Chapter 4 #2
She turns around, looks down the table at Chris giving him a beaming smile.
She walks around to Vanessa and Jay and greets them with a hug and a kiss.
She sits in the chair at the end of the table between Chris and Kate.
Nick greets everyone at the table and since no one but I knew Ava was coming, he asks for an extra chair.
He actually has the nerve to tell them to put his chair between me and Kate, and I have to stop myself from hissing at him.
The music was a good mix of rock—not the hardcore stuff—and Neo soul.
The guys in the band were cute, too— three white guys and two black.
They looked like they might be in their mid-to-late twenties, and definitely not like starving artists struggling to make their way.
Their clothing was very high end, and even their jeans were designer labels.
Maybe this was a thing they did on the side for fun.
Then I remember Chris did say they owned this place. Business must be good for them.
I’m relaxed, on my third glass of wine, enjoying the music, the vibes in the club and the view of the hot guys in the band. I’m so wrapped up in the band and the music I manage to effectively ignore the other hot guy sitting next to me who I want to haul off and slap for being an absolute ass.
“Cat, what a lovely pendant you’re wearing,” Vanessa says.
I’m holding the wine glass in my right hand and my left hand flutters over my pendant.
“Thank you.”
“I’ve never seen you wear it before. It’s so unique. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it. The gems are brilliant. It’s almost as if they’re staring at you.”
Vanessa should know—she specializes in gems, helping run her family’s jewelry boutique.
They cater to some of the wealthiest people in and around New York.
Everyone turns to look at my pendant, and Nick looks directly at me.
I feel the heat rise slowly up my cheeks, and I’m not sure if it’s the wine or the fact that while everyone else is looking at my pendant, Nick’s looking at me.
“Yes, it’s exactly like that,” I say.
I smile, and Jay is the first to ask the question I knew was coming next.
“It’s a show stopper, all right—where did you get it?”
“It was a gift on my sixteenth birthday.”
Chris frowns. “I don’t remember seeing you wear it before. Mom and Dad bought you that for your sixteenth birthday? Mom does have an eye for fine jewelry.”
Kate agrees with a nod. “Yes, she does. She likes her jewelry to be one of a kind, and it’s often expensive. If only Dad could stop her from adding to her collection of ‘trinkets’ as he likes to call them.”
We all laugh because my dad has tried many times to stop her. “That’s why Vanessa is her dream daughter-in-law.” I take a sip of my wine and clear my throat. “Mom and Dad didn’t buy me this.” That’s when my so-called friend with the strawberry blond hair chimes in.
“Well, who was it?”
She knows damn well who bought it! She’s the first person I called when he gave it to me. Vanessa leans over and looks at it again.
“May I?”
“Yes.” She touches my pendant and looks at it in the light before she lets it go.
“Well, whoever it was must have really cared about you; you don’t buy a piece of jewelry like that for just anyone.
They say aquamarine brings peace and calm to its owner, relieving stress and enhancing intuition.
Crystal healers use them to harmonize diseased areas of the body.
Sailors used to consider them a lucky stone; they carried them to keep them safe at sea. ”
I don’t know if I should tell them. If I don’t tell them, I’ll make it seem like a big deal, and I know they’re going to find out. It’s not a secret, but before I can answer, in a clear I-don’t-care-who-knows voice, Nick says,
“I bought it.”
I turn and look at him. He’s looking at me like I’m the only one in the room, and I like it when he looks at me like that. All eyes look at him, and I hope they don’t notice the way he’s looking at me. Chris looks at Nick and then at me.
“When did you have time between your school load, partying, and all the girls you were juggling?” he asks Nick.
“I made time. Like Vanessa said, you don’t buy a gift like that for just anyone.”
Jay looks at me and then at Nick. He looks serious now, big brother serious.
“Oh yeah?”
Nick looks directly at Jay. “Oh yeah. She’s your little sister but we sort of grew up together, and she was like my little sister once too.”
