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“Oh, hi, Caleb!” My smile is bright as I turn to him. “How have you been? You don’t have to tell me,” I laugh, “Mira says enough for the both of you.”
I feel Gabriel’s lips pressed to my ear. “I know what you’re doing. But I also know that if I reach under the table, you won’t be so focused on your conversation anymore.”
My thighs glue shut, and he chuckles, kissing my earlobe. “You’re cute when you try to stop me. But we both know it’s what you want. Nevertheless, I won’t push. I like it when you make the first move.” I gulp, feeling my heart beating between my legs, and a shiver of need runs through my body.
“Let’s eat,” Gabriel says to the table. “Shall we?”
Chapter 22
Gabriel
"Sir,” my secretary stands at the slightly open door, “a couple wants to see you.”
My eyebrows knit together. “Who? Do they have an appointment?”
She walks in, closes the door gently, and hurries to my desk. “It’s Mr. and Mrs. Quinn. Harper’s parents. They are here to see you.”
Eh?
“Here to see me?”
She nods. “Yes. Um, do I tell them you’re occupied? I could think of something—an excuse.”
I shake my head. They must be here because of the engagement. Harper said she would give me a heads-up, but she is away at a meeting for the company.
“Let them in. Thank you.”
A minute later, Harper’s parents walk in. As soon as I set eyes on them, seeing her mother’s bright smile and her father’s serious eyes, my heart races.
“I should have prepared for a day like this,” I mutter. I should have asked Harper to prepare a series of flashcards in case I ever ran into them and needed to convince her parents that we were two people madly in love.
But…I am in love with her, aren’t I? I know almost everything there is to know about Harper. If there is anyone who should pass the Harper personality quiz, it should be me.
Relief makes me smile as I stand up and stretch my hand to her mother. “It’s so nice to finally meet you, Mrs. Quinn.”
She takes my hand. “Mrs. Elizabeth Quinn. And I see you know who we are.”
“I do,” I stretch out my hand to her dad. “You are Harper’s parents. She has told me a lot about the two of you.”
Tight, scrutinizing, beaded eyes meet mine, and I almost wither under their stare, seeking safety in Elizabeth’s face.
“Has she now?” she says. “Forgive me if I sound doubtful, but my daughter does not discuss her personal life with us at all. Besides Mira, she has never brought another friend home, not to mention a boyfriend.”
“So, I’m surprised she would tell her fiancé about us, especially when we had to find out about you and the engagement like everyone else, on the social pages. Perhaps—” The more she speaks, the less subtle the accusation. “If you had come around, we wouldn’t have had to come all this way to meet you.”
I briefly consider throwing Harper under the bus. At least, I did mention wanting to meet them once, and she said I would be grilled like a chicken, without mercy. I don’t mention it, because I have a feeling it will not change anything. Instead, I will be the man who takes one for his fiancée.
To appease them, I lower my head until it almost touches the table. “My apologies. It’s been three weeks since Harper and I announced our engagement, but work has been hectic. I was going to come see you when the chaos died down.”
I get an understanding nod from Elizabeth, but her husband doesn’t look convinced.
“If my daughter has no time to see her parents, then you must be working her to the bone,” he says gruffly. “This is why I asked you to try and change her mind, but you wouldn’t listen,” he tells his wife.
“You try telling her. You’re the one who wants Harper to take over your company,” she retorts. “I’m fine wherever she is, as long as my baby is happy.”
Her eyes whip back to me. “You do make her happy, don’t you?”
I nod hastily. “I do. I do everything to make her happy.”
