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“You want to go to lunch, don’t you?” It wasn’t a question. “I’m afraid I’m booked again and I can’t get out of it.” He took her hands in his and gave them a gentle squeeze. “But how about we go to dinner tonight at Bella’s? I remember how much you used to love their lobster ravioli. What do you say?”
As much as she wanted to argue, she supposed dinner was a good compromise.
“I think that sounds great,” she told him. “Do you want me to meet you there, or are you going to come home first?”
“Why don’t I meet you there at five? I’ll go as soon as I’m done here for the day.” Then he paused. “Or is that too early?”
“It’s perfect. I’ll see you later.” Then, kissing him on the cheek, she turned and walked out. Waving to Sara, she continued over to the elevator, smiling as she was already thinking about how good dinner was going to be.
The doors opened and she stepped on and hit the button for the parking garage when someone yelled out, “Hold the door!” Lily instantly hit the button to open the door and stood to the side, gasping when Noah joined her.
“Thanks, I…” He paused and stared for a moment. “Lily? What are you doing here?” The doors closed as he shook his head. “You’re not stalking your grandfather again, are you?”
“No,” she said adamantly, but then laughed softly. “Well…I came to invite him to lunch, but he was busy.”
“And…?”
“And what?”
“He told you that on Friday and you got all suspicious,” he reminded her. “What’s so different today?”
“First of all, on Friday he told me he had a call and then walked out of the building five minutes later with a woman. Today he simply said that he had plans and then promised to take me to dinner.” She shrugged. “There’s not much I can find suspicious this time, right?”
“I suppose.” They rode in companionable silence until the elevator opened on the parking garage level. He stepped aside and motioned for her to go out ahead of him, but they ended up slowly walking toward their cars. “How was your weekend?”
She shrugged again. “A little boring, actually. My grandfather and my uncle went out golfing and to a wine tasting and sort of left me behind.”
He looked at her oddly. “And that’s a bad thing? I would have thought you’d be catching up with friends and going out all weekend, not hanging out with your grandfather.”
Now she glared at him. “I happen toadoremy time with my grandfather. He is truly thebesthuman being on the planet, and if you don’t have a grandparent like that, then that makes me sad for you.”
The snort he gave should have prepared her for his response, but it didn’t.
“Yeah, well, not all grandparents even want to be involved with their grandchildren. I have one set of grandparents who don’t give a damn about me and my brothers, and another set who I haven’t seen since I was five, so…”
Lily stopped short. “Noah, that’s crazy! Why would they be like that?”
He wouldn’t look directly at her and continued to walk to his car. “Not everyone comes from a good family, Lily,” he murmured. “And it’s not cool to assume that they do.”
Wow. So that was a lot more information than she bargained for, and as she watched him stiffly walk away, she felt bad for sticking her foot in her mouth. Jogging to catch up to him, she immediately apologized. “Okay, okay…you’re right. That was wrong of me to just…you know…think everyone has a great relationship with their family. I’m sorry.”
All he did was nod and come to a stop next to his car. “Look, I need to go and grab some lunch, so I guess…” Pausing, he let out a mirthless laugh. “I mean…I’m sure I’ll see you around.”
And yeah, she caught the snark and sarcasm in that little correction.
“Can I buy you lunch?” she blurted out.
“What?”
Nodding, she stepped in closer. “You bought me lunch on Friday and now I went and got you all pissed off. The least I can do is buy you something to eat.”
“Lily…”
“Please…,” she begged lightly. “I swear we won’t talk about family stuff, okay? I feel bad, and I’d really like to make it up to you.”
Letting out a long breath, she knew he was trying to come up with an excuse not to go anywhere with her. “We’ve been over this,” he said after a moment. “You know why this isn’t a good idea.”
That wasn’t even a deterrent right now. She could put her attraction to him aside for the sake of doing the right thing.
