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“Time of my life,” she said, spooning a dollop of spinach and artichoke dip onto a chip and then eating it as carefully as possible. I’d never seen anyone do that. It made me want to eat my chips as messily as possible purely for spite.
When our entrées arrived, I kept glancing at Honor as she carefully cut her steak into precise bites. Was she trying to eat, or perform eating in the classiest possible way? Who could tell.
“I would pay good money to see you eat a lobster right out of the shell,” I said.
There was no way to eat a lobster daintily when you had to crack it open. I had sliced my hand open on bits of shell more than one time. You got water everywhere and then you had to dig the meat out. That was part of the fun, though. You weren’t supposed to look cute eating lobster. It was a meal of delicious carnage.
People like Honor weren’t cut out for that kind of thing. She’d probably send the lobster back to the kitchen and make some minimum wage earner crack it and arrange it all pretty on the plate for her.
I shoved my burger in my mouth and made sure the twins ate enough and tried to keep food from staining my shirt at the same time. It was a lot of work while I also watched Honor try to draw Mark into conversation. She kept drifting closer and closer to him, like she was going to crawl into his lap or something.
If I didn’t know better, I would have said she was running her foot up and down his leg under the table.
The twins claimed they were “full” after a few bites, but then they begged and pleaded for dessert.
“Didn’t you already have ice cream today?” Mark asked, narrowing his eyes.
“Yes,” Riley said slowly. “But that washoursandhoursago. And it’s our last day of school.”
Mark sighed the sigh of a thousand suffering dads and flagged down a server for a dessert menu.
Not one to ever say no to dessert, I got a slice of coconut cake while the twins ordered the mega chocolate chip cookie skillet, which was large enough to feed a family of eight, but which they devoured themselves.
Honor ordered the flourless chocolate cake with raspberry sauce and ate it with those perfect little bites, not getting anything on her clothes. She patted her mouth with her napkin and didn’t even scrape the plate to get the last of the crumbs.
The twins licked their spoons and begged Mark to let them go say hi to their friends. He waved them off and then the server brought us the check.
Honor didn’t even try to pay. She left her wallet in her designer purse. Sure, Mark was her employer, but still. This wasn’t a working dinner. She’d just invited herself to be part of this family like they were already married. Sinking her hooks deeper and deeper.
Riley and Zoey were still wired from the cookie, so they jabbered all the way back to the house.
“Come on, time for showers and bed,” I said, shoving them toward the front door.
Honor lingered behind, like she was going to have a private tête-à-tête with Mark.
“It’s getting cold out here,” I said loudly, rubbing my arms. It really wasn’t, but I wanted to throw a wrench in her plans if I could. It was the least I could do to save Mark from a gold-digger who wanted his money and nothing else.
“Thank you for a lovely evening,” Honor said, leaning close to Mark. He was looking at something on my phone and not even paying attention to her. I was a little proud of him.
“Oh, you’re welcome. I hope you have some fun plans this weekend,” Mark said, glancing up from his phone and then heading toward the front door. “See you on Monday, Honor.”
His phone rang and he lifted it to his ear.
Honor opened her mouth to say something to him, but then closed it.
“See you on Monday,” I said, making my voice sweet. “You have a fantastic evening.”
Her eyes narrowed and I could tell she wanted to curse or flip me off so much, but she just gave me a little wave and headed to her car.
Chapter Three
Sadie cameover the next morning to help with the sleepover. She’d had to work late the previous evening at her boutique, so she hadn’t seen the girls until today.
She also brought even more snacks and drinks than the kids could possibly ever consume, but at least I could take advantage and sneak a few over to the guest house.
“I’m so glad you’re here,” I said as we worked on getting the trays of food ready for lunch.
“I wouldn’t miss it,” she said, adding little rolls of turkey and ham and pepperoni to one of the trays so the girls could pick what they wanted and make their own sandwiches.
