He cradles my face in his hands, the leather of his gloves soft against my cheeks. “I’ve never been more proud.”
My stupid, pathetic heart cartwheels at his words. It clearly has no idea that his words don’t mean what we hope. They couldn’t…
But what if they did?
His stare is so intent, his gaze so deep that not for the first time, I wonder if somehow Beck is falling like I’m falling. Have things changed for him like they have me? A girl can dream.
“Beck,” I start, needing to tell him that I think I might be falling for him.
He leans down, pressing his lips to my forehead. He does it so often I’ve become used to it. I’ve grown so accustomed to it; it makes me ache to think of the day I won’t feel the press of his full lips above my eyebrow. “Shhh,” he says against my skin. “I know, Violet.”
You know what? I want to ask.
I’m about to do just that when he slides his phone from his pocket, looking down at the name on the screen. I look too, finding his dad’s name glowing on the front. One hand stays on my cheek, his thumb absentmindedly brushing over my cheekbone as he answers the call.
“Hey, Dad.”
There’s a few silent seconds as he listens to whatever his dad says on the other line. “Yeah, we’ll be there in a few minutes. We’re just down the block.”
He hangs up the phone, tucking it back in his pocket before giving me a wide smile.
“I’m nervous,” I admit, the words tumbling from my mouth.
Beck intertwines our fingers once again continuing down our path from earlier. We get so many looks, mostly from women. They watch us with curious envy, like they’re trying to figure out how I managed to get a man like him to walk down the busy sidewalk with me hand in hand.
“You have no reason to be.” He comes to a halt, stopping behind a crowd of people as we wait for the light to tell us we can cross the street.
“I have every reason to be, Beck. I wasn’t bred to marry into money like every other woman you’ve brought home to your family. And I certainly don’t think those girls have also met your family when dating your brother.”
“That’s the thing. I’ve never brought a woman to meet my parents.”
I almost trip over my feet as the group of people cross the crosswalk. The only thing that keeps me up is Beck’s strong grip on my hand. Once we're safely back on a sidewalk, my face thankfully not against the concrete, I look at him with a stunned expression. “Never?”
We come to a stop in front of the restaurant. He turns to face me, shielding my view from the rest of the world. All I see is him. “Never. Until you. Until now.”
“Yeah?” I ask hopefully.
He nods his head confidently. He stares at me like he’s just waiting for me to ask the countless questions running through my head. I hold them back, knowing we don’t have the time.
But later, I might feel confident enough to ask him—to hope—that maybe this has transpired into something more.
“I’ll give you something even better,” he says hoarsely. “I’m excited to tell them about us, Margo. So the next time you find that you’re comparing yourself to other women, don’t. There’s never been anyone else. Just you.”
He doesn’t give me room for further questioning. He pulls me into the restaurant, giving my hand a reassuring squeeze as he leads us to the host stand.
“We’re here for the Sinclair reservation,” he announces smoothly. The hostess looks him up and down with appreciation. I get it. He’s hot. But she could put her tongue back in her mouth before she drools all over the menus. It’d be the polite thing to do.
“I’ll lead you there.”
Beck thanks her politely, keeping a hold of my hand as we’re escorted to the back of the dining area.
I notice Beck’s parents before they notice us. There’s just one minor issue. It’s not just Beck’s mom and dad at the table. We won’t be announcing our engagement face to face with only his parents.
We’ll also be announcing it to Carter—my ex-boyfriend and Beck’s brother.
Oh shit.
Even with his random appearance at the office this morning, I hadn’t expected Carter to show up to dinner tonight. Family dinners aren’t Carter’s thing. They aren’t typically mine either, I guess, but they’re even less his.
Carter looks straight past me, his eyes zeroing in on Margo behind me, on our clasped hands.
He jumps out of his seat, the chair flying to the ground behind him. “What the fuck?”
My mom’s eyes go wide with shock, or maybe it’s embarrassment. She looks around the restaurant, giving the innocent bystanders an apologetic smile.
Dad gives me an unreadable look before he reaches up and grabs Carter’s shoulder. He pulls on it. “Sit down, son.”
Carter’s eyes burn with fury as he picks his chair off the floor and follows our father’s direction.
“Mom, Dad.” I smile softly at my parents. I feel slightly guilty pulling them into the drama that’s about to ensue with Carter here. I really hadn’t expected him to show up tonight. It was supposed to be an enjoyable pre-Thanksgiving dinner with my parents as I introduced Margo as my fiancée.
Now it’s going to be drama filled. Carter was babied terribly. He’s not used to things being taken from him. Add in the fact that he’s been extremely competitive from the moment I established my own company, and there’s no way this will end well. He’s wanted to beat me at everything from the moment Dad off-handedly asked him at a dinner once when Carter was going to do something with his life like I had. I don’t think Dad had meant it to be offensive. But Carter took it that way. Since then, he’s been trying to win against me when I’d never been interested in even playing the game. When he finds out Margo and I are engaged, he’s bound to lose his shit. I’d hoped it would be over a phone call, not in a place that’s always packed and takes six months to get a reservation unless you have an in with someone.
“I presume you remember Margo?” I offer, turning my body so she can no longer hide behind me. She pinches my arm, clearly unamused by bringing her into the limelight.
I squeeze her hand, trying my best to reassure her. Neither of us had expected Carter to show up, but that may have been naive of us. She’d manage to hide from him all day at work. Leave it to Carter to never work hard for anything until now—until it came to winning her back.
My mom stands up with a warm smile on her face. She rounds the table and pulls Margo into an embrace before she’s even said hi to me.
“Margo,” she says lovingly, petting the back of Margo’s head. “It’s been so long, sweetie.”
Margo hugs her back. It’s only because I pay close attention to her every move that I notice how her back is tense and her hands are balled tight. “Yeah, it has,” Margo responds uneasily.
As soon as my mom pulls away, my dad is there to pull Margo into a hug. He always had a soft spot for her. Even after Margo called things off with Carter, my dad never stopped asking about how she was doing.
While he and Margo get reacquainted, my mom stops in front of me with a wide smile on her face. “My boy,” she says, her voice filled with love. Leaning down, I pull my mom in for an embrace, feeling comforted by the scent of the same perfume she’s worn my entire life.