“I am not. That first time we met you and I, the reason I was looking at his behind was that I was wondering why life was so unfair giving such a terrible person such a hot body.”
“Not helping.”
“Fabio, you’re not the only hot guy in the world. Your club alone is swarming with sexy men. There are a million good-looking men out there. It doesn’t mean I’m attracted to them. Even if I was, it didn’t mean I was interested in them. And Fletcher? My God. I wouldn’t want to even be buried next to him, and I’d be dead. He’s the last person I’d think of in any manly way.”
“So you two never…?”
“Nope. Not even before Jack. Now can we go over our scenario?”
“We’ve been doing this all day, Gabi. I know my lines.”
“I just want to make sure you’re going to handle the awful things he might be saying.”
“I don’t care who says what about me. All I care about is you.”
She smiled. “Thank you for the dress by the way. It’sfab.”
“That’s what I said.”
“How could you afford these gifts if you don’t mind me asking? The dress, the bra, Zoey’s bra, they must have cost thousands. Are you rich or something?”
“Would you marry me for real if I was?”
She giggled. “I’m serious. I don’t want you to squander your money on me. But considering that I now know how much a date with you cost, I might have underestimated your worth.”
“Well, if you must know, I’ve been saving up for a while, you know for Carmen’s college fund, my sisters’ needs and for a nice retirement. My kind of job doesn’t last forever. So I might not be Fletcher rich, but I’m a little shy of a half a million in savings.”
She blinked rapidly, and then she grunted, opening her purse. “Then maybe I should have let you handle that.” She got out a little velvet box.
“What’s that?”
“Our ring. I’d told Fletcher it wasn’t ready yet because you would have it custom made. I was thinking about getting one of those faux diamond rings that wouldn’t be discovered except by jewelers, but there are some women here that are more of an expert than the Natural Diamond Monitoring Committee. Anyway, I thought the best way to handle it was to rent a ring.”
“You rented our ring?”
She opened the box. “Ta da.”
It was a pink gold ring with a cushion cut magenta ruby bedazzled on the sides with diamonds and pink and blue sapphires. Elegant and classy like her. Perfect.
“Do you like it?” she asked.
“Yes.” But I didn’t like how I felt right now neither could I explain it. “Do you?”
“Very much. It’s a little bit over my price range or I’d have kept it not just rent it.” She gave me the box. “Put it in your pocket, and when you see an opportunity, surprise me with it, bluh bluh bluh, okay?”
Swallowing, head spiraling, I reached for the box. As our fingers touched, I couldn’t resist pulling her into my embrace and kissing the fuck out of her.
She fanned herself, her lips swollen when I freed them, her hand on my chest. “Okay. That was… Thank God I’d learned my lesson and wore my stay on. Are you okay? Your heart is racing.”
“Gabi…”
She glanced at me, grinning. “Yes?”
“I wanna tell you something.”
“Can it wait? I really need to be around Rina before Fletcher hovers around her. I don’t know what he might be saying to her.”
I sighed. “Yeah. Sure. Go. I’ll be right there.”
