Page 30 of One Bossy Date

“No worries, dear. We’ll just have to set up a dinner of our own then?” She met my gaze, arching her brow in question, before she seemed to light up with an idea. “Wait, why don’t I join the dinner party? I do have a prior engagement that day, but I’dloveto make room if I can.”

Anders looked at me, and in his eyes, I could see his thought process. He was considering stepping in and telling his mother that it wasn’t decorous to just invite herself to his dogs’ nanny’s granny’s birthday party. Just when he was about to speak up, I put my hand on his arm (for one second only). It would be too rude to tell her off. On top of that, I felt that my granny would love her just as much as I did.

“Sure,” I told her. “I know my gran would love to have you.”

Anders looked at me, first in surprise, but then, a pleased expression bloomed on his face.

“Wonderful! I’ll try my best to make it, darling.” Anders’s mom beamed. “Now I can’t promise that I’ll be there for sure, but I’ll try my best. I promise.”

“Great,” I said honestly.

“We’ll all be looking forward to Friday evening,” Anders said, his eyes connecting with mine. There was certainly a “try not to dig your hole any deeper” implication in them.

I smiled, thinking about how this whole arrangement was starting to getslightlyout of hand.

Oh, well. Lilian was definitely an amusing woman, and she would suit my family. But I was starting to feel like this was just the beginning of a whole series of complications blown into my life on the winds of a weekday storm.

12

ANDERS

Friday evening

Istepped out of the limousine, staring out into the evening sky then over the busy street, and flattened my slim black tie against my chest. Hearing the sound of the security gate buzzing open, I turned around. What I saw almost took my breath away: a golden goddess was emerging.

For a fraction of a second, I tried to merge her with the girl in yellow-pink I’d met in her shop, and the casual T-shirt-and-boots-loving gal I was accustomed to seeing with my dogs.

My eyes were glued to her dazzling appearance as she stepped down the entryway stairs like the female lead in an old Hollywood movie.

The dress she wore clung to her in ways I wouldn’t soon forget. It was gold—not yellow, but a favorable variation of her favorite color, in my opinion. The bottom half was a delicate kind of netting that flared out, a tasteful mid-calf length, leaving her golden high heels in full view. The upper half, however, had my full attention. It cupped her breasts beautifully and had elegant sleeves that were off her shoulders and reached her elbows. The exposed shoulders coupled with her up-do hairstyle allowed her neck and collarbones to be completely visible—and accessible. It was more tempting than I cared to admit.

She was being followed out by a man in his thirties. He was tall and well dressed.

Immediately, I scanned through my mental notes of our conversations but couldn’t remember her ever mentioning a man in her life. She didn’t have a brother. Maybe he was a neighbor? I explicitly remembered her saying she was “single at twenty-nine years old”—thus the whole fake date setup with me.As soon as he stepped down from the shadows, however, my gaydar went off the charts, and their relationship became clear. He was a close friend.

I watched the exaggerated flair in his movements when he fretted over her, fixing her dress and hair before stopping to lightly kiss her cheek.

“Remember to tell your sister thank you for lending me the dress,” I heard her say.

I was still staring at Zoe, taking as much of her in as I possibly could, when her friend turned to me and nearly lost his jaw to the ground.

He spoke to Zoe, just loudly enough for me to hear.

“Oh, my soul, Z. You saidhandsome, not fuckingchopper. Not fucking panty-dropping, spank-me-and-call-me-good-girl, take-me-now, sexy-silver-freaking-foxlike!” His hand sat on his chest as if he were astonished, as he looked my way and winked with a little wave.

Zoe’s eyes widened. “Shhh.”

“Remember what I told you earlier about sex,” he said to her, leaning in closer. “Just ask him.”

“Shhh, he can hear us, stop it,” she hissed, trying to smile at me. “I’mnotgoing to ask him.”

She had talked to him about me? Huh, interesting. I was all ears.

“But I havetheperfect pick-up line for you. Just in case? It’s foolproof. And tailored to you specifically. It took me all night to come up with it. It’sliterallyperfect. Wanna hear it?”

“Okay, shoot,” she spoke through her teeth. “But hurry up. He’s waiting.”

“You like cats? Because doIhave a wet one for you.”