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Sophie was so busy trying not to sit next to Gray, that she somehow ended up sitting across from him. Much worse. Now she had no way of not looking at him.
He gave her a tense glare. She responded with a cheery smile.
Sophie was just reaching for the salad bowl when her mother loudly cleared her throat and bowed her head. Brynn and Sophie exchanged a puzzled glance. They had never been a religious family. Marnie launched into a horribly maligned grace.
Sophie’s mother shot Gray a pious look after she’d finished. “Thanks for humoring me, Gray. That’s a pre-meal prayer that’s been passed down from my great-great grandmother.”
“Interesting…” Sophie said. “I wouldn’t say it’s familiar, would you guys? Brynn? Dad?”
Brynn quickly hid a smirk behind her napkin, and even Chris seemed to be struggling not to laugh.
Marnie studiously ignored them and gave her white napkin a snap before letting it flutter to her lap. “So, Gray, Brynn mentioned you’re from Chicago. Do you have family there?”
Gray paused briefly before responding, and Sophie could have sworn she saw something raw flash across his face. “My brother actually lives here in Seattle. He’s in law school at the University of Washington. And my sister lives in New York.”
“What about your parents?” Sophie asked. She realized she had yet to speak directly to Gray, and the last thing she wanted was for her family to take note of her odd behavior.
“My parents are dead,” he replied flatly.
Whoops. Sophie’s family glared at her and she stared guiltily at her plate. As if she’d meant to hit on a painful topic.
“Tell me, how is it that a fine, successful fellow like yourself isn’t married yet?” Will asked with sham interest.
The silence around the table became even more pronounced. Sophie could have strangled Will. Sure, he’d distracted everyone from her faux pas over Gray’s dead parents, but her best friend knew full well that the topic of marriage at Sunday dinner was off-limits. Especially since Marnie was already mentally selecting wedding colors.
Gray stared at Will.
A welcome break from him staring at Sophie, but awkward nonetheless. The man really had to learn the art of fake smiling if he was going to survive in this family.
“I was engaged once. It didn’t work out,” Gray said finally.
Sophie jerked in surprise, her knee hitting the bottom of the table and sending her water glass sloshing onto the ivory tablecloth. Her mother shot her a death glare, but Sophie barely noticed. He’d been engaged? The thought of him proposing to anyone strained all of Sophie’s brainpower. And the thought of him being in love? Well, that simply did not compute.
The man couldn’t even make it through dinner with adequate conversation; how had he thought he’d survive marriage?
No wonder it hadn’t worked out.
With the awkwardness at the table reaching DEFCON ten, Brynn shot her a beseeching look, which Sophie tried to ignore. She knew what her sister wanted, and she wasn’t in the mood. Brynn wanted Sophie to sprinkle some ditzy conversation over the group—making everyone else comfortable by making herself into a clown.
Such antics had sort of become Sophie’s shtick over the past few years. While nobody in the family seemed to expect Sophie to be impressive, they’d come to rely on her as a sort of social wizard. At the awkward wedding when Uncle Abe had too much to drink? Here comes Sophie starting the conga line. Or at the fund-raising gala where Brynn slipped on a stuffed mushroom and tore her dress clear up to her hoo-ha? Enter Sophie with spontaneous karaoke.
But Sophie didn’t want to play that part tonight. Not in front of Gray. She was still reeling from the fact that the one man she’d hoped never to see again had infiltrated her personal life. She caught Brynn’s eye and shook her head. Not this time.
But then Sophie’s eyes fell on Gray and she felt a twinge of empathy. His face looked strained, and his knuckles were white around his fork. He was obviously out of his element.
And he had done her a favor by not outing her in front of her parents. Perhaps she could return the favor and make them even.
She sighed and gave in. It wasn’t like Gray’s opinion of her could slip any lower. Sophie took a bracing sip of wine and slipped into her flighty, charming mode.
“So, Gray,” Sophie said with an easy grin, “I don’t suppose Brynn has told you about the time that the two of us decided to camp in the backyard and got so scared by a raccoon that we both wet our pants?”
Brynn looked slightly ruffled, likely wishing Sophie hadn’t selected a story that involved her peeing in her Rainbow Brite panties. But, hey, if Sophie was taking one for the team, she was bringing Brynn down with her.
Sophie moved easily from story to story, carefully keeping the conversation light and substance-free.
By the time they’d finished dessert, Sophie had exhausted her arsenal of childhood memories, but her sister had relaxed and even Gray seemed to have temporarily released his shoulders from their military pose.
Marnie returned to the dining room carrying her grandmother’s silver coffee set.
