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She was stunning. The jewelry lit up her features and the green hue of the dress complimented her complexion and accentuated her gorgeous green eyes. She looked unaccountably ravishing, like she had stepped off the red carpet and into my car.
“Green,” I croaked out, bowled over, “is definitely your color.”
“Well, now you have to close your eyes again while I change back into my clothes.”
“No way. I’m taking you somewhere fancy, and you’re staying in that dress. And those heels.”
We drove to a members-only club I was part of in downtown San Diego. It was in an older, brick building about four stories high, with an exclusive restaurant on the rooftop that boasted striking views of the city and the busy harbor.
“I’ve never heard of this club before,” Amelia said as we were seated on the roof, surrounded by artfully arranged tropical plants that obscured our private, leather upholstered booth from any other members. “I had no idea there was even a restaurant up here.”
“That’s the point,” I said, chuckling.
We both ordered seafood. I was partial to their dayboat scallops, while Amelia opted for California spiny lobster in a delicate saffron broth. Our dinners were delicious, the view stunning, the wine perfect. It was the kind of elegant date that Amelia deserved, the kind I wished I had been able to take her on from the beginning.
We talked for a while after dinner was over, still undecided about dessert. I told Amelia about Vancouver and the spectacular scenery, and Amelia vented to me about a difficult family dinner she had attended while I was out of town.
“It’s just that my mother has been getting worse the last few years,” she said, shaking her head. “The critical talk. Overdoing it with wine. This time, she even started going on about you.”
Me?
“Why would I come up at all?” I remembered back to Colleen’s birthday party when she had been drinking and acting a little too familiar with me.
“You’re not going to believe it.” Amelia sighed. “But I should give you a head’s up, anyway. My mom was saying that you needed to find a girlfriend, or wife, or something. That you needed to finally settle down. She and my dad were talking about fixing you up with one of my mom’s friends.”
Good luck with that, Colleen.
There was a sour edge to Amelia’s voice all of a sudden. “Is that… jealousy I hear?”
“Well–I–”
“Shouldn’t I entertain the company of women my own age?” I teased, leaning in close to her.
Amelia’s eyes narrowed. “Oh, I see. Well, maybe I should keep an eye out for a man closer to my own age, too,” she said, sparring with me, batting her eyelashes.
“You’re free to do whatever you want. Just like I am.”
“Fine,” she played along.
“Fine,” I echoed. By now, I had a hand on her thigh, strong and slender underneath the green silk of her dress.
I swept my hand up higher, then around the side of her waist, pulling her close on the curved leather seat. The sky had grown dark by now, and the city lights twinkled all around us. Amelia’s cheeks were pink from flirting with me, her dazzling new jewelry glinting from the string lights draped around the intimate rooftop.
“So, what do you think,” I asked quietly, “should I indulge your parents? Meet your mom’s friend to keep them off my back?” Amelia gave me a knowing look. “Or should I make it known to them that I’m off the market, that I’m seeing someone special now, and they can forget about fixing me up because I’ve found someone who’s important to me?”
She blushed a deep red. “What do you mean, exactly?”
I grinned, feeling a warmth in my chest that I had never experienced before.
“I mean I’m yours.”
Chapter 17
Amelia
The car ride to Nathaniel’s was the longest twenty minutes of my life. Things had heated up a little too much at the dinner table–Nathaniel’s hand on my thigh, my hand on his, kisses that would make our waiter blush if we hadn’t already waved off dessert–and now it was time to take our desires somewhere more private.
I had never been to Nathaniel’s house before. I knew he lived in upscale La Jolla, and I had heard my father say that his place was a multi-million-dollar property Nathaniel had bought from an architect who had designed it herself.
