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His grin was bright and wide, a knowing smirk in his eyes. “Yeah, this was as amusing as I thought it would be.”
“What?”
Cal shrugged. “Going crazy over a woman.”
“I’ve been here before,” I growled angrily as I thought of how foolish I’d been to rush into marriage with Trishelle. “Remember?”
“Yeah, I do,” he said easily and stroked his chin thoughtfully. “But you weren’t like this. You were bowled over by her beauty and her grind, not her.”
He was right, dammit. I thought I loved Trishelle but the truth was just that I cared about her. We were both young and ambitious, and that’s more than enough when you’re young. It was never love, not like this. “Okay, fine. Have your fun at my expense, just get them to my house. Please.”
Cal pulled out his phone and dropped a kiss on Rosie’s head. “Wish your dad good luck, Princess, he’s gonna need it.”
She giggled at the feel of his scruff on her face. “Good luck, Daddy.”
Cal snickered as he placed the call, ignoring the glare I sent him as a smile lit his face when Teddy answered. “Hey babe. Good news.”
I smiled at Rosie and ruffled her hair. “Thank you, honey.”
She put her little hand on my arm, stroking gently. “Don’t worry, Daddy, Nurse Gus loves you too.”
I wanted to believe that, however the news came to me. “How do you know that?”
“She loves everybody and you’re the best so she must love you best of all.”
Let’s just hope that Augusta agreed.
Augusta
“What do you think this means?” I stood in the middle of my living room, phone pressed up against my face while I stared at the fancy heavyweight paper in my hands, Antonio’s handwriting clear as day.
Megan laughed and I could almost see her shaking her head at my question. “What exactly is this, Gus?”
“It’s a fancy invitation with a date, place and time. It says menu but it’s blank underneath. What is the meaning of this?” Hannah had delivered the invitation two hours ago. Two hours, that’s how long I’d been staring at the damn paper trying to figure out what it means.
“It probably means he’s inviting you to a surprise dinner. But that’s totally just a guess.”
“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up.”
She sighed. “I’m not laughing at you, okay well I am laughing at you but only because you’re being ridiculous. Antonio digs you, girlfriend, lean into it.”
Lean into it. “What the hell does that even look like?” I spent the past week trying to figure out if I was brave enough to go after Antonio. To have him. So far, I’d come up with no answer.
“It looks like you, wearing something pretty with something sexy as hell underneath, and showing up on his doorstep looking like the knockout you are. It looks like you smiling and flirting and having a good time with a hot guy that you are totally into. Think you can do that?”
“Hell yeah.” The answer came easily, without much thought.
“Then, do that. Don’t wait, don’t overthink it, just shower and shave, and get dolled up. Let him woo you so know that he means it.”
“Woo me? Are we going for a walk around the gardens too?”
Megan laughed. “You mock, but there’s a lot of sexual tension in those Regency romance novels. And yeah, if a walk around the garden with stolen kisses is what you need, do that too.”
“What if this is just a case of him trying something new with the frumpy good girl?”
“First of all,” she growled. “That’s my friend you’re calling frumpy and she’s not, she’s curvy and sexy and smart, and a guy like Antonio would be lucky as hell to have her love.” She let out a long sigh. “Second, make it impossible for him to walk away.”
“How do I do that,” I asked sarcastically.
“Easy. Just be yourself, it seems to be working just fine. Now go get dressed, I’ll expect full details tomorrow.” Megan ended the call before I could ask the next important question.
What should I wear?
A text made the phone vibrate in my hands.
“Show of those gorgeous legs, please.” Antonio.
I smiled and did exactly as Megan had advised, took a long hot shower, shave everything, and slathered myself with lavender body cream. I spritzed perfume in all the right places and took my time with hair and makeup.
This all felt important. Really important, so I took my time, carefully choosing the right shade of green eyeliner, the perfect pale pink for my lips and the pretty mint green dress I’d bought on a whim on my last shopping trip with Megan. When I was finished, I gave myself a long, assessing look in the full-length mirror and smiled.
I looked good.
Damn good, in fact.
I didn’t know what this invite was all about, but I was prepared for anything, including going after the man I wanted.
