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“Jericho Grayson, who is the gorgeous beauty with you tonight?” the nearest reporter asks. He’s an artsy-looking guy with a Van Gogh mustache.
“Why don’t you let her tell you?” I lift my chin toward River, giving her the go-ahead to speak.
“I’m River St. James.” She smiles wider, and I can tell the press love her just from that smile. It’s the kind of endearing and winning smile that I need to redeem myself from my past scandals.
Translation—she will paint me in all the right colors I need to look like one of the future leaders of Graysons Inc.
One of the female reporters spots River’s engagement ring and alerts the others like a vulture who’s just spotted a fresh carcass.
“Oh my gosh, is that an engagement ring?” she shrieks, looking from River to me.
“You’ll find out later.” Of course, that’s as good as confirming, so more questions are thrown our way, but I hit them with my trademark cocky smirk and usher River away from them.
We look at each other before we step inside, silently acknowledging that was round one, and we both know we did well.
Once we walk inside the Astoria, River‘s eyes grow wide with adoration and amazement as she takes in the marble floors and the Renaissance paintings on the walls and ceiling.
I’ve been here so often that I forgot what it’s like when you first see the place.
This part of the building looks Vatican-inspired with décor common to what you’d find in European opera houses. There are other rooms and halls in the Astoria with a similar style, so this is just the beginning. I’m glad River looks so taken with that place.
We move toward the hall where the fundraiser is being held and walk right into round two when my grandparents, Knight, and Aurora notice us.
This is it. The moment we’ve been building up to. Time to survive it.
As we make our way over, I study each member of my family in turn. Grandfather, Grandma, Knight, who looks so relieved to see me with my mystery girl that a weight appears to have lifted off his shoulders, and then there is Aurora, his wife.
Holding hands, they look like the model couple the magazines have deemed them to be, and they love that Aurora’s baby bump has just started to show.
That was the news today, which I’m sure Grandfather was pleased with. People gobble up those types of stories, and now they think Knight looks like a family man. The kind of person who wins over a crowd and multi-million-dollar clients.
Grandma is the first to greet us when we walk up to them.
Dressed in an elegant sapphire gown with her silver hair rolled into a perfect chignon, she looks amazing as usual.
She does her ritual hug and squeeze of my cheeks. They were chubby for most of my childhood, and she took every opportunity she could to squeeze them.
My face is more chiseled now, and the only resemblance I bear to my childhood self is my eyes, but that hasn’t stopped my grandmother.
With the ritual over, all eyes switch to River.
“Hi, everyone,” she says sweetly with a little wave of her hand. The hand with her engagement ring—which they notice, too, and smile back at her.
“Hello,” Grandfather answers, as if speaking for the entire clan.
“Everyone, this is my fiancée, River St. James.” The words outside my head sound strange now that they’re out in the open, manifested to the universe. “River, these are my grandparents, my brother Knight, and Aurora, my sister-in-law.”
“Great to meet you all,” River says, placing a hand over her heart. That’s not an act. That’s really her.
“Oh my gosh, my heart is full,” Grandma gushes with tears in her eyes. She’s always and ever the overdramatic one. “Welcome to the family, dear. You are absolutely breathtaking.”
“Thank you so much.”
Of course, Grandma has to hug River and me once more.
“It’s an absolute pleasure to meet you,” Grandfather says, extending his hand to shake River’s.
“You, too.”
