Chapter Thirteen #3
“How is Noelle?” I took his hand, eager to know anything about my old friend.
His eyes lit up at the mention of her name. That was a good husband there. Holy envy was creeping in. I wasn’t attracted to Sean, but I hoped someday to have a husband who lit up at the mention of my name.
He grinned like he really was the luckiest man. “She’s Noelle.”
“Please tell her hello for me.”
“I’ll do one better.” He took out his phone. “Ian, stand by Kelli.”
Mr. Greyson zipped over to me and held his hand out to help me stand.
Naturally my hand found its way to his. His touch made me wish .
. . well . . . never mind. To make matters worse or better, depending on how you looked at it, he put his arm around my waist. I looked up at him.
He grinned like a fool, and foolishly, I liked it.
We smiled for one picture before I unloosed myself from Mr. Greyson.
It was then I noticed how very unhappy my date was.
He was shooting daggers at Mr. Greyson with his eyes.
I bit my lip, pretending I was embarrassed, hoping that would ease the tension, but he wasn’t buying it.
I shrugged it off. I wasn’t having that good of a time anyway.
I think Sean and Mr. Greyson could tell and were trying to help me out, either that or they were extremely rude.
They kept interrupting Mr. I-scored-fifty-points-in-a-game-once with gems like, “Kelli, tell Sean about the time Noelle climbed out your window during one of our double dates and someone called the cops because they thought she was breaking in.” Mr. Greyson was playing dirty.
He knew I wouldn’t refuse him in front of Sean, which meant I would have to talk about our past. Something I had been refusing to do up to this point. It also wasn’t lost on my date.
“You two dated?” Nicholas growled before downing his glass of chardonnay. “I thought you said there wasn’t anything going on between you.”
“It was a long time ago,” I informed Nicholas.
“Seems like yesterday to me,” Mr. Greyson said wistfully.
My brows shot up. What was Mr. Greyson playing at?
Nicholas sneered at him.
“Kelli, you didn’t tell me your story,” Sean jumped in.
Mr. Greyson dared me with his eyes to acknowledge our shared past.
Fine, but I was only doing it because I liked Sean and I missed Noelle. “Once, when Mr. Greyson and I were—”
Sean held up his hand. “Excuse me, why are you calling him Mr. Greyson?” He pointed at his brother-in-law.
“That’s a good question.” Nicholas said, annoyed.
I smirked at Mr. Greyson before addressing Sean. “Didn’t he tell you he’s all about professional boundaries?”
Mr. Greyson rubbed the back of his neck.
“Ah,” Sean sympathized with Mr. Greyson. “I guess given your recent uh . . . dealings,” Sean said clumsily, “that makes sense.” I wanted to ask exactly what Sean knew, but I could tell he would be loyal to his family and not divulge anything Mr. Greyson hadn’t already shared with me.
“Please continue,” Sean requested.
“Oh, um.” I almost forgot what I was going to say.
“I set Noelle up with a guy I met in my biology class and Ian, I mean Mr. Greyson, and I made dinner for everyone in my apartment. Halfway through dinner the guy throws his barefoot up on the table. We didn’t even know he had taken his shoes off,” I laughed.
“He then proceeds to go into horrific detail about his hammer toe surgery that had gone wrong. Noelle said not a word and got up, we thought to use the bathroom, but twenty minutes later there was a knock on my door. It was Noelle with two police officers.”
Sean and Mr. Greyson were laughing hysterically.
“There was no hiding that she had tried to escape her date, but once she told them what her date had done, they let her off. I think the guy transferred out my class.”
“Sounds like my Noelle,” Sean sounded smitten.
Nicholas was not amused. He took my hand and tried to divert my attention. “Let’s focus on the future.”
If he thought we had a future he was out of his mind.
Mr. Greyson coughed. “Didn’t you say Noelle wanted to talk to Kelli.”
“She did.” Sean whipped out his phone and dialed his wife. “I have a surprise for you,” he told his wife.
Wait. Why was this a surprise to her? I thought she wanted this.
Sean handed me the phone.
“Hello.”
“Kelli!” Noelle screamed. “You still look gorgeous. Especially with my brother.”
She made me blush. “Thank you. Sean is great.”
“I know.”
Nicholas began tapping on the table.
“Um, Noelle, can we talk later?” I really was being rude.
“Sure. Sure. Get my number from Ian.”
“You can just give it to me.”
“Don’t be silly.” She hung up.
I handed the phone back to Sean. A conspiratorial grin passed between him and his brother-in-law, who never ceased to surprise me as of late. Weird didn’t even begin to describe this night.
By the time dinner was over, my date was refusing to take a breath between stories, even if that meant chewing with his mouth open.
He refused to be interrupted again by Sean and Mr. Greyson.
Not to say they didn’t try. Mr. Greyson even tried handing me his chocolate cake to see if I wanted a bite.
I swore Nicholas was going to swat it out of his hand if I reached for it.
It was a good thing that Lorelai had already signed our contract. Nicholas was more than out of sorts when it was time to pay the check and depart. He seriously didn’t appreciate Mr. Greyson and Sean walking out with us and standing next to Mr. Greyson’s car while Nicholas walked me to mine.
When we arrived at my car, Nicholas kissed my cheek. “Maybe next time we could do this alone.”
I smiled at him. There wouldn’t be a next time. “Thank you for dinner,” I responded. “I’m sorry for the intrusion.” I wasn’t really. Oddly, I kind of enjoyed it.
He took that as an invitation. “How about dessert?”
I had a feeling he wasn’t talking about food.
“Good night, Nicholas.”
“Maybe next time.” He pushed off my car.
I really hated being right sometimes. Nicholas was exactly who I thought he would be. Was I ever going to find Mr. Right?
Mr. Greyson caught my eye and waved. “Drive safe. Good night.”
My heart said, What about that guy?
No. No. No. He left us and he’s with Alexa.
Is he really? my annoying heart asked.
Does it matter? I fired back.
If you want it to, my heart whispered.