Almost instantly, Reece smiled again. It was a little odd, but I was just glad he seemed okay-ish for once. “Do you remember the first everrealrestaurant your dad took us to?”
“I don’t think I could ever forget it.” I laughed.
We were about six years old when Dad thought it was a good idea to take us to a fancy restaurant that wasn’t his own. Truthfully, it wasn’tmyfirst, at least, I didn’t think so, but that particular day just stuck with me.
Dad ended up getting kicked out because Reece and I tried to climb up the walls. They had Victorian-like 3D patterns on the walls, of course we were going to try and climb them.
“I figured it’d be cool to go there again, so I called the restaurant and got us a table for tomorrow evening,” he said.
Oh. “Tomorrow evening?”
“Uh-huh.” His soft smile faltered. “Why? What are you doing tomorrow evening?”
“I, uh… I promised Nova I’d go to the movies with her at five.” It was my attempt to stay away from home for longer, especially on a Saturday when I didn’t even have classes to catch a break from Reece.
It was sad, I admit. What kind of awful fiancée would beg her ten-year-old sister to hang out with her just so she didn’t have to be at home? Me, apparently. But now that Nova was excited for the movies, I couldn’t possibly cancel.
“The movies?” Reece narrowed his eyes at me. “Which one?”
“The one on 34thStreet. Not sure what it’s called.” I pushed my pasta around with my fork, avoiding looking at Reece.
“So, in the middle of Manhattan?” He chuckled disbelievingly. “You’d rather drive like forty minutes from Staten Island to Manhattan for a stupid movie when there’s a movie theatre like ten minutes away from your dad’s house?”
“Nova chose it.”
“By the time your dad gets home from dropping you off, he can turn around and pick you back up.”
I looked up again, sighing. “Reece, please, it’s really not that deep. Dad has a restaurant close by anyway.”
His eyes rolled, but I wasn’t sure why.
What did I say wrong?
Was it because I didn’t invite him? But he never cared about that before, and I was allowed to spend time with my siblings without him.
Or perhaps it was because I didn’t ask him to drive us like I usually did.
Or he was looking right through me, knowing this was my attempt to get away from him for a while. I rarely went to the movies, especially in crowded ones, he knew that. And if I did go, Reece was with me to make sure I was okay.
A wave of panic washed over me, but I really tried to keep my cool. I didn’t want to upset him even more.
“Uhm… I can cancel on Nova,” I suggested.
Reece shook his head. “It’s alright. We weren’t supposed to be at the restaurant before eight anyway. Let’s just meet there then.”
“Are you sure?”
His smile returned, soft as the one from before. His eyeswere filled with pure love, not an ounce of malice in them. He seemed mad a second ago, but now he was perfectly fine. My guts told me something was off, but the way he looked at me told a different story.
I was taught to trust my gut feeling, but how could I when my gut feeling was constantly betraying me? Reece was the one person I knew who never had any bad intentions with me.
I was overthinking this again, I realized.
This was Reece we were talking about, my fiancé, the love of my goddamn life.
He was safe. I was safe with him.
“Of course,” he said and reached for my hand once more. “I love you. I want you to have a good time with your sister,mi princesa. It doesn’t matter how we both get to our date as long as we’re there together.”
