.
And he was giving methatlook.
“Are we all hogging Felix over here?” Colin asked from behind me, and a shiver ran down my spine like a drop of cold water.
