Page 46 of I Choose You

“You look beautiful,” he told me. The admiration in his gaze was genuine, and I scrambled for a reply.

It was the basic thing my mother had told me the last time I visited, but the way he looked at me when he said it, I felt the weight of his praise.

He wasn’t lying. And it took me off guard.

“Thanks. You clean up pretty nicely too.”

He grinned, perhaps charmed by my slightly abrasive retort. I wasn’t playing hard to get, per se. Where he was concerned, I was hard to get, and he seemed up for the challenge, not discouraged.

He helped me into his SUV and I inhaled the new-car smell. I detected his cologne, too, and I hated that I wanted to get closer to the source.

Him.

Once he was in the driver’s seat, I gasped and gripped his forearm. “Oh, my God.”

He hung his head. “No. Please don’t bail.”

“I came onto you that night, didn’t I?” Being in a vehicle with him somehow poked at that memory from my drunken night.

He chuckled. “Maybe.”

I smirked at him.

“You slipped on the console.” He tapped his elbow to it.

“Clumsy, then.”

“Oh, yeah.” He smiled. “It was endearing.”

“An uncoordinated woman is your type?”

He licked his lips and shrugged, not looking at me or speaking.

Way to go, Brooke. Smart. I had no business referencing him wanting me. At least I shouldn’t before I tried to even the score at this dinner.

“Kody won’t be there,” he said as he drove toward the restaurant.

I raised my brows. “Oh?”

“Typical Kody.”

I breathed a sigh of relief, agreeing with his assessment. Kody had been a jerk in high school, and it seemed that trait had remained consistent all these years.

One twin was plenty to deal with, especially given our history.

We made small talk on the way to Swann’s, but it seemed real. It wasn’t idle chitchat to simply avoid silence. He seemed interested in how I’d been, and he was equally enthusiastic and willing to talk about how he’d been when I returned the same questions back at him on our way to the restaurant.

Swann’s was fancier than I remembered. Then again, the one time I’d been there, I was younger. I lacked the adult eye to truly see what distinguished this restaurant as a step above others. It was no family-friendly Giovanni’s with divine pizza. It was an upscale eatery that intimidated me.

I knew I had just as much of a right to be there as any of the other guests. I blended in. I had dressed up enough. Still, next to Kaden, I felt like an imposter again, trying to be someone that I wasn’t.

Or maybe that was the plan to even the score. Anticipating a scene that I would cause had me feeling like I wasn’t just another guest eating out for a family dinner.

“There they are,” Kaden said after we entered. He pointed ahead at a couple who walked toward a table. A younger woman followed after them.

I nodded, but he couldn’t see me. He turned back, looking at me expectantly, and I realized he probably assumed I hadn’t heard him. “They’re up there,” he said, smiling quickly.

I was out of my element. My worst fear was realized when Kaden seemed to pick up on my anxiousness. I kept an easy smile plastered on my face, but I bet if he looked close enough, he’d notice the expression didn’t reach my eyes.