“Nothing. Just do as I say, young lady.”
Dawn sighed and shook her head. “Okay.” She scooted up the short flight of stairs to the tiny landing and stood there waiting for her grandmother to call her.
“Welcome, young man.” Annette’s voice floated up to her. “Come in, come in. Dawn is just finishing getting ready.”
Dawn grinned at her grandmother’s lie. She was making it look as if she hadn’t been ready an hour ago and was just casually slapping on a coat of lipstick.
“Thank you, ma’am,” Luca’s voice replied.
“Well, aren’t you handsome. I’m Annette, Dawn’s grandmother. And you must be Luca Fierro. I’ve heard so much about you.”
Dawn heard a catch in Annette’s voice and wondered why she sounded so odd.
“These are for you, ma’am.”
“Oh, I love pink roses. How lovely. Please, call me Annette. What a nice young man you are.”
Dawn couldn’t wait any longer. She knew she was wading into unknown territory, so she took a deep breath and dived in. As she made her way down the steps, she caught Luca’s expression and almost tripped.
Chapter 9
He had no words. The vision who floated down the stairs was gorgeous. Like, movie-star gorgeous. He swallowed a nervous lump in his throat and said the first thing that popped into his head. “Wow!”
Luca caught her around the waist as she stumbled on the last step. Lifting her down, he gazed into her wide gray-green eyes. “Are you okay?”
She nodded, blushing the same shade as her dress. It only made her look prettier…if that were possible.
“You look incredible,” he told her.
“Th-thank you.”
She seemed out of breath. He guessed it was because she’d almost tripped.
“Look at these beautiful flowers Luca brought me.” Annette waved the bouquet under Dawn’s nose.
She sniffed them. Taking the time to smell the roses…that was a good thing, right?
“Oh, Gran, they are lovely. Let me get a vase for them.”
“Don’t you dare,” Annette said. “I’ll put them in water myself.”
“I have something for you too,” Luca told Dawn.
“Oh, you didn’t have to do that,” she replied, shaking her head.
“No, I wanted to.” He pulled out a slim box from his pocket and handed it to her.
She opened it up and gasped. “Oh, I love it. Thank you, but you didn’t have to do that.”
He wanted to pat himself on the back at the wide-eyed look of happiness on her face. He’d just had a feeling she didn’t receive many nice gifts from men.
“It’s partially a thank-you for helping me with Mandy.”
“Partially?”
“Yeah. And it’s partially because it made me think of you.”
