Now it clicked. The flirtation wasn’t personal. It was business.
“We have a great in-house legal department,” Caleb replied easily. “Multi-jurisdictional, hand-picked by my father. Simon would be disinherited if he outsourced.” He raised his glass with a grin. “Which would be excellent news for me… unless Dad found out I introduced you. Better play it safe.”Then he lifted his glass again, this time with intent. “Enough business. Let’s toast to the happy couple.”
We raised our glasses.
“To Harper and Daria,” Caleb said. “To the wings of love. May they never lose a feather, but soar up to the sky above and last forever. Cheers.”
The glasses clinked.
That was beautiful, I thought, startled by how sincere it sounded. For a moment, I completely forgot about the dread I’d felt earlier over having to explain myself.
After we placed our orders, Caleb asked the most logical question, his tone casual but engaged. “So, how did you guys meet?”
Harper barely had time to open his mouth before Daria launched into the story. She spoke animatedly, detailing every moment with enthusiasm. I tuned her out as politely as I could, nodding occasionally and offering small smiles when appropriate. At one point, Harper caught my eye across the table. There was unmistakable discomfort there. He looked trapped by her florid narration, which she paused only briefly to replace her empty Perfect Ten. The story finally wrapped up when the appetizers were set in front of us.
“And what about you two?” Daria asked brightly. “How did you meet?”
I nearly choked on a carrot. The earlier dread rushed back, twice as powerful. Could I lie convincingly? Could I fabricate something on the spot and make it sound real?
Caleb placed his hand over mine. “Sweetheart, do you want to tell the story, or should I?”
He has something up his sleeve.“No,honey,” I said, surprised by how easily the word slipped out, how natural it felt on my tongue. “You do it so much better.”
Caleb’s mouth twitched like he was fighting a smile. “Well,” he began, “it’s not exactly Disney material. I was a spoiled brat with a silver spoon stuck firmly in my ass. My father gave me an ultimatum—learn to manage the hotel where she worked, or else.” He took a sip of his drink. “On my first day, I undermined her, went over her head, implied she was a gold digger?—”
“That was the end of the first week, honey, not the first day?—”
“—so it was?—”
“—and you left out the part where you propositioned me.”
“Well, I had forgotten until you reminded me?—”
“—then he fired me,” I finished, shrugging as I lifted my wine.
“Itriedto fire her,” Caleb said calmly. “But she wouldn’t let me.”
“So we had to make up instead.”
He turned to me with a mock frown. “You know, it sounds better when we do it together. Maybe we could get Disney on it.”
Laughter erupted around the table.
“It’s actually all true,” Caleb continued, sipping thoughtfully from his whisky. “I was an ass when she met me, but she forced me to open my eyes and see past the end of my nose. When I finally did, I saw what a wonderful woman she really was.” His gaze locked on mine, as if the rest of the restaurant no longer existed. “She is the most generous, warm, caring, and selfless person I’ve ever met. And she’s an amazing mother to her son, Lucas.”
My breath caught.
“Falling in love with her took weeks,” he went on, his voice softer now, “but it happened in the blink of an eye. I didn’t even know when it happened, but I fell…” He swallowed. “Deeply in love with this woman.”
Frozen, I stared at him. My heart slammed so hard against my ribs it almost hurt, the sound of it rushing in my ears. My lips parted, breath catching somewhere between disbelief and something dangerously close to hope. I tried to look away, to ground myself in the restaurant, the table, anything—but my eyes betrayed me, clinging to his face.
The wordsdeeply in loveechoed, reverberating through places I kept locked down. It felt intimate in a way I wasn’t prepared for, like he had reached inside me and touched something.This isn’t for me,I reminded myself.It can’t be.Believing it, even for a moment, would mean risking something I wasn’t sure Icould survive losing.
Still, my chest ached with the unwelcome longing to be seen that way again, to be wanted with certainty, with devotion. I missed that kind of closeness more than I had ever allowed myself to admit—the kind that curled your toes and made you forget to guard your heart.
“Ahem.” Harper’s voice cut through the moment.
I blinked rapidly and drained the rest of my wine.
