That’s what you’ve said for years.
“Poor man rented out a nice restaurant and everything for the occasion,”
Mom adds.
“Ring in a glass of champagne?” Declan asks.
Mom nods. “Oh, yes. Iris nearly choked on it.”
I shoot her a withering glare.
“Rose petals on the table?”
“Yes!” Nana shouts. “Red. Her favorite.”
I hate cut flowers because I find them a waste of a perfectly good plant.
“Sounds like everything you love.” Declan’s gaze captures mine. What an asshole. “I wonder what went wrong.” His eyes shift back to my mom and grandma.
I despise the way he knows about everything I hate.
“I guess it wasn’t good enough because Iris over here flat-out rejected him,” Nana replies.
“How unfortunate.” Declan’s dry tone says everything words can’t.
He enjoys every single second of this.
This is not how dinner was supposed to go. My family was supposed to make Declan feel uncomfortable, not me.
“Unfortunate indeed.” Nana raises her glass in Declan’s direction.
“Imagine if she had said yes.”
“With that kind of generic proposal, it’s a shocker that she didn’t.” He takes a sip of his water.
He doesn’t so much as flinch when I stomp on his loafer. I change warfare tactics by dragging my heel up his muscular calf, and I’m rewarded with his sharp inhale of breath. Heat pools in my belly, only to turn molten when Declan clutches onto my thigh.
Stop, his grip says.
Not until you drop the topic, my demure smile replies.
He gives my thigh one last squeeze before abandoning it altogether. The memory of his palm remains pressed into my skin, and I’m hit with a slight chill in his absence.
“Is now a good moment to tell you about the time Iris set a church on fire?” Mom grins.
“I can’t wait to hear about this one.” Declan doesn’t even try to hide the amusement in his voice.
I swear with the way my mom and Nana are acting, it’s as if they have never spoken to another human being before.
I sigh. It’s going to be a long night.
“I approve.” Mom grabs my coat out of the closet. Thankfully she kept that comment to herself until Declan went to use the bathroom before we left.
“You better after all the emotional trauma you put me through.”
She chuckles. “I hope he can forgive me for the chicken. He was only supposed to eat a few bites, but the man cleared his entire plate. I’m pretty sure I used a whole bottle of cayenne pepper this time.”
“I’m still bitter he beat your grandpa’s record. That man lost half of his taste buds after I made the chicken for him.”
“Do you think he knew it was a test?” I ask.
“He does now.” Declan walks toward me with a dark gaze.
Mom presses her lips together to hide her smile.
“To be fair, it really is a family tradition.” I hold up both my hands in submission.
“Any other traditions I should be aware of?”
“No,” the three of us reply at the same time.
Declan’s eyes narrow. “I’m having a hard time believing you three.”
“At least nothing too dangerous,” Nana offers.
His glare makes Nana and Mom break out into a fit of laughter.
“We’re leaving.” He tugs my coat out of my mother’s grasp. “Thank you for an interesting meal. I would say it was a pleasure, but I can’t feel half of my tongue.”
Nana cackles while Mom rocks back on her heels with a smile. She practically swoons as Declan helps me into my jacket before tugging my hair out from underneath the collar.
I nearly topple over in disbelief as Declan takes his time fixing each button for me. The smell of his cologne permeates my lungs, embedding itself into my memory. A strange temptation to lean in and take another sniff consumes me.
He’s doing such a good job convincing everyone around us that he cares, even I believe it for a second. He steps away, and the warmth of his body is replaced by a cold reality.
I liked him taking care of me.
The spices from the chicken must have destroyed part of my frontal lobe because there’s no way I could like that.
Right?
“So, was it as bad as you thought it would be?” It takes me a whole five minutes since we entered his car to muster up the courage to break the silence.
“The food was awful.”
I look out the window to avoid showing him my smile. “And?”