It’s getting a little intense. This is the last thing I need, my family questioning me about my relationship with Nick when there is nothing going on and he’s engaged to Kate.
“Chris, Jay, and Nick. I felt like I had three overprotective brothers instead of two,” I say, trying to inject humor in my voice when Ava finally finds her voice to help me out.
“I couldn’t even set us up on a double date whenever I came to New York.
We could scarcely get a kiss from our dates after they were interrogated and intimidated by these two giants.
” Ava gives Chris a wink and one of her hundred-watt smiles no man could resist, except Chris is looking at her like a child he’s trying to be patient with.
“You two should thank us; some of the guys you were setting my sister up with were kind of shady. They weren’t known for their high moral standards,” Chris says.
“They weren’t that bad. They didn’t do anything to us we didn’t want them to do,” Ava says.
Vanessa and Kate are looking at us with amused expressions.
Kate says, “Really!”
“Do tell!” Vanessa says at the same time as Kate.
Now the guys are staring at us like we’re guilty of something.
I have to laugh and shake my head a little when I lean in over the table.
This is like old times: my brothers trying to protect my innocence.
If they only knew how I lost my innocence to one of their friends.
“There is nothing to tell. Relax, guys, and soon to be brother-in-law.” Ooh, that earned me a stern look from the man sitting next to me and his fiancée. “Those guys were perfect gentlemen.”
“That’s ’cause I told them ‘don’t make us have to break your legs for trying anything with my sister,’” Chris says.
“I can’t believe you did that.”
“Damn right we did. You’re welcome,” Nick says taking a drink from his glass.
“I wasn’t thanking you, Nick. That’s the reason I could hardly get a date in high school, let alone a second one from those guys.”
Vanessa points to each of the guys at the table. “This is why I’m glad I didn’t have brothers in high school. I was a little firecracker way back in the day, before I met Jay.”
Putting her hand on Nick’s arm, Kate smiles at me. “They were never this overprotective with me. But I wasn’t the baby of the family like Cat is. We have to protect her from wolves in sheep’s clothing, right, babe?”
Nick doesn’t take his eyes off me when he says, “Yeah.” I notice they’ve hardly talked to each other or touched since we’ve been here. That’s Ava’s cue to stir the pot with Kate, accent and all.
“Well, honey, thank God you don’t have to do that anymore. She’s a full-grown woman, with a body and a face that’ll make a man desperate to touch.”
“I know she’s an adult now, but she will always be our little sister, and naturally we will always want to protect her to keep her from getting hurt by the wrong kind of men,” Kate says.
“What kind of men or man would that be, Kate?”
She couldn’t help herself, could she? She held out as long as she could without starting trouble. I hold my hand up to stop an argument. “She’s talking in general, there is no man or men I need protecting from. I’ve only been back for one day.”
Kate takes a deep breath, sits up straight, and gives Ava a tight smile. “That’s what I was saying, men in general.”
“If you ask me, I wouldn’t push too hard on that whole protection thing. Forbidden fruit is the sweetest; you might bring the wolf to the door, Kate.”
“Well, I didn’t ask you! I’m just trying to look out for my little sister. That’s what family does for each other.” No one pays attention to the sharp tone in her voice, because Ava and Kate have always been like this.
Ava grabs Kate’s hand, catching her by surprise.
“That’s good to know. Sisters should have each other’s backs.
Consider me part of the sister circle. Cat and I are like sisters, and I have her back all the way.
It’s a good thing she has sisters like us, isn’t it?
” Like she’s been bit by a rattlesnake, Kate snatches her hand back.
I think the wine is getting to me; I’m on my fourth glass now. I giggle at the scene in front of me: the man I’ve wanted since I was thirteen is now engaged to my sister, who’s sitting next to my best friend. They can’t stand each other and they never will. Welcome home!
Finally, I see the waiter with the damn check. About time, I was ready to leave this dinner party before I walked in the door.