“You’re the one who works for Trace, aren’t you?” Victoria asked.
“Yes, I am.”
“I remember you from the launch party I attended with Trace.” She poked him in the ribs and chuckled. “So you finally let someone catch you.”
Trace’s mother fixed her gaze on me. “You’re a lucky woman,” she said.
“I know. I feel very—”
“I’m the lucky one,” Trace said as he tucked me in closer to him.
As Carolyn’s eyes narrowed, a vertical wrinkle between her eyebrows became visible. Her lips pursed slightly.
“And why are you lucky?” a deep voice said behind us.
All of a sudden my mouth went dry and my muscles twitched. I knew that voice well—Mr. Linder. What would he say when he found out Trace and I were dating? When he was running Velocity he was the one who implemented the no fraternization policy, and he was inflexible with it. A couple of people had been let go during the five years I’d worked at Velocity for breaking the policy. I swallowed and held my breath as I saw him coming toward us out of the corner of my eyes.
“Grandpa.” Trace’s eyes lit up with affection as Mr. Linder stood in front of us.
For a few long seconds, Mr. Linder’s gaze scanned my face, a quizzical look on his face, then recognition lit his eyes and he smiled. “Ms. Duncan. It’s very nice to see you again.”
“It’s nice seeing you too. Everyone at Velocity misses you.” I pulled at a hangnail and fidgeted.
Then his smile faded as he took in Trace’s arm around me and the way we were attached at the hip. Nausea assaulted me, and all I wanted to do was run away.
“Trace…?” Mr. Linder crossed his arms against his chest.
“He’s dating her,” Carolyn said before Trace could say anything.
“Dating?” His gaze darted to me. “Did you change jobs?”
Victoria cleared her throat. “I just spotted Jackie. It was great seeing you again Trace, and Carolyn, I’ll see you at the committee meeting next Tuesday.” She smiled at me and I could see apprehension for me etched on her face. I scraped a hand through my hair and looked enviously at her as she walked away. Oh how I wished I was going with her instead of being made to feel guilty about loving Trace.
“Well…?” Mr. Linder prodded.
“Uh…no. I didn’t—”
“Cierra still works at Velocity,” Trace said, grasping my shoulder even tighter. “And we’re dating. I know what you’re going to say, but this isn’t just an office romance.”
“Thomas. This isn’t the time or place to talk about the office or some silly policy,” Trace’s grandmother said as she came up to us. “I think it’s fabulous to see how happy Trace is, and Cierra seems like a lovely young lady. Anyway, this is a party.” She grabbed my hand and pulled me away from Trace. “I’m going to steal Cierra away for a bit. There are a lot of people I want her to meet.”
Before either of us said anything, Lucille whisked me away, and I could barely keep up with her in my high-heeled sandals. Looking over my shoulder, I saw the look of displeasure on Mr. Linder’s face and Trace’s chin jutted out in defiance, and I was happy Lucille had saved me from the tongue lashing I was sure Trace was going to get.
The afternoon flew by and I was exhausted from meeting and talking with all of the guests. At one point, Trace had taken me on a tour of the house and it was stunning with all of the beautiful arched windows, spacious rooms, movie theater, gym and sports courts, sparkling pool, lush landscape, and a two-story guest house with its own private pool. I couldn’t imagine living in such a large house. The guest house was bigger than the house I grew up in, and I tried picturing a young Trace running down the long hallways, annoying the hell out of the servants. He’d shown me his favorite room in the house—the library, and with its dark woods, large fireplace, and volumes of wonderful books, I could see why he loved it so much.
We stayed a couple of hours longer after the last guest had left, and Lucille took out the family albums and, over the protests and groans from Trace, showed me his pictures from birth until just a few months before. It was priceless. Spending the afternoon with his family was wonderful even if his mother didn’t seem all that crazy about me and Mr. Linder periodically threw dirty looks at the two of us. Many of the earlier pictures of Trace also had Ryan in them, and my heart grew heavy when Lucille paused at those photos with her gaze fixed on Ryan.
I honestly couldn’t fathom anyone doing what Ryan had done to his family, especially since they loved him so much. I understood that he may have felt like a fish out of water since he wasn’t a blood relative, but to feign a kidnapping, steal the money, and let the people who cared about him think he was dead all those years was despicable. In my mind, he was an evil and cruel person. There were so many people who would’ve killed to have a family like Trace’s, yet Ryan couldn’t see or appreciate them.
“You about ready to go?” Trace asked, pulling me out of my reverie. A soft glow bathed his face as the sun began its descent over the ocean.
“Yeah. I’m beat. I never thought a garden party would wear me out so much.”
He chuckled. “I think the several glasses of champagne may have contributed to that.”
We said our goodbyes to his grandparents—his mother had left a few hours before, and headed back to the city. When we arrived at my place, Trace came up and changed out of his suit. We still had our separate homes, but I had a bunch of clothes and toiletries at his place and he had the same at mine. I wasn’t ready to move in full time with him, and he understood that.
As we cuddled on the couch, watching a mindless show, I took his hand in mine and brought it to my lips. “I enjoyed meeting your family. I don’t think your mom was crazy about me, but your grandmother and I seemed to have clicked.”
