Page 35 of One Bossy Date

“I did.” I answered for Anders to help him out, raising my hands and wiggling my bright-yellow nails for everybody to see. I was sure he hadn’t paid any attention to what I was wearing, least of all the color of my nails.

“Did you lose an eye?” my uncle asked Anders.

“Almost. The only reason I got away unscathed was that, like any man worthy of the label, I knew when to shut up,” he said with a “Just you wait” look. My uncle smiled.

“Wait. Did she make you drink from one of the pale-yellow ceramic cups?” Lou-Ann asked.

“That’s what she served the coffee in, yes.”

“You mean the ones with the big whiskers that makes one look like a cat?” Granny asked.

Anders’s eyebrows lifted at that.

I merely rolled my eyes, looked at my family, and said, “It was cute! All I could think about was how adorable the cute kitty mug made this darkly handsome stranger look.”

Everybody laughed. The adorable kitty mugs were a gift my family had organized for my opening. Several dozen of those darling cups were now gracing my shelf. And sometimes even the faces of billionaires. The best thing: they were selling well too. People loved them as a gag gift.

Anders gave me “You little vixen” eyes. “You need to be spanked. And soon. On yourbareass and yourwetpussy. And then I’m going to punish you with my girthy cock.”

Wait, no.

He didn’t make those eyes. I totally made all of that up. Then I thought of Jim and his book recommendations and had to hold back a giggle. The next moment, I felt my cheeks blush under Anders’s gaze. I swear, in some inexplicable way, he’d just read my mind. The caramel swirls in his eyes seemed to glow.

Luckily, Lou-Ann’s question interrupted my thoughts. She turned to Anders. “So, what made you decide to ask her out?”

“Well,” he looked at me when he spoke, affection in his gaze, “she impressed me.” Fully expecting he would say it was me who askedhimout, I was stumped when he didn’t. “She owns her own business, and even though I don’t have cats, she went out of her way to treat me as well as she would any other client.” Lou-Ann and Granny both lifted a hand to their chest, looking as if they were in the midst of a wonderfully romantic movie. “I respected that about her. Actually, I admire it in any person I work with. Also, she had the most charming, genuine smile I’ve seen in a long time. So, I had to ask her out then and there before I never saw her smile ever again.”

He took my hand and placed a tender kiss on my fingers.

There was a small wave of high-pitched “awws” from the females across the table.

Me? I wasmelting.

Noticing the intense blush that had crept up my cheeks, Anders winked at me. It was a curt wink, so quick and subtle only I could see it. Cute. Really cute. I had to look away so as to not blush even more. With a soft caress of my knuckles with his thumb, he let go of my hand, and my skin tingled when his fingers brushed my shoulder, then moved to caress my back.

Thousands of butterflies were dancing in my belly. All happy, jumping up and down, causing a tsunami on the other side of the planet.

I turned my head to face him, and he smiled at me. And what a smile it was. Among everything else tonight, all the touches and sexy looks, one smile should have been trivial. It was anything but. This time, I couldn’t tell if he was truly acting, or if the smile had as much meaning as I suspected it did. His hand stopped moving but his thumb trailed lightly over the skin at the back of my neck.

More butterflies.

More electricity.

A scoff from the group broke the moment completely.

Luckily!

Heads turned toward Brody, who soon realized he was now the center of attention.

“What?” he yelled. “You guys aren’t buying this BS, right? You really think they fell in love at first sight like some lame rom-com flick? It’s bullshit!”

Clearly, he was drunk. Also, I had no idea what he was referring to. Nobody had been talking about us falling in love. The word “love” had not been mentionedonce. It was nonexistent in the dictionary.

Some of my relatives widened their eyes at one another, while others frowned directly at him.

Granny Dotty was the first one to speak, trying to calm down the situation, laughing as if he was just kidding. “Oh, Brody, you and your jokes! It is too good to be true, isn’t it? But I’m ecstatic that my granddaughter has finally found someone she can spend her time with. Sit down now.” She directed her attention back to me. “I was truly worried, honey—you spent all your time at that boutique.”

I chuckled nervously, not exactly enjoying my business—actual financial business—being put on display. Though, Gran didn’t know I’d been struggling so much. I searched for something vague to say to cover up my “busy schedule.” “We all gotta do what needs to be done, right?”