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“What?” He chuckles under his breath.
I’m totally giving him the pleasure of knowing he has me tongue-tied.
“Bella! Sweetie!” my mom calls from her table.
I turn to see her and Greg Throttle’s eyes are on me.
Carm follows my line of vision and sets his eyes back on me. Questions fill those blue hues instead of the desire I swear I saw when I first turned around. “That’s your mom?”
I look back one more time as though I don’t recognize the woman who raised me for twenty-eight years. “Yeah.”
“With Greg Throttle?”
“Yes.” I release a breath. “New relationship. And now I’m meeting the boyfriend.”
“Interesting,” he says, stepping toward the hostess. “Don’t let me keep you.”
“Nice seeing you.” I wave, almost tripping over my feet as I turn. “I’ll see you at the office.”
His lips tip up. “I think sooner than that.”
I stop. “What?”
His lips turn into a megawatt smile. One that lights up every cell inside my body. But this time, there’s something I can’t decipher behind that smile. “Nothing. If we finish at the same time, we’ll share a cab.”
I nod. “Sure.”
Man, we totally have this being civil to one another thing down pat.
“Bye.” I wave as if he’s all the way across the street or something. Get a grip, Bella. He’s not Bradley Cooper.
“See you soon.” He winks.
I circle around, and my mom’s up and out of her seat before I can make sense of his words.
“Sweetie, you look beautiful. You’re glowing.” Her hand lands on my cheek as she takes me in.
It’s been less than six months since I saw her over Christmas, but sometimes it feels like a lifetime.
“It’s summer in New York. I’m flushed from the humidity. I wouldn’t call it glowing.”
“It’s only May. Wait until July.” Greg Throttle stands from his chair. “Are you going to introduce us, Linda?”
“Oh yes, sorry. I just can’t believe how good she looks.” Her eyes fall over my body once again. Truth is, my mom usually gets the slouch version of me since it’s my downtime when I visit her. “Bella, this is Greg Throttle, my…”
“Boyfriend.” He holds out his hand. “Pleasure to meet you. I’ve heard a lot of great things.”
I shake his hand and nervousness plagues me. This is the Greg Throttle. Real estate mogul. He makes and breaks people’s careers. Rumor has it that at one time, you had to go through three of his employees to score a meeting with him. How on Earth did he land in my mom’s bakery in Florida asking about a book club?
“Thank you. She does love to brag,” I say and smile.
“I’m sure there’s a lot to brag about.” The male voice comes from behind me.
I still have Greg’s hand in mine as I turn around to find Carm standing there. Of course. Carm must be the meeting my mom mentioned on the phone.
“Bella,” he says with a nod, ignoring the fact that he knew before I did and didn’t warn me. “Mr. Throttle, Carmelo Mancini.” He holds out his hand.
Greg slides out of my grasp and into Carm’s. “Yes, I saw the two of you over there. You two know one another?”
